Pulled Apart By Horses

Nobody's Foals

I once had a friend who knew a dour New Zealand couple that were consistently and unwittingly hilarious. He would regale us with their favourite phrase and we would laugh, both at his accent and its absurdity: "How's Ewan?" "Same as ever: unpredictable." Pulled Apart By Horses are a bit like that. You know it's going to get weird and silly, but that's all you know. Therefore, this interview should be hoot.

Formed from the choicest cuts of Concentration Champ (drummer Lee Vincent), It Take Bridges (guitarist James Brown), Mother Vulpine (front man Tom Hudson) and Monster Killed By Laser (Robert Lee), PABH (as they shall be known for the duration) first came into being at a 'secret gig' on 13th February, with guests being invited by text message.

Their pre-gig birth is, however, up for interpretation. "It was a bloody mucky mess," says Rob, getting weird, "there was hay everywhere, I put my arm up the wrong hole first..." getting weirder, "but I held it in my arms and it was a beautiful moment." James (a self-confessed 'f*cking idiot') turns on him with a look of puzzlement on his face. "What, were you dying?" he says, "our band started..." followed by a drawn out death rattle. Yep, things have degenerated pretty quickly. Good. "It's really boring actually," says Tom soberly, "It started on the internet with James getting a bit bored and sending some emails."

"Yeah, it's not very exciting," admits James. "I heard Lee had left Concentration Champ and I was like 'He likes Jesus Lizard, I like Jesus Lizard, let's start a Jesus Lizard band,'" he drops the Alfie Noakes voice for a moment. "But that's the complete opposite of what happened." What actually happened was that Lee, James and Rob started rehearsing in a room in a less than salubrious area of the town before realising they needed a singer. James from Napoleon 111rd was considered for a while, but it was Tom who stepped manfully into the breach, turning up to a rehearsal "AND THAT WAS IT!" shouts James indignantly. It could have all gone wrong, though. Tom had met Lee once before at the Library, and been a bit scared of him. "He had a stocking over his face and was pounding the crap out of drums," Tom says in his defence. "And he had just finished having a wee."

Okay, so if they don't sound like the Jesus Lizard, what do they sound like? Everything else, apparently. Everything good. "I always have lots of trouble trying to describe in interviews 'so what does your band sound like?'" says James putting on silly voice no. 3, "but I think it's because we've all come from totally different bands and it's just one big melting pot and the end product is... one big mash-up."

"I think you can definitely hear stuff like Nirvana and RATM coming back in," says Lee, "not because we sound like them, but because it's stuff we're influenced by, it becomes part of how you play music, and when you try to play naturally, everything that you've been brought up on comes out again." But it's not just about the bands you listened to, is it? There's a whole teen culture with games and silly jokes coming out too. The Super Hang On thing?

"It was Paul Marshall's birthday," says James grinning, "and he really liked the game when he was a kid; he wrote some lyrics to the theme tune and used to sing them all the time."

Lee nods, smiling. "He wants to sing the intro to that song when we do an album or something."

"A lot of it's based on a silly sense of humour that we all share rather than..." Rob trails off, making shapes, "and it turns itself into music." Yeah, those titles certainly reflect a silly sense of humour. Part Chris Morris, part Peter Cook... part Richard Attenborough.

"I didn't realise 'til the other day," says James, wide eyed, "I was sitting on the train, and I'd written out a set list in a book and I remember reading 'I Punched a Lion In The Throat' and I thought 'what the f*ck is that?'" the rest of the band explode into giggles. "My mum originally thought the title of that song was 'I Punched My Girlfriend In the Throat'" says Tom. James calms down for a moment. "She was really upset by it."

But the musical and humorous influences are linked intrinsically to and by the overriding philosophy of PABH: have a good time, all the time. "When we started doing it," says James, "it was for fun. I think that's when those influences from when you were a lot younger would come out... we are a serious band, but if we were a band trying to sound like the Arctic Monkeys, I think it wouldn't be as much fun and everything about it, about us going out for drinks or doing a gig... it's just about enjoying ourselves. It comes out in the music... you think of happy times and you end up playing a Nirvana chord..." So it's a bit of a crisis thing? "It is for me," says Lee gruffly, "I'm old."

If you haven't tagged on to the element of fun when listening to their recorded stuff, full of sound and fury signifying... well, lion abuse for a start, going out to see them drives the point home more thoroughly than embroidering with a pile-driver. Rob, Tom and James throw themselves about the stage like it was electrified and by the end if someone is not in casualty, projectile vomiting or stark bullock naked, it's been a quiet night. "Tom keeps throwing up on stage," jokes James, "it's turned into our gimmick." Tom quite infamously emptied his guts on the Introducing stage at the end of their set at Reading this year. "It's happened three times in the past four gigs," says Tom, "although Reading Festival was from pushing it too much and going all out... but I didn't mind it then."

