Being a huge Errors fan myself, it was great to be able to meet up with boys at Dour Festival. Their music has always wowed me, having awesome depth and really intricate detail. We talk about Europe, Ellie Goulding and future plans…

So the Belgium crowd seemed to be really enjoying the gig, is that what you expected or did it take you by surprise?

James – I was talking to a couple of the guys in the crowd, and they had seen us in Lille, which is quite cool. Because it’s the last day of the festival everyone is a bit, well, knackered. It was a better response than I was expecting. We’ve only played in Belgium once before, and that was at a festival in Brussels, so getting anyone to come and see us at all was pretty good.

What was the festival in Belgium like before?

J – Well, it was like an ‘in the city’ type thing, and we supported Ellie Goulding…

Simon – …she stole our keyboard stand as well. Didn’t even say thanks. And then her tour bus almost knocked us over. (laughs)

She’s clearly got it out for you.

J – When we met her she seemed like a perfectly nice person, but in the background…(laughs)

Have you played much in Europe at all?

J – Yeah we’ve done a few tours. We toured with Mogwai a couple of years ago. We did France, Italy, Spain, Portugal. We also did some headline tours in Germany too.

Did you get a good response with the headline tours?

Simon – Yeah they were OK…

J – Variable.. (laughs) The bigger ones like Paris and Berlin were pretty good. We did a show with Zombie Zombie, who we’re pretty big fans of.

Simon – Netherlands went pretty well too.

Steev – There were some shows though in Germany where it was like 10 people, but it was 10 really good people! (laughs)

Simon – They all loved it. That’s better than a 100 people who aren’t quite sure.

Would you ever not go on if there weren’t many people?

Simon – No. Never. Some of those shows were so quiet, you think ‘this is pointless’. But then you remember that those people have paid to get in, they want to see you, you fucking do it. We see it as ‘we do this one show, they tell their friends etc’. It’s like that fact that if you go to a restaurant, they tell 8 people if it shit it’s shit, or 4 people if it’s good.

You’re playing with The Twilight Sad in September. Are you excited? Nervous?

Simon – Yeah! They’re friends of ours, so we sorted it out ourselves. We got together in the pub, and decided to go on tour together. We’re alternating the headline each night. It’s good because they’ve got fans who might be into us.

James – I’m pretty excited to see what effect they have on us musically. Also how much of an effect they will have on us tragically. (laughs). They have a bit of a reputation for drinking games…

You’ll be 3 days in a be like ‘why did I agree to this?’

Simon – That’s every tour….(all laugh)

How do you do all the Electronic elements live?

Simon – We try and do as much as we can live. It’s not possible for us to do it all, we’d need about 20 people.

J – We’d need a full orchestra…

Simon – …that would actually be a pretty good idea. An orchestra of keyboard players…it’s all about money (laughs)

J – The way we write in the studio is quite backwards. We pile stuff on top of each other…

Simon – Live we try to keep it as simple as possible. We’ve had problems with technology in the past, so it’s easier to strip it down. We played a festival the other day with Metronomy, and I’d heard they were not good live, but then seeing them I thought they were amazing. Everything they did was really live, but all the important parts were there, so it’s almost like all the other bits were for the album. I guess having a live drummer makes things a lot different…

Do you prefer playing live or being in the studio?

J – Oh live definitely. Obviously we can’t play live without doing the stuff in the studio (laughs).

Simon – I prefer the studio…

J – I like touring. It’s like going on holiday. I would never have been to half the places.

Are there any tracks on the album that are favourites or that you’re particularly fond of?

J – Well personally I love Germany. I think the drums on it are awesome, I really like playing it live. I think it’s an all encapsulating Errors track.

Simon – It’s got the boring bits, it’s got the good bits, it’s got the arrogant part (laughs)

Greg – I think Simon and I were saying the single (A Rumour In Africa) is our favourite. It feels kinda hard to play live though.

Steev – I hate it (laughs), probably because I didn’t write any of it.

Simon – It always goes down well though, and that’s when it feels more alive to me.

What are the plans for the future?

Simon – We’ve got a remix album coming out, and we just have to do the artwork for it. It is going to coincide with the tour with Twilight Sad.

With the new album is it quite different or similar to your old stuff?

