Interview: Wild Horse

We realized this the first time we played together. We had known each other for a while but we hadn’t figured out it was a good idea to be in a band together until a bit later on. 

Jack (lead vocals, guitar, bass, keys) and Henry (bass,guitar, keys, backing vocals) are brothers so they’ve known each other quite a while. Jack and Ed (drums, backing vocals, guitar) met in primary school.  Fast forward about 5 or 6 years, Henry (14 at the time) and Ed (12 at the time) met at an after school music club and had a jam. They decided they wanted to start a band. Henry asked Jack (11 at the time) to come to a session but he said no because he didn’t want to be in a band with his brother. He was later convinced by his mum to go to a session and the first song the band ever played together was a 25 minute version of “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Ever since then we knew we had something special and haven’t looked back.

When did the first glimpses of your latest release come together?

Our new single “Joy Ride” (which is out everywhere now) came together really quickly. It was one of those songs that just wrote themselves. Jack wrote the song in the summer of 2021, so around a year ago. As usual, he started by coming up the musical side of things and a melody for the vocals. He had the opening line of “she said it was her first time…being taken for a joy ride” straight away and from that point it was obvious to him that the song had to be about car sex. It was clear it needed to be a high-spirited song that was more about the groove than about taking itself too seriously. All the lyrics were written within 10 minutes. It was more the arrangement of the song that took a little longer to perfect. It was obvious from the start that the 80s influence had to be present in the song, but it actually started out as an 80s power ballad of sorts. When we took it to the studio, it was clear that something didn’t quite fit however. We had to spend a lot of time stripping the song completely back to its basics to then build it back up. We ultimately ended up speeding it right up, adding a truck load of synths and funky guitar and bass lines and then it became the funky-rnb summer banger it is today. 

What really inspires your music?

Lots of things. We’re quite inspired by life in general, not only the events of our own lives but also the events of things going around us. In terms of our musical inspirations, we have an extremely wide range. We listen to all kinds of genres. Anything from Pavarotti to Kanye West. Because of this, it would be impossible to individually name who inspired us to make music but we incorporate the sounds of Pop, Soul, Rnb, Rock, Jazz, Hip Hop, Dance, Disco, House, Trap, Gospel, Country, Blues, Britpop and Funk into our music. So any artists within these genres, we’re probably inspired by them. 

We are extremely inspired by people who have managed to mark their spot amongst the greats and have made a difference to the world. We hope to do the same through our music.

Can you tell us a bit about the lyrical process for a song? How does it normally work?

Jack is the main songwriter in the band. He doesn’t necessarily have a set process and he finds that music and inspiration can come from anywhere at any moment. However, the lyrics usually always come after the music has been written. Usually the feeling of the song musically will make it clear what the song’s lyrics need to be about and he will follow the route of that subject. All the lyrics are very honest though. We try to make our lyrics a very honest reflection of how we feel about certain things or a real reflection of things occurring in our lives. 

What’s the most rewarding moment in your creative process as a band, and why?

Probably when the final song comes together for the first time, and we all have the realization that it’s done. That moment where we’re like “that’s it”. That’s always extremely satisfying because countless hours of hard work go into making a song. From the writing, to recording demos to mess around with arrangement and production, to rehearsing the song as a band and figuring out different ways of playing it, to going into the studio and recording it. We always know at the same time as each other when a song’s done. We’ll catch ourselves looking at each other across the room and smiling. It’s a pure excitement in that moment because we realize we’ve created something that we really enjoy and we can’t wait for the world to hear it. 

Who produces your music, and what are they like to work with? 

We’ve worked with a few different people over the years. We even self-produced our last album “When the Pool is Occupied” from home. Our new song Joy Ride and another song we have in the bag ready for release were produced by Matt Leppanen of Animal Farm records. He’s very fun to work with. He has a very vast musical knowledge and has a unique way of recording things which we really gel with. Instead of going take by take, he kind of lets us just jam over the track a few times and then he takes the best part from each take and glues them together. It creates a much less serious atmosphere of “oh, don’t mess up” and it means that it comes across so much clearer in our recordings that we’re really enjoying ourselves. He’s also very funny. We have a really good time working with him. 

Can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your live show? Particular memories that stand out to you?

We’re really lucky in the sense that we’ve had a lot of really amazing and memorable shows. We’ll never get used to or bored of the feeling of being on stage and looking out to a crowd of people who are having the time of their lives and singing back our lyrics to us. That’s always extremely special. We played a show at the Tunbridge Wells Forum back in May, which is an iconic venue really close to us so it felt like a homecoming show to us. It was sold out and it was just an incredible gig. We look back fondly on that one. 

What advice would you give to another upcoming band/act?

Before you start a band, have a real search of what the real reason is that you want to do music. The reason should be because you can’t imagine yourself doing anything else. Being in a band is a lot of hard, hard work, despite the stereotype of partying and all of that. You actually have to sacrifice a lot of things to make a band work. All of us in this band have sacrificed free time, time with friends, relationships, time for education, time to work on more “normal” careers, to make sure that this band is successful. You’ll also realize quite clearly who your real friends are. You’ll be subject to a lot of ridicule from people you thought were your friends, but when you start to get some success they’ll pretend like they’ve always supported you and start expecting stuff from you. If you are prepared to put in the work and sacrifice, then absolutely you should start doing music, it’s the best thing ever and makes all of the sacrifice and work worth it! 

Source: thoughtswordsaction.com