- Music
- 22 Sep 17
The Horrors: On Working with Nine Inch Nails, The Gorillaz, and their new record
Art-rock mavericks The Horrors on their album of the year contender V, touring with Nine Inch Nails and collaborating with Gorillaz.
One of the UK’s best groups, The Horrors, shortly return with their fifth album, the straightforwardly titled V. It’s another brilliant excursion from Faris Badwan and the boys, with their restless creative streak this time finding them straying into Gary Numan-style electro, catchy synth-pop and abrasive industrial.
“We didn’t have the end result planned out,” notes The Horrors’ softly-spoken, friendly Josh Hayward, speaking from his North London abode. “But with the last two albums, we did them in our own studio and produced them ourselves. This time we decided it to change it up, so we recorded in a different location and got a producer onboard, for probably the first time ever really. Not only that, it was a big name producer, Paul Epworth, who likes to get really involved.”
The Horrors’ remarkable capacity for reinvention puts them in the English art school tradition of Blur and Radiohead, with their insatiable appetite for new sounds leading them to champion various underground acts. One such group is the utterly incredible Australian avant-garde outfit HTRK (pronounced ‘Hate Rock’), namechecked a number of times in interviews by frontman Badwan.
“I love HTRK,” enthuses Josh. “We went on tour with them before their bassist passed away. They’re really great. But it’s always been the way, hasn’t it? You always have to look out for the good music, it’s never shoved down your throat.
“For every great pop record that comes out, there’s 50 crap ones. And then there’s a hundred great records bubbling under the surface – you’ve just got to try and find them. But yeah, HTRK are a completely terrific band.”
A notable moment in The Horrors’ career was the series of live shows they played with Nine Inch Nails in 2009, shortly before the industrial legends went on extended hiatus. The gigs are remembered fondly by Hayward.
“It was absolutely crazy,” he notes. “We only played a few dates and they got progressively bigger – the biggest one was Terminal 5 in New York, which is still tiny for Nine Inch Nails. I’d never really listened much to NIN as a kid, but I’ve listened to them more since, particularly the Ghosts album. The atmosphere at those gigs was incredible, because all the people who got tickets were so up for it. Seeing Nine Inch Nails with 300 other people – when does that ever happen? This band was pretty much their life.
“The gigs were amazing to watch, they were quite retrospective. Me and Rhys were watching one night, and they go through all the records. You’re saying, ‘Oh yeah, he’s obviously really into Berlin-era Bowie.’ You can tell, a lot of the music that’s really dear to us is also very dear to him.
“I’d happily tour with them again, although it’s never happened at the same time. You get into different album cycles and so on. There was talk of working with Trent Reznor at some point on this record, but it never materialised. I think it would be quite an honour if we did something like that.”
Speaking of legendary figures, The Horrors were also invited into Damon Albarn’s studio for a collaboration on Gorillaz’ 2010 album Plastic Beach. Although the track never saw the light of day, Josh really enjoyed the experience.
“I don’t quite know what happened to it, but it was great fun,” he reflects. “Damon’s studio is absolutely mental. It’s near a train station, and they found the trains were causing this ring that interfered with recording. So they applied for the train line to be moved – I’m not joking!
“But it’s actually a great place. It’s got bells cast from Normandy and ridiculous things like that. Damon was interesting to work with as well, quite energetic. It’s weird when you have these people who are incredibly talented, and yet they still act like they’re about 12. They just jump around all the time and still understand that they’re making music, and that’s a fucking cool thing. And they have this great studio to do it in – it’s all you ever wanted when you were a kid.”
V is released on Caroline International on September 22. The Horrors play Mandela Hall, Belfast (October 16) and Olympia, Dublin (17).