J – So far it’s quite different…

Simon – Choir hip hop…(laughs)

J – I’ve written an RnB track that I don’t think will make it on, I hope it will.

Simon – Every tune has a guitar solo…

How long are they though?

Simon – About 10 minutes… (laughs)

Yeah, that’s a good length…

J – We hope to have the album ready by next june. I’d like to do a proper double vinyl release.

Simon – I’d like to do VHS audio…just a black screen…

By Mark Allen

UK band Baddies have never had what some might call huge success in the UK, and there is no real reason for it, as far as we can tell. Their catchy hooks and imaginative lyrics work together with powerful drumming to make for great Indie Rock songs. Taking to the stage during blistering sunshine is always challenging, as you’ve got to get the fans out of the shade and look after yourself at the same time. Baddies 2pm set was not a particularly busy one, despite their European following, but they were there to give it their all.

The guys are currently working on a new album, and they played a couple of tracks from it. They have a slightly more futuristic sound mixed with the original Baddies vibe, and they sound promising. Expect more keyboard, but still the angular guitar riffs and solid vocal lines.

The highlight for me would have to be Battleships, which is still an absolute tune of a song, with some truly incredible lyrical work, fitting and shaping words into spaces you wouldn’t think was possible. Very catchy numbers throughout, you should really check them out for a dose of indie.

The Baddies where interviewed by TNC Music Editor Mark Allen at Dour 2010

Mark – Is this your first time playing at Dour Festival?

Mike – Yes it is. We’ve been to Belgium quite a few times, done a couple of festivals and various other cities.

Are you looking forward to your set?

Mike – Yeah! I mean, we did 32 festivals last year (laughs), and this is our first one of the year, so we’re actually really excited to be playing, playing some new tunes, hopefully go down well. To be honest, I don’t think many people know our stuff, so to them it will be all new tunes!

Have you played much in Europe in general?

Simon – We did loads last year, I think out of the 32, 25 were European. We doing a headline tour in October that will have us all over Europe again.

Do you find you get a better reception in Europe?

Mike – Yeah I find it’s better in mainland Europe than it is in the UK for us. We’re not exactly too sure why that is, I don’t really care why it is to be honest. If they like the band that’s great.

You released your album on your own label, what was that process like, and why did you do it yourselves?

Mike – It was kind of like, we had the album ready to go, recorded it, paid for it ourselves. We had a lot of hype around us late 2008/early 2009. We did a few showcases in the city and Manchester, and then we did one in Holland called Eurosonic, and that’s when we got all the festivals. There wasn’t loads of major offers coming in, and we thought ‘we’re not going to sit around waiting for it to happen, we wanna get on our with career’. I think there is nothing worse than sitting there with stale songs. Who are we to expect a major to come and sign us, we just gotta get on with it. We did a little bit of waiting didn’t we?

Simon …You can’t not when you’re starting to get interest. I mean, from the start of the album to the time it came out, we started to get really impatient about it, so it was partly that. It got to being like ‘well, let’s just fucking do it’. It was a conscious decision.

It puts you in good stead as a band as well…

Simon – Yeah I think everyone in the band is envolved in some way with everything that happens with the band. We’re pretty good at knowing what’s going on.

You recently released a track in German. What was the idea behind this and why German as a language?

Mike – I decided I wanted to do another song in another language, mainly because I thought it would be a fun thing to do. We spent a lot of time in Germany, and we really liked it over there. Also, my girlfriend’s flatmate is German, so she could translate it all for us (laughs). We considered doing it in French and German, but we ran out of time. It was a lot of fun, it’s going to be free forever. We included the lyrics as well this time.
So what are the plans for the future of Baddies?

Simon – We’re in the process of writing a second album. We’re about half the way through…

Mike – We’re just going at it, writing as many songs as we can, trying new things. It’s really exciting, slightly more futuristic sound. Just evolving really. Ideally we want to have the album out early next year, then do all the festivals again. If we don’t, we’re not going to panic about it, we want to release the right record. We’ve got about 8 new tunes that are there abouts, but you know, maybe none of those will make it on the album, maybe they all will.

Do you think you’ll look to majors for this release?

Simon – It’s hard to explain any of this without sounding really eager or not caring at all, but it’s half way between the two. We’re not going to chase it that much. One of the things we’ve learnt is there are more important things to be chasing. When you’ve got other things on your side you don’t really need it.

