Heading out on their debut tour Est.1987 caught up with AK and Mike to chat all things recording, being on the road and "AAI"!
Hi guys. So, for those people who haven’t heard of Echotape- where are you guys from and how did you form the band?
MIKE- Well, we’ve all grown up together
and my brother Marc is in the band. We all went to the same school and then met
Dan through college; so we’ve all grown up together over the last ten or
fifteen years. We’ve all been in different bands around the area and known each
other from those music projects, but it’s only over the last year or two we’ve
come together.
MIKE- We always tried to avoid doing this,
just because it always seems that the oness is on the listener to think what it
sounds like. You get people come up to you after a gig and say, “I really liked
that, you remind me of this band” and we might think we don’t sound anything
like that. But if they are comparing you to that band it means they like that
band in the first place, so we take that as a compliment.
Your EP “Sky Above Quarley Hill”
just came out and you worked with producer “Youth” on that- how was that
experience?
AK- It was excellent. It was quite
overwhelming actually, because we went down to Spain
MIKE- We haven’t got an actual date for
the album yet. We’re looking to release a couple of singles over the summer and
then the album later on in the year.
 |
| AK on stage at Leeds Escobar |
We checked out your website- you
guys don’t give very much away! The site is really visual and has strong
messages on there such as “We are made perfect. We
are corrupted from birth. We can undo the damage. If only we realise.” Is that sense of mystery deliberate?
MIKE- Yeah definitely. There’s a collective called “AAI” [Amalgamated
Aesthetic Industries] and it’s always been around and recently it’s been part
of us. Like the “GAPP” [General Administration of Print and Publications] in China
Your single “Came Into My Blood” and
the video for it, again it’s very visual and a very different feel to the
standard kind of performance video – can you tell us a bit about the premise
for that?
 |
| Echotape in Leeds |
AK- Part of our manifesto is “the
greater your purpose for something, the clearer you see things” so everything that
we do with this band we want to put as much meaning and purpose into it as
possible. We didn’t want to go down that route of doing a performance video but
wanted to create a storyline and create something a lot bigger than ourselves.
We got the storyline of that video, and the next video is going to be a prequel
to it so we’re not actually in that video either. Then we will keep working on
the storyline so everything fits together.
NICK- We’ve got a guy called Chris Warsop
with us who does a lot of the artwork for us and he’s really cool and works for
AAI. He filmed it and edited it all, but yeah someone will come up with the
basic form and then it gets mashed around and ideas come together.
AK- There’s a lot of improvisation in it
which I think is the best way for creative things to come out if you have
limited resources, because you have to be really creative and come out with
something.
How’s the touring gone so far? Do
you guys like being out on the road?
MIKE- Yeah, it’s been really cool. The
first one was the Barfly which we headlined- that was wicked. Then we’ve been
to Birmingham , Coventry
and last night we were in Manchester
AK- There’s something really cool about
playing live that you don’t get from people listening to a record, because live
the songs are personified. People can have that greater connection because
there’s a whole new sense involved.
And finally, what music have you
guys been listening to recently? Your influences are M83, The Horrors, Echo and
The Bunnymen – do you still listen to them?
And here's what happened when Echotape took to the stage...
 |
| Lead singer AK |
Echotape
are unquestionably ambitious and aim to diverge from the recent trend of hollow
bands that are more style than substance. In fact, Echotape are both; their
passion, musicality and drive are harnessed in their music, just as their style
effortlessly oozes from their on stage charm and dynamic. The impressive vocal
harmonies on E.P track “Unstable” are pitted against the deliberately bleak and
echoic “Came Into My Blood”.
 |
| Echotape |
Echotape’s sound is organic and ambient when recorded on E.P. However, it is in this live arena where the songs come into their own. Songs such as “Far From Heaven” are anthemic; from slow beginnings, rising and building to a multilayered crescendo. Echotape are haunting, inviting and mesmerising in the same breath. The uplifting “Spinning” closes their modest set here tonight. After some confusion over the venue (Escobar Wakefield or
Catch Echotape on tour-
12 April – London ,
Club Surya
19 April - Bristol , The Mother’s
Ruin
30 April – Los Angeles ,
Musexpo, SIR Studios
03 May - Los Angeles , The Viper
Rooms
Head to http://echotape.co.uk/ to get your free download of "Came Into My Blood"
Head to http://echotape.co.uk/ to get your free download of "Came Into My Blood"
