An Horse burst on to the scene in 2009 with their first album Rearrange Beds and now they are back with their second release, Walls. This two-piece band consists of Kate Cooper, guitarist and lead singer, and Damon Cox, drummer and back-up singer, but don’t let their minimalist setup fool you. They sound larger than life. The always charming Australian duo was kind enough to sit and talk with the Mass Media about recording the new record, their new tour, and seamen… as in sailors.
I usually like to start off with this question, what’s your least favorite question?
“How did you come up with the band name?”
Ok, so I won’t ask that question.
Yes, that would be great.
How’s the tour going so far?
It’s going great. We’re playing another show tonight with Kevin Devine. It’ll be fun – they’re good guys. So yea, it’s going well. We survived South by South-west; happy to be out of Austin.
Your last tour was pretty lengthy; did you learn anything from that tour that you’re going to avoid during this one?
Many, many, many things; yea, we learned a lot of things. It wasn’t really a long particular tour, we just did a lot of touring consecutively for over two years…. But you know you kind of learn something on every tour, at every show. You just kind of have to implement it. There are so many things I’ve learned… for example, right now we’re pulling up to a Whole Foods so we can go get some food. That’s something I’ve learned, go to grocery stores and get good food instead of eating really bad food all of the time.
I feel like that’s a good, healthy tip.
Yea, I mean it’s probably common sense… I have a lot of trouble eating fast food… I just sometimes get really hungry; this is an effort to combat that.
So, it’s really a preemptive strike against hunger.
Yeah, exactly.
What’s the biggest difference between your first album and your latest one?
Well this one is just a lot better. It’s much more layered sonically and more interesting. It’s also more deliberate. With the first album… it wasn’t really intentional; it was just Damon and I making music because we could in the basement of a record store. Then we got a record deal and they were like, “You’ve got five songs give us some more and do it exactly how you’ve done it.” So we did it. The way we did it was really cheap and really quick. With Walls we were able to talk about the record with the producer, Howard Redekopp, for over 18 months before hitting record. So there was a lot of planning and pre-production.
I’ve noticed in the latest album there are a lot of references to bodies of water and walls are these things you think about a lot?
Well, you know what? I don’t really think about walls at all. Damon kind of pointed that out to me. So, that’s why we named it Walls. I guess that had to do with me being a little frustrated. As for bodies of water, I do think about them a lot. That’s a strange thing to admit but I grew up by the beach and I have been living in Canada which isn’t really famous for its swimming weather. I just love the ocean. A lot of my favorite novels are about the ocean and sea and seamen… as in sailors. I just dug myself into a hole.
Where do you find that your biggest fan base exists?
I don’t really know… I don’t really think about it. It just surprises me that anyone listens to us at all. People come to shows everywhere in the world and they’re all amazing. I just feel really lucky that I can be asked a question like that.
An Horse will be appearing at the Middle East, upstairs, on the 30th. Why not spend a wonderful evening with the nicest people you can hope to meet?