CALEDONIAN electro-rockers Errors have already issued one critically-acclaimed album this year but are back with another release for their discerning fans — and lovers of obsolete video formats.
The Glasgow-based outfit have followed up third album Have Some Faith In Magic with an eight-track ‘mini’-album, New Relics, which sees them employ a looser, more experimental approach.
“It’s not a case of having material left over because all this stuff was written after the last album was released,” guitarist, keyboard and programmer Steev Livingstone tells the Mail.
“We just had a burst of energy for writing stuff and thought we might as well release it now rather than wait a year and a bit.
“We were keen to do something which was not a full album because you can get away with things on a mini-album you couldn’t on a fulllength one.
“I think we were more likely to take risks with this one because there’s less pressure and we felt we could get away with things like having long passages and tunes which were more atmospheric.”
The trio have chosen to release the album in conjunction with a full-length visual accompaniment, available digitally as well as on the now defunct VHS format — although they stopped short of releasing it on Betamax as well.
“I guess it’s a way of keeping it as a physical release,” says Livingstone. “Obviously a lot of people download music these days but I think they still want something they can hold in their hand.
“It also loosely ties in with the themes of this record, the fact that technology becomes obsolete pretty quickly these days, and VHS seemed a good way to get it across.
“We realise there’s not that many around nowadays but hopefully people will go out of their way to source a VCR, or just go round to their parents’ house to watch it.
“I would definitely urge people to watch it on VHS because the quality of it is quite important and every video is unique. I had it on the other day and even though I’ve only watched it once, it had these little glitches and tracking on it that you only get with the video copies.”
The visuals were provided by recent art school graduates, who were each given a track without being told its title or provided with any other information.
“All the videos are quite varied but it works well because as with our music, although the tracks are all quite different, there’s something that pulls it all together,” says Livingstone.
The band hit the Midlands next week as part of a UK tour which sees them strive to recreate as much of their multi-layered music live as possible, but like all bands, the excitement of performing is punctuated by long periods of boredom, as evidenced by a post on the band’s Facebook page last week showing a photograph taken by Livingstone.
It shows drummer James Hamilton in the background, with Hamilton holding up in the foreground a garment fashioned from bread, with the message ‘Wear your bread Tshirt, mini James!’
“That particular venue had no wi-fi and we had to make our own entertainment, so I cut out a little mini T-shirt for him,” explains Livingstone.
“We get more likes for that kind of thing than we ever do when we release new records. I think we’re just gonna release toast from now on!”
New Relics by Errors is out now on Rock Action Records. The band play at Nottingham Bodega Social Club on Wednesday, October 17. Tickets, priced £9, are available online at www.bodeganottingham.com