Mike – There are a lot of options out there now, it doesn’t have to be a sign your life away job. With major labels comes major expectation, and sometimes you don’t meet those expectations, and sometimes it’s not your fault. With our own label we’ve got our own ones, so it’s all good.

One of the best things about Dour we think was not just the wide variety of acts but the ability and freedom we had in being able to walk about and take in as many of the shows as possible. We would have needed a small army to be able to cover this festival in the manner is should have, but with many of the venues/tents being walking distance meant that we could still catch one or two songs of an act as we made our way to our next show to review.

One of these shows was Eté 67 who’s infectious beats and raucous show made me stand in the back and stamp my feet hard as I was introduced to one hell of a band. Their name is derived from the Summer of 67 and the band where formed in Esneux, Belgium. As we got our second ride with a great Belgium called Gil he told us a bit more about the guys and told us where they where from. Sometimes festivals can forget their core roots and where they have come from su for Dour to be able to support a local (as in Belgian) act like Eté 67 was a great pleasure to see!

The song that made me a true 100% fan of the band was number three on their sale titled album called Le Quartier de la Gare drew me in and I loved it. Live the band are tight, the vocals strong and the music energetic. Their style is a mix of french folk/rock with this track being more a cross between a folk/country track and rock, put simply, incredible.

Tiniwaren – The Last Arena

This Malian band have been touring their spectacular show for sometime now appearing at festivals all over the world. I have been lucky to have been able to see te guys three times now, the first time was at The Sage Gateshead which not only showed how wild these guys are but just what type of fan-base they had.

Whilst at The Sage on the same night iconic American folk singer Joan Boaz was playing in the main hall, she made sure she was going to see them at any cost. She had no suport and didn’t have an intermission and was able to catch the last few songs by the band. I am not too sure but I think it was her enthusiasm that got the crowd up on their feet and even got a few people up on stage. This was one of the most spectacular shows I had ever seen at this point and when I saw them at Glastonbury their ‘It’s good?’ that followed almost every track endeared the crowd to them.

Tiniwaren’s fusion of African blues & jazz is probably the most infectious sound you are likely to hear. Its beauty lies in the way the band perform with a passion and beauty they slowly courted you by their sound. The Dour Sunday crowd really was loving what they were doing and their music simply filled the early evening night.

Though our timing was not the best we still managed to get some interviews with a few of the acts taking part in the last day of Dour Festival 2010. Two British bands taking part proved that Blighty still had some musical might the Baddies from Southend, and Errors from Glasgow, both guys made sure that Sunday would remain as good a day as any at Dour!

Baddies

UK band Baddies have never had what some might call huge success in the UK, and there is no real reason for it, as far as we can tell. Their catchy hooks and imaginative lyrics work together with powerful drumming to make for great Indie Rock songs.

Taking to the stage during blistering sunshine is always challenging, as you’ve got to get the fans out of the shade and look after yourself at the same time. Baddies 2pm set was not a particularly busy one, despite their European following, but they were there to give it their all.

The guys are currently working on a new album, and they played a couple of tracks from it. They have a slightly more futuristic sound mixed with the original Baddies vibe, and they sound promising. Expect more keyboard, but still the angular guitar riffs and solid vocal lines.

The highlight for me would have to be Battleships, which is still an absolute tune of a song, with some truly incredible lyrical work, fitting and shaping words into spaces you wouldn’t think was possible. Very catchy numbers throughout, you should really check them out for a dose of indie.

Errors

Glasgow band Errors are out there producing some of the most original Indie/Electronica I’ve heard in a long time, and it often gets a bit tricky to sieve through this genre of music sometimes. Their instrumental music has some incredible depth to it, with so many different elements and parts, I was intrigued to see how it would make the transition to live.

I was not disappointed. Although many of the elements are being triggered from a laptop or otherwise, the live essence is not lost, with the sheer energy of the drummer holding everything together. Two guitarists embellish and add throughout, but the hugely catchy synth lines are what make their tracks so original. I just love the fact some of the riffs sound like something from a computer game, but sound so natural with everything: I highly recommend you check them out live.

Errors Play Kingston Thursday 22nd!

We have an interview with Baddies & Errors which will be online shortly.