Glasgow band Errors come to The Forum in Tunbridge Wells

F ollowing on from their highly acclaimed debut album, It's Not Something But It Is Like Whatever, in June 2008, young Glasgow band Errors returned earlier this month in exceptional form with a new album, Come Down With Me. And they're following it up with a UK tour, complete with a stop at the area's top live music venue, The Forum.

Released on fellow Glaswegians Mogwai's own label Rock Action Records, the band's new album was recorded over the last six months in their very own, self-created studio in Glasgow. Known as The Freezer (it's pretty nippy by all accounts), this dank, vaguely depressing bunker-like space became the perfect environment to concentrate solely on the album.

Errors formed as a mainly electronic-based project in 2004 with young musicians Simon Ward, Stephen Livingstone and Greg Paterson. Former Dananananaykroyd drummer James Hamilton was recruited later.

After a handful of well-received hometown shows they attracted the attention of the band Mogwai who signed them to their own label, alongside the likes of Part Chimp, Papa M and James Orr Complex. Their debut release, the limited edition single Hans Herman, sold quickly and garnered them wider media attention, including an appearance on MTV's flagship Total Request Live show.

They followed it up with the How Clean Is Your Acid House? EP in 2006 and the first track on the EP, Mr Milk, would become a signature tune for the band, later being used by Five TV as advert music for several of their US drama shows.

Despite only sporadic live performances, the band were invited by UK dance music legends Underworld to open for them on their 2007 UK tour which aided them in reaching a much larger audience and honed their skills as live performers. Since then, they've toured widely and gone from strength to strength.

Go! spoke to band member Stephen Livingstone from his bed in Glasgow just before the tour kicked off.

"I'm in bed right now. We've been really busy rehearsing so I'm staying in bed late," he says.

How did you get involved with Mogwai?

"They came to see one of our shows early on, I think it was our second gig. And we spoke to them and a while later they got in touch and said they wanted to put some of our music out. We were only two gigs in and they agreed to put our record out so we were pretty lucky.

"We're all massive fans of theirs so it was great. We'd listened to them for years and sort of idolised them so it was amazing."

Electronic pop is very popular at the moment, with people like LaRoux coming through. Is this the end of the rock band?

"That's the mainstream though and we don't pay too much attention to that sort of thing. LaRoux and that lot are going to come and go, I think."

Is playing live something that you really enjoy?

"Yeah. We like to keep changing what we do live so it's not too verbatim and doesn't just sound like we're playing the album. I think that can get quite old.

"Our big change when we play live is that we often have a live drummer as opposed to a drum machine. I think that keeps it interesting."

What's next for the band after this tour?

"We've got a few album track singles that we want to release ourselves and we're doing a remix record as well – remixing songs by other bands. Just to keep things going. Just so that people are aware we're doing things throughout the year.

"We also plan to play at a few festivals this summer and we've already started writing the third album."

Have you played in Tunbridge Wells before?

"No, never. I'm pretty sure I saw something on the Antiques Roadshow once called Tunbridge Ware... That's all I know about the area!"

By Caroline Read

The Forum Wednesday March 3 Tickets £7 from www.twforum.co.uk