James Hamilton is best known as the drummer for Electronic post- something ravers Errors. However, he has stepped out from behind the drumkit to release music of his own. I spoke to him about his musical background, Errors, drumming for Mogwai and new project Owleye. Tokyo based Nayo Oliver, who formed Owleye with James also give further insight into the group and himself.
(((o))): Hi James, thanks for taking time to talk to us. You're best known for being the drummer of the excellent Errors. However, you have been involved in a number of other bands and collaborations in the past. Can you give us a bit of a background?
James: Well I’ve been playing in bands and making music on my own for longer than I care to mention, some of those projects being more noteworthy than others, and frankly a few I’d rather were erased from the annals of history. I joined Errors after the release of the first single ‘Hans Herman’ (which I’d played drums on) as a live drummer. After the first gig we played together they asked me to join full time. Before that I’d been in a synth-rock band called Multiplies, along with Graeme Ronald (who went on to form Remember Remember) and David Roy (who went on to form Dananananaykroyd and Alarm Bells; in fact I also played in Dananananaykroyd for a while). Not long after joining Errors though I self-released a free download solo album under the name ‘Crapdragon’ (hilarious, I know) which was pretty much your average bedroom post-rock-doom-techno record, not that I want to play it down because A) It took me about 4 years in total to make and B) I stand by it being a bloody good album. So right there is an approximate brief history.
(((o))): You also had a stint touring as Mogwai's drummer. Can you tell us how that came about and how was the experience?
James: That initially came about for a number of reasons, Mogwai were touring ‘Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will’ but Martin’s wife was pregnant and her due date was slap bang in the middle of the North American leg of the tour. Mogwai were taking us (Errors) as support so they asked if I’d play drums for them on the tour also. It was a pretty crazy experience, playing two sets a night and getting to feel what it’s like being in the big band haha.
So much fun though, highlights included hanging out at the Sub Pop offices in Seattle and appearing on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Then about a year later Errors were playing a couple of festivals in England over a weekend and I got a phone call on the Saturday asking if I could fill in for Martin at a gig on Tuesday with Mogwai in Mexico City. That was quite the round trip over three days I can tell you.
(((o))): Going back, who or what influenced you the most to become a musician?
James: One word: Lithium. To be more exact, watching Nirvana play Lithium at the 1992 MTV VMA’s and seeing Dave Grohl playing drums. It was a seriously, properly life defining moment where my wee jaw dropped and I just thought “I NEED to do THAT”.
Nayo: I think for me the thing that inspired me most to work on music was probably the popular culture in America and Japan in the late 90's / early 2000's. As a pre-teen and teen, I was really inspired by the music that was coming out at that time from both countries, regardless of genre. Also, there was always this sense of nomadic freedom and honesty that came with actually being a musician. Plus my mum was always very musical. Always playing the piano and signing.
(((o))): Errors blend a few different styles, but you've clearly a liking of straight up dance music yourself. What sort of stuff do you enjoy listening to?
James: I do love me some techno. I’m a big lover of Hyperdub records and the more electronic end of Blackest Ever Black’s output, a lot of which I’ve been listening to lately, but to be honest sometimes I find myself listening to Jessy Lanza followed by Sepultura then Charles Mingus straight into Bach without skipping a beat. Actually speaking of beats, I guess I’m very much rhythm-centric when it comes to music I enjoy listening to.
(((o))): You have teamed up with Nayokenza to release music as Owleye. Considering Nayo is Tokyo based how did the collaboration happen?
James: Errors were playing in Japan, our first time there no less, which was tremendously exciting and a generally great time. We were supporting CHVRCHES in Tokyo and Osaka and after the first show we went out on the town, still pretty jetlagged and wired, and ended up in this awesome dive bar called Beat Café where, to be honest, things start to get a little hazy at my end. But I got talking to Nayo and we hit it off pretty well. Upon hearing he was a musician and vocalist, I gave him my details and probably in a very slurred drunken way asked if he’d do vocals on one of my solo tracks.
Nayo: We met after one Errors's gigs in Tokyo back in February of this year. And we just got to chatting about music and we both expressed that we were keen to collaborate. I honestly thought he'd forget about it, but he actually sent me some tracks upon returning to Glasgow. These tracks ended up being the first two songs on the ep.
James: The first song Nayo ended up working on was ‘True Hair’ which was pretty fitting since I’d started writing it while I was in Japan, specifically on the bullet train between Tokyo and Osaka, which is what inspired the opening synth arpeggio and beat.
(((o))): The EP "Forget Me" is now released, how was the process of putting it together from different sides of the world?
Nayo: it was cool. Kinda reminded me of the way that the Postal Service went about working on "Give Up". James would send me songs and I would record vocals and send my vocal stems back to him and he'd mix them together. For our first music video we decided to not be in it, so that made things a bit easier. Looking back on it, it was like having a pen pal, I was always very excited to get messages and songs from James.
