Band of brothers

Like the cops and the airline pilots, the indie pop kids are getting younger – and better, it seems! Brothers Alex and Tom White, 18 and 16 years-old respectively, make up the nucleus of Brighton’s Electric Soft Parade, one of the more refreshingly talented combos to have emerged among the recent spate of UK hopefuls. Last year’s debut single, the swirling, psychedelic-sounding ‘Silent To The Dark’ was no mere accident; their sparkling debut, Holes In The Wall contains a higher than average run of similarly inspired indie gems.

Claiming a childhood musical diet of Buffalo Springfield, the Beach Boys, The Boo Radleys and The Charlatans among others, the brothers White have packed in an alarmingly impressive musical training thus far. Presumably it was their parents’ collection that inspired them?

“Not really,” offers Tom White, drummer and main songwriter with the band.

“Our father is quite musical and our mum listens to music a lot, but it’s been about educating ourselves mainly. Seeing bands live and reading about bands in the music press.”

Curiously, given their youth and location in the heart of south coast club culture the album doesn’t contain even a hint of a dance influence. Even the band’s moniker has been nicked from an old Doors album title. They deny however that they’re living in the past, musically speaking. “We don’t just listen to old music like so many other bands we’re actually both massively into Underworld and Basement Jaxx,” White insists. “There is always that animosity between dance and indie but we don’t really see it that way. In fact we’ve been lumped in with the ten guitar bands of this year but we feel we have more in common with My Bloody Valentine and The Flaming Lips.”

Despite their youth the Electric Soft Parade are veterans of the road. Last year they toured widely with Scots country-rock popsters The Cosmic Rough Riders fitting in dates in Dublin and Belfast. Since then they’ve been headlining in their own right to increasingly enthusiastic audience response. This summer they head out on their first major jaunt culminating with appearances at Reading and Leeds Festivals.

“Most of the dates are already sold out,” White beams. “But before the tour we’ll be doing the next album which will be out by the end of the year. It’s already written and we’ll be recording it in March. We’ve no shortage of songs we write a lot compared to a lot of bands. We just spend a few days with a four-track and find the ideas coming out.”