Trial By Fire (And Questions)
The Horrors’ Faris Badwan, May 2022 (Lorne Thomson/Redferns)
Following up on the review of the most recent album Night Life, The Horrors frontman, lyricist, and all-around deathly-cool dude Faris Badwan was kind enough to entertain an interview with me.
It’s a simple question-then-answer affair, as is tradition; no “eat all the chilli dogs you can whilst talking about The Marvel films” here, sorry.
Contains niche stuff.
The Horrors' sound has shifted a lot over the years. How conscious is that evolution? Does it stem from what’s going on in the world around you, or do you mine backwards for inspiration?
I think our evolution is mostly a product of exposing ourselves to new inspirations all the time, but to me, that just feels like the most natural way of doing things.
The idea of starting a new record and being inspired by the same range of stuff as the time before doesn't really make any sense. I'd feel like it was a bit pointless. Whenever you start a creative project, you're always looking to follow that spark of enthusiasm that comes from a slightly unfamiliar or unexplored idea.
Do you ever miss the chaos of the Strange House days, and the cliques and scenes that used to sprout up every year or so? Speaking as someone who grew up in the early '00s, it seems that emo, nu-metal, new-rave, and New York all had their own trends, and I think you took full advantage of that kind of freedom to create a real buzz in the Southend Scene. Or are you just glad that we all moved on from that vibe?!
There was definitely a primal side to the chaos of Strange House live shows that I miss occasionally just because it was such a release of energy - but I still feel intensely connected when we play, and I prefer being able to express a wider range of emotions rather than having every song screaming at 90mph, ha. The Horrors have always had our own small scene that exists independently from other stuff that's happening, and that hasn't ever really gone away.
What is a band secret?
The vocal of Wild Eyed from Skying was recorded at my flat. I'd forgotten to put my phone on silent, and, in the verse, you can hear the text message chime going off. Funnily enough, it was in time and in key with the music, and we left it in.
I’ve always found Machine from V particularly enigmatic. Any insight there?
For Machine, I guess I was thinking about how much emotional depth can vary from person to person, how deeply someone can feel, and how, for someone else, emotions can seem not to even register.
I often think The Horrors were a step ahead of the tide that the music business was going in when Primary Colours came out; you had almost nothing to lose at that point and were free to do whatever you like: do you think that freedom, almost the exact opposite of ‘difficult second album syndrome’, made the album the big critical success it was?
We were working as a self-contained group of people, going into the studio every day and being excited by what we were making, not really having much in the way of outside influence. I just think the best creative stuff is invariably made by following your own thread rather than second-guessing what someone else might want you to make. That doesn't mean that we were free from pressure, but it was our own internal pressure to make a record we loved that was driving things.
Conversely, do you think that coming at the tail end of the music industry’s boom, you missed out on becoming ‘massive’ to an extent? Two consecutive NME Album of the Year awards, perhaps, would have seen a wider audience created even just five years earlier, in my opinion. Or was that never particularly in the playbook anyway?
Maybe, but I can't really say it bothers me. I care more about the state of the music industry in general and how impossible it is for new artists to support themselves for long enough to actually get better at their craft. There are so few bands around now compared to when The Horrors began. The industry is in a complete crisis, and until labels pay artists fairly from streaming, it's only going to get worse.
Skying felt like an extremely natural follow-up to Primary Colours. Was it as effortless as it seemed, or was there a weight of expectation felt at that time?
With Skying, I think again we did feel some of our own internal pressure, but we wrote Still Life on the first day of the new album sessions and felt immediately excited by that one. Personal relationships within the band were getting a little bit strained in the months that followed - we had a month-long writing session in a huge country house in Devon, where we all retreated to separate corners of the property and some days barely saw each other. But we wrote Moving Further Away while we were there. It wasn't effortless - writing songs as a democratic band without one main songwriter is always going to be difficult - but we still felt inspired. We built our own studio and wrote the rest of the album in it.
What usually kicks off a song for you: a riff, a lyric, a mood, a weird sound, something you read or watched?
Most often for me, the starting point for a song is usually a feeling or an emotion. We are more likely to start with a basic mood/soundscape than chords. Rhys and I both like sounds that are quite visual and ambiguous - we then often come up with a lyric that fits the mood and start to build the song around it.
What’s the most left-field thing that’s inspired a track or video of yours?
I'll often get a random scene in my head while writing lyrics to help me connect with the whole thing - almost like a little film clip or a shred of a dream. It's not really something I come up with or tell anyone about, just something private that I find myself starting to picture. For You Said, from Skying, it was part of an airplane crashing into a perfectly still ocean surface as the sun goes down, watching in slow motion with the sound muted. Or for Sleepwalk from Luminous, it was looking at the London Underground map for the first time and the feeling of being overwhelmed by being in a new city. Sleepwalk is about my friend Charlie, and I realised afterwards that I was recalling a memory from one of our first trips to London together.
