| Primary images of THE HORRORS... |
| Written by Shahlin Graves |
| Tuesday, 30 March 2010 00:07 |
 THE HORRORS just want to play live. They want to hunt out rare vinyl records in their spare time... and converse with appreciators. None of this Twitter nonsense, please. Frontman Faris Badwan is adamant - "We don't bother with Twitter. I think Twitter is just a platform for people who... It makes people feel like their opinions are worth more than they are really." And there'll be no public translations of meaning behind their songs either, thanks. Badwan speaks with an air of finality - "I never like to totally pin-down what a song is about for other people. Music isn't supposed to be explained out." As for their fans, that's what forums are for. Badwan concludes that - "Really for us, the important thing is to keep in contact with forums. Our forum is an important type of our communication with fans. But other stuff? Really, we just like to go out and play. That for us, is the more important side of reaching people." We're at The Horrors' hotel of residence during their stay in town for the annual Big Day Out and despite the respectable afternoon hours, the band are impatient to be moving on to their night's plans already - a toss-up between Peaches' side-show or a secret The Mint Chicks performance. All 'Horrors members are polite and businesslike. But glimpses of good humour do shine through, despite the dividing wall of sunglasses worn indoors, and face-covering fringes. Drummer Joseph Spurgeon disappears to the downstairs bar, returning with an empty plate to trace his self-portrait around. While guitarist Joshua Third draws an electrical circuit and synth-player Tomethy Furse sketches out a caricature. 'Primary Colours' bassist Rhys (Spider) Webb and vocalist Badwan also, illustrate more intrinsic snapshots of their psyche, than they ever let float to the surface at any other time during our couch chat afterwards.  COUP DE MAIN: Your latest album 'Primary Colours' showcased an unexpected evolution in sound for The Horrors. Does this evolved sound also reflect internally upon you, as band members? FARIS BADWAN: It was introspective in the sense that we totally withdrew from other people and really compacted that world, for a period of time. It's amazing and rewarding to make an album like that, because we thought of nothing else. We weren't really playing our demos to loads of other people, we weren't really getting other people's opinions on what we were making and why we were making it. CDM: 'Primary Colours' was universally praised by critics... What does all that positive media attention and Best Of 2009 spotlighting, essentially boil down to, for you? RHYS WEBB: Obviously it was great because it was end of the year - and for us - it was always going to be the album of the year. 'Cuz we had such a great time doing it, really. It's important for me to actually meet people in a record store, like Real Groovy, who are really looking forward to seeing us play. But of course, it's great to be recognised like that. But not really, the main interest of ours at all. CDM: NME magazine championed The Horrors throughout 2009... Was this a helping hand? Or more of a hindrance? RHYS: It's a double-edged sword. Some people have no respect for that publication at all. Certain music magazines, or even certain music listeners, don't really agree, or enjoy that thing. So it doesn't really matter. We've just been lucky enough that a lot of people have been interested in our group since we started; across the board. Communication is obviously an important thing.  CDM: Portishead's Geoff Barrow was one of the producers of 'Primary Colours' - whom you met at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in 2007? FARIS: That was the first time that we met him. RHYS: It was great. We were still playing 'Strange House'. We'd already started writing some songs for 'Primary Colours' and we saw them playing their new album 'Third', live for the first time. It was the first time any of us had seen them. It was their first gig in ten years. So that was a great night and we made friends. We were talking about what we were doing in the studio, and even about instruments that we were using, and sounds that we were playing around with. For us, working with Geoff just seemed like a very natural kind of idea; someone who shares very similar interests and tact of working, as us. CDM: Australian Craig Silvey, also co-produced 'Primary Colours' alongside Geoff Barrow and music video director Chris Cunningham. What were they like to work with as well? RHYS: Craig was amazing to work with. Every idea that we had, he would make perfect sense of. He was very much involved in just communicating our ideas in the studio and probably worked the most with us on the record - because we really very weren't much interested in the recording process ourselves. So he was definitely a really important kind