One of the most exciting live bands in the country right now, Leeds-based rock foursome Pulled Apart By Horses are causing quite the stir on the scene with the kind of frenetic performances that point the way to a must-see band for the festival season. Expect them to slay your face in a field in the near future.
Ahead of their inevitable explosion overground, though, the band – Tom Hudson, James Brown, Robert Lee and Lee Vincent – are heading underground, to the bunker-like environment of the Notting Hill Arts Club, London for Clash’s next Saturday Social gig. Held from 4pm ‘til 8pm on April 25, and totally free entry, the gig’s a feast for the senses, so long as the senses love feasting on some mighty fine modern rock, awesome indie angles and the purest summery pop.
Also appearing: Copy Haho and Calories, plus DJs from Holy Roar and Clash. Get full details HERE.
Recently out of hospital after a nasty knee injury – really, don’t go Googling for the pictures if you want to keep your lunch – guitarist James here answers Clash’s Live Talking questions. If you’re coming Saturday, expect fireworks! It’s gonna be a cracker.
Pulled Apart By Horses – ‘Meat Balloon’ from Donut Shop on Vimeo.
Are you a band that records to tour, or that tours to record? Or do you not see the two as separate parts of what you do?
We’ve been so busy that recording and touring have become a fucked beef vortex. It’s all a mish-mash right now. I call it ‘recouring’? Seriously, Mike… We live in the twilight zone right now.
Do you feel you translate well as a live act, perhaps better than on record, or have live shows been a bigger learning process than writing/recording?
The live element has just seemed to work out for us since day one. I think we are slowly bringing the recordings and live shows closer together the more we work. It’s literally seven days a week for us at the moment, so were learning fast. At first it was more likely people would say, “Oh, watch them live, don’t bother with the tracks”. But we’ve progressed quite well since the first demo with ‘High Five…’ on it, and we’ve had some amazing radio play which we’re dead chuffed about. It’s coming together nicely.
To date, what show stands out in your memory as the best you’ve played?
Leeds Festival. A certain part sticks out especially, but I can’t really go into it as it involves drugs and the night before. It really just all came out of the bag that day. We’d been building up to that show for some time and it just exploded when we came to it. Will never forget that day.
What’s the best show (by another band) that you’ve been to? Perhaps not ever, but certainly of late
I would say ‘recently’ Grammatics at Bush Hall in London a few months back. Amazing chandelier-based lush venue, which was the perfect setting for them. They blitzed through eight songs with red wine and some good old audience interaction. They really had something about them that night.
And what about the worst show? By yourselves… is there a venue/town you’ll happily never return to?
You see, this is one of the things I love. We can all feel on stage when it’s going bad and we normally just get really silly, like school kids in a canteen, and just start throwing in stuff about and making noises… So bad gigs can blend into some of the best gigs sometimes. Bunch of dicks. So yeah, can’t make a comment on that one really. In Guilford once it went tits up and we all gave our instruments to other people and just danced in the crowd.
Say you’ve the budget to put on your ultimate four-band bill, featuring yourselves – who plays and in what order? No bringing anyone back from the dead, here, but defunct bands can count.
Easy. For me it would be (in order of billing): Radiohead, The Jesus Lizard, At The Drive-In then, I guess, us to open. Ah, man, can we not make it an all-dayer? Please Mike? I can chip in.
How does the band keep itself entertained on the road? Any bus games you break out for motorway gridlock?
Mainly nu-metal, black stand up DVDs, white wine, cheap cider, Flight of the Conchords and, erm… Oh, and that bit when you’re on tour with a bunch of people in a van for like 15 days? The bit where you all start getting really weird and surreal with each other? I know Dananananaykroyd call it ‘going digital’. That has to be the most entertaining thing of all time. Even if you have people who aren’t in the band in the van with you, they end up a part of it. Binary corn? Nah, we’ll have to come up with a good one for that.
What tips would you give a new band about to embark on their first ‘proper’ tour?
Clean socks. Fucking tons of them. Get your ass to Primark and forget about the cheap labour. You want to be able to put socks on, and then chuck them in a bin for new ones. Other things I would say: Tesco is like Mecca when you’re on tour, cheap and well stocked, and pack the TCP! I’ve just come out of hospital today from having and infected leg from an injury on the Isle of Man. Didn’t clean the wound and spent six days in hospital. So, TCP! Oh, very important one: remember to tell your girlfriend you’re going on tour. Crucial stuff, that.
Have you listened to the other acts playing on April 25? Thoughts…?
Copy Haho are bloody amazing. We’ve played with them a few times now. Awesome songs and very endearing chaps. Calories are pretty sick as well. Listened to them in the van quite a bit when Dave from Tubelord was driving us (twat), and I was well impressed. Think it’s fair to say its gonna be one hell of a macho show, Mike.
Pulled Apart By Horses’ ‘Tour Traxx’ EP is out now and available via the band’s MySpace page. Also available is the track ‘E = MC Hammer’, out on 12” as part of Dance To The Radio’s 4×12” set. Previous releases – the 7” of ‘I Punched A Lion In The Throat’ (Too Pure) and their Big Scary Monsters-released ‘Meat Balloon’ EP – are both sold out.
Catch Pulled Apart By Horses at the Clash Saturday Social on April 25, from 4pm – full details HERE.
Photo: Brendan Docherty
