Meet: An Horse

Who are these grammar-defying miscreants?
An Horse, a duo from Brisbane, Australia whose spiky indie-pop comes with a dollop of angst, and enough hooks to snag plenty of eager listeners.

Where have I heard of them lately?
They’re a new band, but even though Brisbane isn’t exactly next door, this isn’t their first Toronto date. Their CMF showcase at the Tranzac added to the fawning press in their already-bulging clippings folder, not least for their 2008 EP, Not Really Scared, and their album, Rearrange Beds, which came out in March of this year. But as singer/lyricist Kate Cooper and drummer Damon Cox explained during SXSW (in Austin, Texas) over iced cappuccinos, their first Toronto show wasn’t without complications.

What, like broken guitar strings?
More like high voltage rock ’n’ roll (and not the kind AC/DC used to sing about, either). “That was an interesting show because I got electrocuted,” Cooper explains. “Well, I didn’t get electrocuted, I’m so dramatic. But I got shocked [by the microphone], and it really pissed me off. Apparently it’s on YouTube. You see me get shocked and I’m just, like, ‘fuck!’”


“Yeah, the PA wasn’t the greatest,” Cox adds with perhaps a hint of a guilty smirk. “The people running the show, it was a little unorganized.”


“It was unsafe, absolutely unsafe,” Cooper counters. “It went into my arms, and into my mouth. And [the sound man said] ‘it’s fixed now,’ and I was, like, ‘I’m scared.’ But anyways, it was fun, there were kids there and they livened it up a bit.”



Is that the craziest thing that’s ever happened to them?
Not if you count how they came together. Both were in other bands, and, according to Cooper, started playing together while working at the same record store. (This is also where Cooper befriended Canadian duo Tegan and Sara, five years before An Horse. Remember this. There will be a quiz.) Cox and Cooper recorded five songs together and played it for their friends, not thinking it would become their most successful project. And then:

This is where Tegan and Sara come in?
Well-spotted.


Cooper: “I remember being in the control room and saying to the producer, can you give me a rough mix? I just need to take a rough mix today because I wanted to give it to those girls at their Brisbane show that night. And I gave it to them on some scraggly, hand-labeled CD, and they were, like, ‘yeah, we’ll listen to it, whatever.’


Then maybe two or three weeks later, Sara emailed me and said, ‘Do you want to come on tour to the States’? And I was, like ‘okay.’ Then I rang Damon and he was, like, ‘are you joking?’”

Old favourites
The EP brought them success, including a Mercedes commercial in Australia, but Rearrange Beds is a bold statement. Cooper’s up-front, autobiographical lyrics are arresting without being uncomfortably intimate, while her and Cox whip up a storm of energetic pop-rock whose appeal ought to extend well beyond the established audience for confessional pop-rock. It’s powerful stuff; and when Cooper sings in the album-opening song “Camp Out” that, “like that good Hole album / I can live through this / I can live through worse,” the comparison doesn’t diminish the voice of the person singing it.


Still, I ask, where’s the love for Celebrity Skin?
“I really like Celebrity Skin, I own it, but Live Through This was like the first guitar tab I ever learned.” Cooper relates “Camp Out” to the aftermath of a difficult breakup.


“‘Camp Out’” is about a rough period of time and meeting someone new and you kind of know that it’s a really bad idea, and you’re gonna put on a brave front and give it a go, but you know that ultimately you’re gonna get burned.”


That brave front includes snarling the line, “You wanna camp out / and I wanna screw around,” which Cooper explains away as bravado, albeit hopeful bravado.


“I think it’s brave sometimes to try and sleep around. It’s something I’ve never been very successful at.” Cooper nudges Cox, (who, it ought to be noted, is not her romantic partner) saying, “But I’m sure I’m gonna get great at it, hey Damon?”


“Aw yeah, we tell ourselves that,” Cox replies. “Then we end up back in the hotel room. Sitting around, watching TV.”


“Sweet!” Cooper mock-exclaims. “Rocky’s on again!”

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http://www.eyeweekly.com/music/interview/article/58318--meet-an-horse

i liked this persons interviewing/writing style very much and i am simply jazzed that they didn't ask them how did you get your name that is such a cop out question.