(((o))): James, you have a great label in Rock Action handling a lot of the business side with Errors. Was there an element of trepidation stepping out and self- releasing this project?
James: Yes and no; I knew after the first track we recorded together (“True Hair”) that I wanted to pursue the project and release something. I didn’t want to waste time and energy trying to find a label willing to put it out though, because, well I guess I’m just impatient that way. I have friends who’ve used bandcamp to release before so decided that self releasing, at least even for the first EP, would be far and away the most convenient way to go about it. What I hadn’t taken into consideration, having spent so long with a label and press people doing everything on my account, was the reality of trying to get people to actually listen to and review it, trying to get airplay and notice.
Luckily I’ve got a lot of friends who were willing to help out, but there was also a lot of late nights and fruitless emailing and feeling like a complete prick for noising people up all the time about something they had no need to give time to, especially given the fact that our budget for this release was absolute zero. It’s been quite the learning curve. I was considering trying to crowdsource funds to do a limited vinyl release of the EP which is something I may look at properly in the future but by the time I looked into that it was already pretty close to the planned release date, so we went with a purely digital release. We’ve already started working on material for an album which I’m really excited about because it’s giving us more tracks to explore different elements, we’ve got some really exciting collaborations already lined up for it too. Ideally I’d like a label to release it but who knows, if the EP does well enough self released we might keep it DIY for the album.
(((o))): As well as Owleye, you are also producing music under the name Infant Telethon. What are the plans with that project?
James: Infant Telethon sort of morphed into Owleye through circumstances, the main ones being that Nayos vocal on “True Hair” convinced me that making it a collaborative project was a better idea, and also because I got massively denied permission to use most of the samples which made up the vocals in the Infant Telethon songs. I’m still doing stuff in the background under that name, remixes and suchlike, but it’s unlikely that any original material will see the light of day any time soon and if it does it probably won’t have a whole lot sonically in common with Owleye.
(((o))): You played the first solo gig as Infant Telethon supporting Machines in Heaven recently. How did it go and what was it like not having drums to hide behind?
James: The thing about me, playing any given show, is that I’m massively, horrifically full of myself if I’m behind a drum kit. Put drums in front of me and I’m completely within my comfort zone and could play any venue to any size of crowd. Stepping away from that and being a guy with a laptop and a midi controller was so far outside my comfort zone that I was more nervous than I can remember being for years, but it was a different kind of buzz. The gigs I did were great, a lot of that had to do with Machines in Heaven being brilliant anyway and I got a lot of support from them and their manager Clair. I can’t praise those guys highly enough though, seriously. Just beautiful people and a great band. My personal Infant Telethon highlight though was supporting the excellent RUNGS at the 13th Note for their EP launch and playing to the diametric opposite of an audience which would enjoy the music hah. Big guys with long hair and beards standing right at the front, arms folded, looking really angry while I dropped a bunch of Mary J Blige and Drake samples.
(((o))): The Owleye Ep reminds me of Death Grips while incorporating more diverse influences. Giving their reputation for outlandish stunts( like not showing up in person for gigs), have you considered following their tactics at all?
Nayo: Death Grips is an amazing band to be compared to. I think more so than actual pranks or stunts, James and I have really discussed our live shows in great detail.
James: I’m still hopeful some promoter is going to pay us a ludicrous amount of money to play shows.
Nayo: We really want to develop a reputation for having great, intimate, high energy shows. However, I can't disregard my ability to become a bit outlandish if I'm provided with a good amount of alcohol.
(((o))): Errors have been a bit quiet of late but rumour has it there are plans to enter the studio soon. Can you give us any insight or what is planned.
James: I’d just say keep your ear to the ether; we’re all doing various other things, for example Steev just released his debut Clip Art record (which is excellent btw) but we’re all working on new material for a new Errors album which should sneak up on you when you least expect it.
(((o))): Scotland has a bit of a buzz about it currently. Not just seeing established acts like Mogwai continue to grow, but new artist like Chvrches gain wide acclaim. And there's the whole Independence debate. Do you feel it's at a creative highpoint and do you think Independence will only see this increase?
James: I think that right now is a very important and exciting point in Scotland’s history and I for one am glad to be experiencing it; whether it happens or not is anyone’s guess but I think that right now there is a lot of attention on Scotland. In terms of music though, there’s always good music in and from Scotland, it just so happens that every so often the spotlight gets turned on it, and when that happens it’s nice.
(((o))): Thanks for talking to us and good luck with all projects. Is there anything you would like to add?
Nayo: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us.
James: Go and download our EP, it’s pretty good.
Forget Me by Owleye is available now via bandcamp.
https://owleyeinternational.
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