James leaps in to defend Tom. "But with Tom," he says, "out of all of us, he's the one that's screaming and jumping and playing guitar at the same time and, outside of that, he's the one staying up 'til four in the morning doing the artwork." So he's the pusher?

"When you're playing it live," explains Lee, "there's no effort at all because you're having such a good time... I think on the... admin side of things, the things you do outside of playing live, James is definitely the guy who pushes us all and sorts everything out. I'm not saying that he's good or anything..." he quickly adds.

"You never want to say that," says James.

"But you're an eager bastard," says Tom, finishing him off.

As well as playing the Leeds and Reading festivals, PABH have also signed with alternative noise merchants Big Scary Monsters, home of Tubelord, Blakfish and Itch, to release their first single, 'Meat Balloon'. With James running his own label, it does strike me as owning a dog and barking yourself, but what do I know? "I think when you have your own label," says Lee, "it just seems so easy to do that yourself. I think if you find other people who you respect and will make it good and are willing to put money and time into it... you just know they're going to do a really good job." In answer to my previous question about my personal knowledge, apparently very little.

"We did have a couple of offers at the start," adds James, "some in Leeds, some other people – but I think with [Big Scary Monsters] it's based on the bands and stuff that are on the label... there's some really good stuff, so I think we're suited to do a release with them."

Professional in operation but DIY in attitude, Big Scary Monsters may not make hod loads of cash, but their collective heart is in the right place. "They're bang into it," says Lee, "not because they think 'we can make a bit of money off the back of these guys,' no, they really like the band... they're just really nice people to work with."

Rob rouses himself from a moment's alcoholic musing. "The thing with releasing it through On The Bone," he says methodically, "is that it would have been too easy. We wanted to wait for some outside enthusiasm." The rest of the band sit back looking very satisfied with this answer, so I move on... to Spain!

The concept of these guys abroad is a frightening one, even more so when it transpires that it wasn't their idea. "It was really early on actually" says James, "they asked us. We'd had these songs up (on Myspace) for about two months when we got this message saying, 'come to Spain to do a tour,' and we thought what's this gonna involve? Are we gonna have to pay for it all blah blah blah, but basically they said 'we'll do it all for you, we really want you to do it.'"

Lee nods in agreement. "It's a testament to the music scene in mainland Europe – you don't get that over here. There's no DIY British booking agent that will go to a Spanish band and say, 'do you want to come over to the UK and we'll sort you out a tour.' It'll never happen. But I think they've got much better attitude to underground bands over there. Any promoter in the UK could learn a lot from Europe. There's still good places in the UK, but they go above and beyond, they look after bands so well and people over there seem to be a lot more into going and seeing bands they've never heard before."

"I think the main reason we were asked to play there was because we sound remarkably like the Gypsy Kings," says Rob sensibly.

So to recap: in eight or so months they've played two of the biggest festivals in the UK, got themselves signed to a label and agreed to tour Spain. Swallowing my justifiable envy, I ask them what they put their success down to. As a group they shrug. "I can't fathom it," says Lee, "don't get me wrong, it's really cool and really exciting but I don't have a f*cking clue."

"I guess some bands come along at certain times and it's what people want to listen to." Rob tails off, shrugging. "I dunno, I'd like to think that's the case for us – I hope it is because that's literally the only explanation I have. Other than that... I think it's quite evident that we enjoy ourselves when we're playing and people just want to have a good time too and get involved with it."

Tom picks up on this. "I think there's so many bands now that are just going for the big goal and they're trying so hard and are so serious about it... I don't know, I think it's refreshing to see someone doing it because they're enjoying it... a bit of a party." From what I'm hearing, all of them have been in those serious bands and have seen what can happen. "You get to a point when you're in a band," says James, "and you play a gig and you're quiet and you're really pissed off and don't play properly and your heart's not in it... I think that's the point where you should start questioning why you're doing it. Because I think, not to be big headed, we're doing it for all the right reasons. We love it... that's all."

And so, it would appear, do a lot of other people. Especially the naked guy who gets up on stage with them an hour later. And with horrified realisation, I knew where they'd got the title of their debut single from.

'Meat Balloon' is released on 27th October on Big Scary Monsters and it isn't named after what I thought. They will be returning from Spain to play the Brainwash Festival on 18th October unless they get sold into arse slavery. Oh yes, and in case I forget: spatchcock!

Interview by Rob Wright
Photography by Bart Pettman

www.pulledapartbyhorses.com