Vault: Palehorse
Another trip to the vault brings up an interview with Palehorse, this was when they disappeared after ‘Gee, That Ain’t Swell’ and then re-appeared with a new E.P. Here is where the interview kicks off…If you’ve never heard Palehorse – they sound like being raped by two basses, one in the mouth and one in the arse, while two escaped psychopaths babble and scream in the background. It really is as good as it sounds. Their Rick James-influenced EP, ‘Habitual Linestepper’ comes out soon on Eyes of Sound records…
The first Palehorse album came out to relative critical acclaim. Then you disappeared. What happened?
Ben: Well, we played for a while, and gradually I got busier and busier (playing drums) with Million Dead, and it became my priority quite frankly. I didn’t want to stop doing Palehorse but at the same time I was touring more and more with the other band, and generally it was getting hard to juggle it. So I put Palehorse on hold.
James: Basically… Ben happened! Ben always happens. It’s always his fault.
John: I don’t particularly care for this question.
Nikolai: At this point I’d like to immediately distance myself from anything else Ben says. The guy can’t play decent Frisbee. He’s like a shitty Les Dennis without any of the Discordance Axis. To answer the question – he was busy collecting comics at the time.
Seedi: Pack of lies. Basically Ben got promoted at his job at Mcdonalds and really couldn’t turn down being a griddle jockey in Skegness.
John: Next please.
Was it a split or was the intention always to play together again?
Ben: Personally, as far as I can remember (and hindsight is a wonderful thing) I thought we’d always come back to it when I thought I could manage it along with Million Dead, when I could afford to do it as well. Part of the not being able to juggle the two bands issue was money, of which Million Dead never made much. So I was in a band that was playing as much as bands on full time wages, whilst earning nothing. Near the end I was on the handsome wage of about £250 a month … plenty enough for food and paying for rehearsals with another band. By that point Tom (former Palehorse bassist) was already in Million Dead as well, so it was pretty easy for us to conceive doing both bands.
James: Yeah, during the break Ben did talk a lot about doing more with Palehorse but then again Ben talks about doing a lot of things – getting a proper job, a girlfriend, some real friends, whooping ass at Halo, becoming a better drummer. None of these have happened, it’s amazing Palehorse has!
Seedi: I’m the only one who remembers this properly. We never split but Ben was too busy to play so we ended up not doing anything for a while except waiting, and after a bit people in the band got lazy and found it easier to say or not deny we had split than explain what was really going on, which was more long winded and less sensational and interesting.
John: Yawn. Skip to the end.
Nikolai: When I was eleven, visiting my dad in America, I drove his tractor into a tree. I tried to duct-tape the bark back on so he wouldn’t notice. But the axle was bent – so it rode in circles.
What have you all been doing in the mean time?
Ben: Well … Million Dead. Seedi and I also play in Armed Response Unit.
James: Three questions in and this guy is still talking about Million Dead. Ben, you’re such a shameless self publicist!
Seedi: Explaining the answer from the last question to people. Other than that just the usual, food, drink, toilet, etc… and what Ben said.
Nikolai: I checked out a couple of movies. They were fucking sweet as shit.
James, how did you come about joining the band?
James: No one else would work with them. They were pretty short of options.
Ben: Nikolai told me, when we needed someone to join, that this guy James, who I’d met a couple of times, was a great guitarist…he was wrong. James is awful. He’ll be out by mid March trust me…have you seen him play? He can’t even hold a plectrum…
James: That’s true. I’m fucking awful.
Nikolai: In truth, James is pretty good.
Seedi: Jimmy Travers soulfully banjoed his way into our hearts and the suppositories the doctor gave us just wouldn’t shift him.
What do you think of the other guys??
Ben: To answer for James: The guys were great, Ben in particular had this incredible aura, this power and grace that I’d never encountered in a man before. I was quite turned on.
James: To answer for myself… cunts.
John: Twenty-eight years on this flat earth – for this? Surrounded by peasants.
Nikolai: They’re all very, very good friends.
Seedi: I give Ben a six, James a seven and a half, John a seven, and Nikolai a five and a half. But factor in their mums and it’s a totally different story. That’s called an ace up your sleeve baby.
Can you give a bit of background on the new release?
James: We recorded the tracks at John Hannon’s No Recording Studio with the assistance of our friend John Macedo from Queen of Swords. John (Hannon) is a good guy and very easy to work with. He kinda lets you get on with it and constructively interjects when necessary rather than taking over. It was great to have John (from Queen of Swords) on-board too because he has known us forever so he knows our sound and knew what we were looking for. Three of the tracks on the release have been around for ages but it felt important to get them recorded and documented. However, we wanted this release to sound different from the last, more full and less murky. John (palehorse) is always saying that this record actually sounds like it finally – and simply – has two basses on it. I think he’s right.
Seedi: Here’s the reality of it – the new record took too long to make, we argued too much about it and it has come out average, though probably better than the first one. It’s got a good title, but non-existent artwork, the riffs aren’t exactly right but none of us are sure how, general performance is better, members haircuts are definitely better, and overall this record involved my dad slightly more, though i won’t say in what way, although it did involve superglue, and is much better for that.
James: The superglue did make a massive difference to the overall sound.
John: I just want a way out of this conversation. Or some silence. Or some peace of any description.
What and who influences you collectively as a band?
James: Your mum.
Nikolai: Collective influences? Well, we share some tastes, and not others. I know Ben’s really into his ‘haircut-rock’ these days. I think Leonard Cohen’s pretty hot-trotting.
Ben: That is far too broad a question, musically, to answer, and I think encompasses artists that are wildly experimental and also brutally simple. At the end of the day, we’re a punk band, so we listen to punk bands, but that really is the tip of the iceberg. Football and alcohol are also large influences.
James: Ben has never listened to punk in his life.
Seedi: Some musical styles and some of the ideas around them. Mostly nothingness. Books, film, some philosophical stuff. Eating food, that’s quite good. The viz, football, booze, trivia, shoes, death, but these are all totally overshadowed by the nothingness. Except maybe football. Relationships are quite irritating too, so I hear anyway. Mainly nothing. Your mum.
John: I would – please – like to set fire to you all in a greasy ditch.
What’s next for the band? Touring? Another album?
Ben: Hopefully a short tour in March for the EP, though that depends on work commitments and college for both Seedi and I.
We’re looking to get to Europe for the summer as well, start playing more there… for years and years we’ve toured the UK and there’s only a tiny slip of water between us and venues that aren’t the same fucking places again and again….
As for releases, I’m still fighting to keep everything EP based as I think with the music we do, a fifty minute record is way too fucking long. And no matter how much you like this record, you stop listening halfway through (the magic of vinyl being you physically separate to halves of an album). That would also (theoretically) give us a higher output as well….so far we’ve been together eight years and we have one record out….it’s be nice to have a few more out soon.
Seedi: The record needs coming out. All else is air for the time being.
James: We are also looking to release a range of salad dressings and marinades. Watch this space.
Nikolai: Tall grass, legs crossed, arms to the sky. And fingertips so happily distant. Searching like a pitchfork. Spread like a Starfish.
John: Fuck off. Just please fuck off. All of you.
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