Lout was a really sharp, different, genius little EP in my opinion. Were you happy to just let it stand alone, or was there more to it that never developed into a full album?
The songs from the two EPs were originally going to be part of a full-length album, but as we continued working, we decided that presenting them in that way made more sense and suited the songs better. There were a lot of songs from that writing session that we never released.
Who were your musical obsessions growing up, and is there a current artist who you think should get much more praise?
The MC5 were a big band for me when I was a kid; I loved the idea of a band as a gang and their whole anti-authoritarian stance. In terms of an underrated current artist, I often go back to HTRK's album Marry Me Tonight, which was produced by Rowland S Howard.
You’ve got a strong visual style, which marries very closely to your aesthetics; do you almost see music in pictures or colours when you’re writing it, or are the two separate, then come together?
With our visual aesthetic, it continues to evolve alongside the music we're making. It's just another part of being in a band that we enjoy. I don't really feel like my style has changed that much from when I was a kid! Today I was wearing a jacket that I've had since I was 14.
How involved are you in the presentation of things such as album art, videos, and stage design?
All these things are opportunities to try out ideas, and we've always been closely involved in the making of our videos/artwork. More than anything, it's just a chance to explore the atmospheres in more depth.
Do you have an all-time favourite Horrors gig? I always say yours in Liverpool 2009 on the Primary Colours tour is in my top 5 concerts (and top-one sweatiest!). Do any stand out to you more than others?
I remember that show in Liverpool, it was one of the first where we had our own lighting tech with us. Past shows that stand out are our first time in Tokyo and the crazy amount of energy in the crowd, our first headline show at the 100 Club, and the Arctic Monkeys support shows at Alexandra Palace, which were more of an all-out war than a performance.
Do you enjoy being on stage? Has it always felt a natural thing, or do you still have to build up the nerve to go on every time?
Playing live is something I really love. I feel at home on tour, I'm probably happier when I'm travelling. When we don't go away for long periods through either touring or recording, I get quite restless. Being on tour is a self-contained world where I know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing, and I find it's an easier way to live.
Is being in a band still fun, or does it feel more like work now?
There are loads of fun parts to being in a band; I have fun all the time. It's a lot of work as well, but I don't think about it in terms of work/non-work. It's my whole life, really, making music. I don't switch off from it.
What is your favourite Horrors video?
My favourite Horrors video is still Chris Cunningham's Sheena video, just because he's a brilliant director with great taste. It's rare that you get to work with people at that level, just because there aren't many.
If you were to write or direct a film, what would it be about?
If I weren't doing music, I'd love to be a cinematographer. I get so much enjoyment from filming random stuff I see when walking around at night. I love lo-fi science fiction, where a lot of the futuristic stuff is implied rather than explicitly shown, like New Rose Hotel with Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe. I love films that all take place in one room or location, and loads of stuff happens off-camera. 12 Angry Men or one of the Dogme films. If I did a film, it would be something like that, working within limitations.
What’s next for you? Would you do solo stuff, more Horrors, or something completely unexpected?
With our new Horrors lineup, it feels like there are a ton of new avenues to explore, so I'm most excited by the prospect of that stuff, to be honest. It doesn't feel like the right time for a solo album. I think we'll start the next Horrors album pretty soon. But I can't ever be sure what's going to happen. I'm always doing other production jobs alongside Horror's stuff, and those are always a chance to try a different set of ideas.
Can you recall much of Neville Southall? I remember you being on Soccer AM with him, and he was my first football hero, and also is almost the antithesis of an ‘ex-pro’, and he seemed to like you. Was he sound?
The whole experience of being on Soccer AM was surreal for several reasons, but Neville Southall must be a great youth coach because he was so kind. I really enjoyed meeting him. Obviously, he's an all-time legend of the game, but also just a nice, sensitive guy in a way that's fairly unusual for pro footballers.
My all-time favourite band, Manic Street Preachers, have covered Vision Blurred, which was in contention for Primary Colours, and you remixed Doors Slowly Closing. You’ve always struck me as natural bedfellows, especially when The Manics are in their post-punky, PiL mode. Have they always been a band you’ve looked to, and any plans to collaborate further down the line, a dream duet perhaps?
We've had the same manager as the Manics for years, so we've met them several times, and I guess there are other parallels in the way we connected with people in the early part of our career. I had This is My Truth Tell Me Yours when I was a kid - I mainly listened to 60s & 70s stuff growing up, but the Manics were one of the first contemporary bands I got into.
Thanks very much for your time. Anything else you’d like to get off your chest?
I never know what to say when people ask questions like that, and I'm aware this makes me sound like a robot.
Affirmative! Thanks once again for indulging us.
The Horrors are on tour in Europe and the UK in September through to December.
