Whitechapel-based trio Glitches are a little more interesting than your average dark electro indie band. Apart from their music putting you in a semi trance like state they live above an office block with the African Mafia, they often put on secret house party gigs and have just released their first ‘proper’ single. We caught up with the guys to explore the rumors we’ve been hearing…
What have you been up to today?
We’ve been going all cabin fever-style in the studio, recording everything we can get our hands on.
Your new single ‘Only Time Will Tell’ is out, but what will time really tell us?
The song is about staying strong in the face of uncertainty and adversity. It’s hopeful but also very realistic. I think it reflects what we’re like as people. I suppose time tells us to remain humble. It tells us that we can’t cling on to a particular thing for too long before teethmarks begin to appear from Father Time’s ravages. But really, as we go on, time just tells us to bloody enjoy ourselves in the present as that’s all we can do! Living too much in the past or the future invariably creates bad vibes.
Its being released on the very cool Kissibility label, how did this come about?
We have admired Jen Long and her Kissability label for as long as we’ve known about all of it. We met and everything just fell into place. We’re very fortunate in that regard. We’ve got a limited run of cassette tapes!
‘Only Time Will Tell’ is going to be your first ‘proper release’ is this a prospect which excites or scares you?
Yes and no. ‘Yes’ in the sense that the wider world is finally going to be able to make a real judgement on all the toil and effort we have put into the music, so no more theorising about that. But really ‘no’ because we feel it’s just the beginning of something much greater. We’ve got a lot to show whoever wants to listen. This is just the thin end of the wedge.
We saw the video footage of you performing at Sofar Sounds, how was that experience?
The Sofar guys are great. We love what they’re doing in trying to reconnect new music at the grassroots level. We actually hosted a party at our studio the last time we played. It would have been kind of intimidating but for the fact that we put on our ‘Halcyon Nights’ there every few months. The crowd were wonderful. Lucky, because James (our drummer and percussionist) would have taken them to task very quickly.
We’ve heard good things about your secret house party gig series, we will be coming to one soon, if that’s ok…tell us what you’ve had going on there and what its all about?
Sure you seem like nice enough people. You’re officially invited. Bring a friend. They’re the aforementioned ‘Halcyon Nights’ we put on in our studio. They’re just an opportunity for us to connect with our friends and fans and to play with great, like-minded bands and DJs. We just think that people like something a little different every once in a while in terms of live shows. Last time, we had a special projection show with our live performance. It’s a lovely testing bed for new songs.
We have read you all live in a disused office block with the African mafia…is this true and if so what do they think of your parties?
Yeah well they have always been really nice about it. People used to come up and say hi, just like we would sometimes go down and do the same. It has always felt like the whole block just gets on with things, pretty oblivious to what the rest of the floors do. Probably a good thing…
What’s the plans for the summer, you know when it gets hot?
Spending warm summer days indoors, most probably. It’s the traditional Glitches way. Apart from that, we’re recording in various studios around London and playing a few festivals. Watch this space. Oh and a verrry exciting single launch party for ‘Only Time Will Tell’, which we will announce very shortly.
You were recently down in Brighton for Great Escape festival how did you find the experience?
Amazing. As a band, we’re relatively new to all this travelling about and performing. There was a ridiculously big and friendly crowd. Strangely enough, some people even knew the words to the songs. We also met some other great musicians. We Were Evergreen were fantastic people as well as being very talented musicians.
Who’s on your music box at the moment?
Robbie – The Knife: Shaking The Habitual
James – Pink Floyd: The Dark Side Of The Moon
Michael – Portishead: Dummy