Their debut EP is just hot off the press, so we spoke to Peterborough four-piece Modern Error about all things Lost In The Noise.
The melodic hardcore newcomers have delivered a stellar genre-crossing debut with their debut EP. The record is dictated by the idea of self-war and personal change, broken into three parts: Lack of belief, loss of purpose and hiding a true self behind a false self and finally, separating from your true self. In other words, the downward trajectory of a toxic state of mind, feeling you can’t be a part of the world.
Visually inspired by surreal cinema, with Lost In The Noise, Modern Error wanted to create a world that portrays the fragile destructiveness of these feelings, making for a dark but beautiful experience. With all that in mind, we talked to vocalist Zak Pinchin about the stories behind the record, touring and why British rock isn’t dead.
Congrats on the release of your debut EP! How does it feel to finally have it out?
Thank you, it feels so good to have all our works out for the world to see. We had a lot of these songs for a while in order to create the progression of sound we wanted to expose.
The record talks a lot about personal change and sense of self – did you take a lot of personal experiences into writing these songs?
I definitely felt I was creating from a lot of things I hadn’t expressed before, and there were a couple times I would learn something about myself whilst creating these lyrics. I’m obsessed with the idea that personal experience can represent a larger mass of people or a greater issue than the single internal one inside, so my intention was to do that through these lyrics.
We read that Blackout Poetry (one of our favourites by the way!) sat on the back burner for a while from when you were forming the band – what made you go back to it?
I think some of these songs were left for a while finding the right ‘time and place’ for the lyrics, figuring out what the song was saying and the why behind that specific sound.
Funeral Verse is one of the softer songs on the EP. Do you make an intentional effort in exploring various influences when recording/writing or does it just come naturally?
The idea of Lost In The Noise was to show self-progression and a progression of music throughout the EP. So exploring different sounds and textures was a huge part of that. This song was one of the most natural to create lyrically.
Your latest single Self Synthetic sounds huge and very cinematic! When writing do you keep your live shows in the back of your mind?
Thank you. I think we would never limit a song for live purposes, it defeats the purpose of creating in a studio environment.
There’s lately been a debate about rock music being dead, but then we see bands like yourselves, As It Is, Architects and While She Sleeps releasing absolutely stunning records and we feel if anything British rock music is more innovative and interesting than it has been in a long time. What are your thoughts on this?
I don’t think Rock music has ever died and I don’t think it will, I do believe there is times in music where nothing innovative comes along for a little while. I do believe we are about to see the new age of alternative/ rock music coming forward and that’s a very exciting prospect – to be part of that time is special.
Speaking of touring, when you’re out on the road what are your absolute must-have tour things that you can’t live without?
Always bring a 35mm with me wherever I go. I prefer that format to capture moments.
What else does 2019 have in store in the world of Modern Error?
We have a tour with our friends in Lotus Eater across UK this June. Few more shows in summer and perhaps some towards the end of the year.
High Fives & Stage Dives 