Welcome to Unrecorded! For those who haven’t come across The Horn before, how would you describe your sound
[NICK TRUE] Indie I suppose but hard to compare us to others, some have said its Psychedelic Brit pop! I would say we are a band that care about songs, melody, lyrics and are authentic, we mean it but with a tongue in cheek! I would love to know how you would describe our sound.
[JONNY TAYLOR] The Horn kinda threads the line between psychedelic and pop for me. But it doesn’t stay in one place.
Let’s get straight into your recent single ‘Do It Now’, a vibrant britpop-style track centered around that strange human quality of being impatient. How did this song come about?
[NICK TRUE] Well like so many songwriters it came out of nowhere, I was sitting on my couch with my acoustic guitar and it literally came out in a few minutes, the melody the chords, the idea, the words, I wish I could do that whenever I want! I bought it to Jonny & Danny [Monk] in the studio and we then crafted it as a trio into the song it is now all in a day, we tweaked the words and worked on all the parts, when we heard it back at the end of the day we smiled and felt we had something. Interesting that you called it britpop style.
[JONNY TAYLOR] Nick had a stroke of genius – he wrote it and we recorded it pretty quickly. It was a finished track before it started in a way.
The music video is also a really fun throwback to indie band music videos with that classic white room performance. What inspired the idea behind the visuals?
[NICK TRUE] We wanted to do a fun performance video in a white room and take some pictures at the same time, we worked with a great photographer, Jason Joyce and much of what we see in the video was a combination of his ideas and direction and then improvising on the day, we had a really fun time doing it, we were thinking a bit about the 1960’s band The Monkeys’ mad capers while coming up with ideas for it but not sure that translated in the end.
[JONNY TAYLOR] Jane Savidge (who actually coined the term ‘Brit Pop’) suggested we should have some big letters. Then Jason Joyce shot us in a great studio by the Regents canal and then a Shoreditch pub and we just had fun with it.
Tell us what an average songwriting session is like for The Horn?
[NICK TRUE] Normally I will bring a song into the recording studio with Jonny & Danny, sometimes the other way around and then the three of us keep working on it acoustically for a few hours, then after eating a Joe & The Juice “tunacado” sandwich we start to lay it down one instrument at a time, we sort of have a formula now, we have recorded over 20 songs but every song has its own little life when we are recording it and often at the end of the day I’m shocked – usually in a good way – what became of an idea.
[JONNY TAYLOR] It is often Nick writing it, then me and Nick in his flat make a demo, then we record it in Danny’s underground studio in Baker St. But sometimes it’s me Danny and Nick writing or finishing it together in the studio.
Which artists and bands have influenced your sound the most? And in what ways?
[NICK TRUE] We don’t like to be influenced by anything in particular and we don’t want to be boxed into any genre or type of anything but we will sometimes reference something, like a drum pattern we liked in a song or a guitar effect but we really don’t copy anything although I’m sure subliminally we are in some way as the three of us have our own fave artists which is a great brain mash up too.
[JONNY TAYLOR] I think David Bowie, Kevin Parker, The Strokes, Stevie Wonder and The Beatles is accurate.
How does being based in London influence your music and interaction with the industry as a whole?
[NICK TRUE] I don’t think it does but then again maybe we are spoilt as the five of us have all lived here all of not most our lives, but even so our The Horn music lives in our own bubble within this vast city, most our songwriting is done in our flats and we have only ever recorded in a small recording studio in a basement of someone’s house just off Baker St, we are also shielded from the industry by our management company ‘Autonomy’ who look after the music business side of The Horn. This reminds me we must try another recording studio one day for a mix up of our vibe!
[JONNY TAYLOR] Well Baker St is pretty important to me musically – it’s kind of my second home. We’re lucky to have a group of friends in London – Nick fits into that so naturally and it all gets very silly indeed.
Are there any local musicians who we should be listening to right now?
[NICK TRUE] Im going to defer to Jonny for this question, my last gig was Tame Impala and my next one is Bob Dylan hardly local!
[JONNY TAYLOR] The Kobras, Nierra Creek, Medium Keeper. Also, Panther Records put on great nights in East London.
And lastly, what plans do you have for the rest of the year?
[NICK TRUE] So an exciting end to the year as we are doing our first headline gig and last gig of the year at 229 Great Portland Street in the West End on 23rd November, please come down, and we will be releasing one last single of the year. Next year we have lots planned including putting our first album out before the summer and another support tour so watch this Horn space.
[JONNY TAYLOR] We’re going to play a biiiiiig show on November 23rd in Great Portland Street. Come along…
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