of person to have around. The thing with Chris is, we just recorded two songs quite early on, which were the first tracks that we really wrote for 'Primary Colours' and he was just a friend of ours. We were just interested in trying out working with him as a kind of experiment - which was cool - and we both found quite inspiring. CDM: Rhys, why did you decide to swap with Tom; from keys on The Horrors debut album 'Strange House', now to bass on 'Primary Colours'? RHYS: Live; that's what I do because it makes more sense that Tom's world of electronics - there's a lot of stuff that he's doing on the record which is just very much his thing, his world - he's better at doing it live. But in recording, all of us as a band are free to play different instruments. So when we're writing together, and playing in recording, we don't have that rule that I'll be on bass and Tom will be on keys. We're quite happy to play around with that and we did on the record. But for live, it's actually just a functional thing that works best.  CDM: Why did you decide as a band, to create and distribute free fanzines? FARIS: Fanzines are very important for sharing stuff that you're in to, with the readers and listeners. We met through the love of discovering music and it makes sense, to want to share that music with other people. CDM: Is it important to you to go this extra mile for fans? RHYS: As a band, I don't think so, no. FARIS: It's just what we love doing. I don't feel like we have some kind of obligation to... It's really just a natural thing. RHYS: For us, one reason is - there's just so much shit everywhere - that it's important for people to hear, not just music, but to be exposed to other worlds of great sounds and sights. I think that is important and I feel like it's something we would like to share. CDM: I love the polaroid photos you used to post on The Horrors website. It might please you to know that you'll be able to buy polaroid film again soon... RHYS: Good! When we were in America for quite a long time - we did a couple of tours last year - and we would find bits and pieces on the way. So, maybe you'll see some more soon. FARIS: I've actually taken quite a lot actually, since then. I just haven't uploaded them onto the website yet.  CDM: Can New Zealand expect The Horrors back? RHYS: We'd like to hope so. FARIS: Definitely. RHYS: Certainly not this year, because we're very much looking forward to just writing a new record, but we will definitely be back soon. CDM: Have you begun writing your next album yet? FARIS: No. We've been on tour. We're planning to go straight into the studio, after Big Day Out basically. RHYS: I think in everyone's head, everyone has lots of ideas and lots of things going on. But as we found with 'Primary Colours' - it's that whole thing of the record being whole. We want to work like that. We work best in that environment. The Horrors' 'Primary Colours' is a snarling Technicolour dream, each song inter-linked. Badwan reaffirms that - "There's loads of reoccuring themes in the songs on the album; within the same atmosphere, part of the same world." Webb concludes his thoughts - "It's 'cuz it's one thing. It completely exists as a whole together." Badwan is quick to state that title-song 'Primary Colours' is not representative of the whole album, but is "an important song on the album." He clarifies that - "It just fit the mood." As for the pensive ending-track 'Sea Within A Sea'? RHYS: Definitely positive. Absolutely optimistic and positive. Would you agree with that? FARIS: I think it is optimistic and positive - it's quite contradictory in that sense - from the lyrics. Until you actually read them, maybe they can seem contradictory.  We part ways, with Faris finally cracking a smile. Timely laughs are exchanged over my own confusion over the aptly-named Rugby School, where Faris and Tom attended. Badwan corrects Webb, who has correctly voiced my own assumptions - "It's a place actually. It's where rugby the sport was invented. Me and Tom went there." Webb laughs and reassures me that - "It's not a sports school though." ...and with some final niceties shared - about their guest appearance on 'The Mighty Boosh' ("We were just asked to do it and that was that. It was quite good fun."), working with Damon Albarn ("It's true. But we just worked with him on one song that may, or may not even appear on the record. And he worked with us on our last single 'Whole New Way'."), and Rhys' underground The Junk club ("We kind of got the band together a bit in the club. But it's something I started before I met the guys, when I lived in Southend Essex, and it became an important place for us to start playing early on.") - The Horrors go on to be one of the most talked about bands of the Big Day Out 2010. THE HORRORS 'Primary Colours' is in-stores now. Features the singles 'Sea Within A Sea', 'Who Can Say', 'Whole New Way / Primary Colours' and 'Mirror's Image'. |
