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 The
Horrors are a band are fast becoming one of the most notorious bands in Britain thanks largely to their chaotic gigs. Their gruesome video
for Sheena Is A Parasite which was directed by famed promo director Chris
Cunningham and starred Oscar nominated actress Samantha Morton was no doubt another big talking point. Not surprisingly then the big haired, skinny
jeans wearing garage rockers from Southend were promptly put on the frontpage
of a national music magazine. But not
all the attention has been welcomed and on several occasions frontman Faris
Badwan has been attacked and punched in the face.
“The fact that it can galvanise people and
annoy them so much that they feel the need to write a letter to the magazine
saying how stupid we look, I think people have got better things to do with
their time,” says Faris, half doing the interview half drawing with a black
marker. “We’re not trying to provoke a
reaction but inevitably, you will. All our favourite bands, polarise opinion
like the Birthday Party, the lyrics side the guy’s a genius yet they still got
called f*cking sh*t when they were around, people go to their concerts just to
watch something happen. It’s not our aim
to annoy people, but inevitably that is going to happen, you can’t worry about
that”.
Looking
at their dapper dress sense, it’s easy to dismiss the Horrors as being something
of a novelty band, but Faris insists that they are very much serious about what
they do.
“If you want to be in a band and you want to
stick around, then you can’t be a joke,” reckons Faris. “We look like the way we do because that’s
the way we looked like before. It’s not as if we’re doing it for the sake of
doing it. We’re doing it because that’s
what we’re like and that’s what we want to do. We’re not trying to be different
for the sake of it, it’s what comes naturally I guess”.
And
neither should they be mistaken as Goths. As Faris explains: “Goth to me is
f*cking old men with long greasy hair and spikes round their necks, not what
we’re doing”.
As
one of the most exciting and controversial bands to have emerge in recent
months, they were an obvious candidate to be on the forthcoming NME Shockwaves
Tour, which in the past has had Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs the Killers on
its bill, and in last year, the Arctic Monkeys.
2007’s jaunt, which also includes the hotly tipped Scottish rockers The
View and Mumm-ra is headed by electro punksters, the Automatic who had badmouthed the Horrors in an interview.
“We’re massive fans of the Automatic. We
think they write amazing music and we’re really looking forward to playing with
them,” Faris deadpans. “Can you put sarcasm in brackets?” He goes so far as to describe them as: “one of the worst bands I’ve ever heard”.
To
go back to the start, The Horrors are made up of: Faris or Faris Rotter as he
is sometimes known as, Coffin Joe (drums), Tomethy Furse (bass), Joshua Von
Grimm (guitarist) and Rhys ‘Spider’ Webb (organ). The quintet were regulars at Southend’s Junk
club, which was co founded by Rhys from which the Horrors would form.
“Me and Josh used to work at a butchers in
Southend, and the other three believe it or not worked in an abattoir,”
starts Faris. “It’s weird because we’d
meet every now and then, we’d cross paths. Eventually we got to know each other
and realised that we were into the same things, and then we kind of went to
Junk together. We knew we were the right people together to form a band with”.
While
the likes of Artic Monkeys ones dwell on mardy bums and Saturdays nights out in
Sheffield, Faris prefers to write lyrics about
the bloody massacre of characters in the songs of ‘60s girl groups instead (Death
At The Chapel).
“The thing with the Arctic Monkeys is that we
just don’t relate to them because we’re not from that world. So, we don’t we
get it, but they probably don’t get us, that’s fine,” he explains. “The weird thing is when you get people in
magazines who go ‘true music is only created by the working class’. Rubbish. You don’t have to come from sh*t to
write about sh*t. You can have things
that can inspire you and experiences not matter what background you come from”.
Their
debut album, which has yet to be titled, is due out in the Spring of 2007. It
was recorded in Elephant and Castle with Ben Hillier (Blur, Elbow) on board for
producer duties. They also worked with Jim Sclavunos (Sonic Youth, Bad Seeds)
and Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs for two of the album’s tacks.
“Nick was brilliant because he allowed us to
experiment more with the guitars, then we worked with Jim. He‘s a drummer so
that kind of helped and then working with Ben, he has such a weird range of
pedals, again it really helped us along and push our boundaries,” recalls
Faris. “We wrote eight songs in a week and without that we’d have been
f*cked. It’s amazing that when we
actually got the time to sit down and write songs, that we were able to do so
much, and not any old eight songs, they’re ones we’re really happy with”.
Earlier
this year Faris deferred from his Illustration degree at the prestigious
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design to pursue a career in rock ‘n’
roll. “If I have time I’ll go back, if
not then it means we’re doing well”, he says.
Does he miss student life?
“No, not at all,” he says without needing to
think twice. “The halls are obviously
nicer than where I live now, but I’m happy with my own place. I can’t really
ask for more than what I already have.
This is much better”.
The
Horrors are on tour from 29th January.
For
more info: www.thehorrors.co.uk
Words:
Helen Duong
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