Uncovering new sonic territories, THE HORRORS are about to release NIGHT LIFE, their first album in eight years. RESOUND caught up with the band’s bassist Rhys Webb to discuss their new sound and line up, with Amelia Kidd joining them on keys and Jordan Cook taking over the drums.
With a keen ear for reinvention, Southend-on-Sea’s Horrors started life with the garage-goth riot of 2007’s Strange House before moving on to the brooding motorik psych of 2009’s Primary Colours, the album landing them a Mercury Prize nomination. Rhys tells us “although we started out with a 60s garage/Cramps/ Birthday Party aesthetic, we shed that skin quite quickly, with Primary Colours seeing us explore our own ideas more, the band expanding quite naturally as we embarked on our own sonic journey. It was great to be inspired by and have that raw power as a starting point and for me it’s been quite a natural journey”. After the shimmering, poppy dreamscapes of Skying and Luminous, The Horrors rekindled some of their abrasive roots on 2017’s V, with their last two EPs, released in 2021, seeing them fully immersed in a corrosive sprawl of industrial rock.
Now, with the new line up in tow, Night Life sees them take another detour, Rhys acknowledging that Amelia’s presence has been integral to their new sound, with himself and singer Faris Badwan “listening to and referencing some of the production elements” of Amelia’s yet to be released solo album (which Faris produced, having earlier produced an EP for her former band, The Ninth Wave) when writing Night Life. He goes on to say that with The Horrors’ drummer Joe Spurgeon and keyboard player Tom Furse taking an amicable step away, they decided to open up the songs to Amelia. He explains, “by the time we were in LA at Night Life producer Yves Rothman’s studio, we decided to reach out to different people to try to cover some areas and explore some sounds in ways that we weren’t doing or couldn’t do alone, with Amelia being one of the first people we reached out to. Originally we sent her tracks that we thought would suit her electronically, with her working on them from Glasgow, and then decided to open up the whole record to her. Once we did that we decided to ask her to join the band. We loved working with her and knew we had live shows and tours to do with the new material, and essentially we didn’t have a keyboard player, so it was perfect in so many ways and she’s the perfect musician”.
Amelia brings fresh electronic elements to The Horrors’ music which have helped define the new album, and although Rhys is hardly some ageing rock relic himself, he recognises that mixing up the generations can have its benefits. “She’s in quite a contemporary world of electronic production which opens up a lot of new territory. Whereas my idea of electronic production might be a bit more informed by music I like from the ‘80s such as synth world, early electronic dance music and stuff, she’s naturally got a more fresh take on it and you can hear that on the record”. He adds that Night Life’s producer Yves Rothman (Yves Tumor, Blondshell) is “kind of in that world too as a producer working with a lot of new artists”.
When we first got together at Holy Mountain studios in London, Yves was immediately into the record, asking questions about where the songs could go. We like the producer to be creatively involved and almost like an extended member of the band, so that was an important factor in working with Yves as well”.
Night Life’s opening track and latest single Ariel is the perfect example of how their sound has evolved, Rhys telling us that “the production on this track was a bit more vintage inspired, like ‘80s synth wave or cold wave. It was inspired by a melancholic feeling of loss. Loss of family and loved ones was the motivation for the atmosphere (both Rhys and former drummer Joe having recently lost their grandfathers). It wasn’t supposed to be too sombre, rather it was meant to be a powerful feeling of love and sadness, but it wasn’t supposed to be dark. Then Faris flipped the idea into bringing in archangel Ariel, which brought a celestial feeling to the song”. After exploring various options, he laughs as he confesses that “the only thing that was left of my original demo was a melody that kind of drops towards the end. At first I thought it was going to be the main hook, but never mind. But it’s a great example of how working with Amelia kind of flipped it into another world”.
Ariel’s quite ambient, but the real hard editing and fast moving production elements all came from Amelia. It’s one of the most important songs for us I think, because it sounds like The Horrors, but it sounds like The Horrors in a new territory”.
Very much a studio creation, the band haven’t played Ariel live yet, though the number does have live drums on it. “We had a session drummer play in LA but we ended up re-recording it with our new drummer Jordan (formerly of Telegram) in the UK. So yeah, there’s live drums. Of course, certain songs naturally lend themselves to the stage, such as Trial By Fire with its confrontational, heavy guitars (courtesy of the band’s guitarist Josh Hayward), and I think it’s important for us to have a bit of a live element for it to translate to live”.
That’s the other thing with Amelia, she’s really hands on with the playing side of things. So while a lot of bands might go for more of a backing track, she’s hands on, playing melodies, filtering and messing around with the sounds in real time”.
Night Life feels like a sensory journey from night to day, a veil of darkness lingering over the first few tracks, evoking the sense of sleepwalking into the dead of night before flickers of light and glimmers of hope materialise as daylight breaks through. Rhys smiles, admitting “I didn’t think about it like that, that but I love that analogy”. Well, that’s a relief! From the melancholic, ethereal glow of Ariel which both chills and uplifts, the mood dips with the wonderfully caustic and claustrophobic drills of Silent Sister. But it’s the eerie drones of third track, The Silence That Remains that sees the darkest point emerge in its full brooding glory, Amelia’s vocal adding a new depth to their sound, soothing but never sweet against Faris’ desperate intones while Rhys’ and Jordan’s driving beats weave through the number as the late night vibe prevails.
From there on, light attempts to seep through the shadows, from the explosive and propulsive dark disco of Trial by Fire to the ambient twitches and chopped-up electronics of Lotus Eater, which sees melancholy and euphoria collide in a half-lit, hypnotic trip, described by the band as “the moment of coming back to reality”. More Than Life feels like dawn breaking through, full of optimism and emotion, harking back to Luminous and Skying while rays of a spiritual sunrise practically radiate through the speakers on penultimate track When The Rhythm Breaks. Rhys agrees, adding, “When The Rhythm Breaks is almost the rumblings or fluctuations of first light creeping through, the wave, tremolo running through it like that moment when things start creeping into life again”. Finally coming up for air in the full light of day, the album closes with the driving grooves of LA Runaway, and it really does feel like the journey is complete…with thankfully not a sniff of that dreaded afternoon slump. Sublime!
It’s clear that the album’s running order is something they’ve thought long and hard about and although many listeners mix things up in this age of streaming, it’s still an important factor when considering an album as a single entity, Rhys explaining “we always consider the track list running order and the running experience, and the last song LA Runaway leaves it on an optimistic note. It really is like the light at the end of the tunnel”.
So how does Rhys describe their latest incarnation or are all these labels like ‘industrial-goth’ and so on just what you read into it yourself? He shrugs, “well, I never saw us as a shoegaze band though we do love My Bloody Valentine and the likes, and we’re massively inspired by industrial sounds but we’re not solely an industrial band. In the end we’ll just be The Horrors”. Well said!
The Horrors have announced a run of UK in-store appearances over the next couple of weeks along with a string of dates in Spain and Portugal, while later in the year Rhys promises more UK dates.
Night Life is out on 21 March via Fiction Records. Pre-order now at https://thehorrors.lnk.to/nightlife
Words and interview: Shirley Mack
@shirleymack.bsky.social
Live pictures: Calum Mackintosh
@ayecandyphotography