The Electric Soft Parade
The Electric Soft Parade is primarily the brothers White, Tom and Alex. Whilst you’ll most commonly find the latter fronting the four-piece, it’s Tom that writes most of the material, indeed, credited as playing a huge array of instruments on their debut-LP, ‘Holes In The Wall’. Despite the pair’s accomplishments, yes, it’s true, they are young – both under the age of 21, to be precise. But what relevance is that when marked up against the likes of the brooding, epic brilliance of ‘Why Do You Try So Hard To Hate Me’ or pure-pop indulgence of ‘Empty At The End’ and OTT-grandeur of ‘Silent To The Dark’? ESP are a very modern, very relevant act for very confusing times.
They began out of drunken parties with friends at the local cricket-pavilion where the duo would perform in a band and play their own self-written songs and selected tracks from the back-catalogues of Ash and the Manic Street Preachers. However, something must have been right about their own individual efforts; funding their own first three albums under the guise of Feltro Media, it wasn’t long until London radio-station Xfm picked up on the act, and fledgling label DB Records signed up the boys in early-2001. Sadly, though, ongoing disagreements meant that their name had to be changed – and the boys became The Soft Parade. But, not for long.
Although releasing two highly-acclaimed singles under this moniker, the aforementioned ‘Silent To The Dark’ and ‘Empty At The End’, garnering fans for live-shows as well as radio and TV-airplay, a legal debacle with a Doors-tribute band over in the US – also entitled the same band-name – forced them to have another change of identity. This time proclaiming themselves The Electric Soft Parade, it seemed that things would be more smooth-running. Not so. Prior to the recording of their debut-LP, their bass-player quit, preferring to work on scholastic activities as opposed to a life in the fast-lane, forcing Tom and Alex to manage most playing duties on ‘Holes In The Wall’.
Still, the latter was hardly a set-back. When the record emerged following a single-release of ‘There’s A Silence’ – a tune backed by one of the fastest recorded promo-videos in history – the press fell head over heels in respect of the group’s cunning, stunning and utterly distinctive musical-talent. With further sell-out shows occurring around the time, the band as a live-entity became stronger after further performances, too; originally slightly shaky and coming across nervous, they soon transformed into an epic, must-see epiphany – their recent London Astoria show particularly proving a charisma, charm and genius difficult to replace. The addition of Steve on keyboards and Matt on bass certainly added a new edge to the group.
With a top-40 hit already under their belts, international-waters demanding their attention and more music in the cannon, ESP are currently riding the waves of success they’ve long been working towards. However, these are early days – and there’s plenty more fuel in their tanks yet.
ESP INFO-PAGE: Only one page, but - boy - does this go on! Worthy at least of a few clicks...
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