HORSE THE BAND

Erik Engstrom on their unhappiness with the current alternative scene and their run in with Eastern European arms dealers

Love them or loath them, given this year's events, absolutely no one can deny HORSE The Band's hugely impressive DIY ethos. Having become increasingly disillusioned by the music industry and the "underground" scenes, instead of simply feeling sorry for themselves and taking the easy road, the Los Angeles quintet self-booked and self-financed an entire world tour. Taking in forty countries across four continents the tour calls in on an array of nations that never usually get the opportunity to see a western rock band in action. As the band kicked off the UK leg of "Earth Tour", Dan Jones caught up with keyboardist Erik Engstrom to find out all about the tour, their unhappiness with the current alternative scene and their run in with Eastern European arms dealers…

So you're now two months into your forty country, three month world tour, how's it all been going?

"It might have been the right decision artistically, but it wasn't the right decision [death metal voice] FINANCIALLY." [laughs] "No, it has been the trip of a billion lifetimes. I can't even remotely comprehend everything we've seen and done, and all the people we've met and shared life with. Nothing bad has happened, shows have been f**king insane! We just keep going and going."

Is it good being back in an English speaking country?

"It was surreal for about a day. I kind of stopped even trying to read somewhere in Asia when we couldn't even sound out words. All of a sudden it was like sensory overload and the people speaking English didn't seem real. It's cool though. I've still been speaking English 1.0 to all these UK people, forgetting they're more fluent than I am."

I caught you at London's Underworld and it was a pretty crazy show, is that a good indication of what all the shows have been like?

"The UK shows have actually been small. I guess because of exams and a sh*tload of bands touring right now. Last night in Glasgow there were four shows in town all from our scene, and exams, and a football match. So we kinda picked the wrong time. The shows have been pretty mind blowing and huge, for us. We have video of all of them, so you'll see. "

You seemed to be enjoying Rolo Tomassi quite a bit by the side of the stage, what have you made of them?

"We met them on our last UK tour when they were like fifteen and sixteen. It was one of the best things that ever happened to us. We love them so much, we're jealous of them, we wish them the best of everything. They are so awesome and creative and inspiring. The world needs more bands truly doing their own thing and doing it flawlessly. We really want to bring them to the US this summer. "

So what was the idea behind the whole tour? How did you come up with it?

"We got kicked off two European tours in a row before they started. The Agency Group was offering us 75 euros a night to support The Fall of Troy. We were like f**k this. Let's just book our own tour we can get more money, go wherever the f**k we want without some agency that doesn't give a sh*t telling us it's a bad idea. We made a list of every country in the world we wanted to go where we thought shows happened and just posted a bunch of MySpace bulletins. It was the best idea ever. Went off pretty much without a hitch and bands are already starting to copy us." [laughs].

HORSE The Band – Earth Tour Australian Video Blog

Are there any particular highs or lows that stick out so far? What's the craziest thing you guys have seen on this tour?

"China was a high and low at the same time. That was the furthest we managed to escape Western culture and it was f**king inspirational and brutal at the same time. I would go back in a second though. Our show in Belgrade, Serbia was the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life for any band. It looked like a war. A war of the drunkest people I've ever seen versus a concrete floor. Just insane danger and uncertainty throughout every second of the set. Lows have been boring Western European countries like Italy. Just sterile and sh*tty."

You recently wrote about almost dying in Transnistria, what happened there?

"We had a show in Cluj, Romania which is in Transylvania and a show the next day by Odesa, Ukraine on the Black Sea. Between the two countries there's Moldova, which no one ever goes to. It was a thousand kilometres drive. Roads in Romania are F**KED, you go about forty five kilometres an hour, so we had to leave right after we played. We made it into Moldova at like five the next day and had to bribe the border guard four euros after being stopped for two hours.

Anyway, in the middle of Moldova there's a separate country called Transnistria, run by soviet generals. They have their own stamps, money, etc. But no other country in the world recognizes them. They maintain control but they're not on any map. We heard you could drive through without too much of a hassle. Just that there would be tanks there. So we were on our way in and we got stopped at a Moldovan police checkpoint and turned back. They said they just take your passports, all of your sh*t at gunpoint, and then just make you walk back to Moldova!" [laughs] "So we had to go around on the worst roads ever. It took like six more hours. We missed our show, there were wild dogs everywhere, no signs, no GPS. Just unmarked dirt roads and random people to ask and following fourteen year olds on dirt bikes going ten kilometres an hour in the dark. We finally made it into Ukraine at 3 am. Missed the show. We watched a documentary about Transnistria. It might be possible to get through there but they also for sure harbour criminals, make citizens disappear regularly and supply all sorts of countries with grenades and sh*t. They make money by manufacturing black market weapons!" [laughs].

Do you find it strange playing in countries that you've never been to before and yet people know all the songs and words?

"Yeah. It's amazing. "

Is it true to say by bypassing the traditional industry do you hope to inspire other bands?

"Yeah. The industry right now is at a breaking point of sh*ttiness. The "underground" is so insanely corporate, bands are going to come along and say f**k all of this and all the truly cool kids will reject all this sh*t. Sh*t labels, sh*t magazines, f**ked booking agencies in bed with festivals and managers, stylists. It's so f**king lame. You open up an underground music magazine and see bands that are more lame than the sh*t on mainstream radio. Contrived and completely uncreative. Trying to sell an image with fonts haircuts and clothes. And "for fans of" lines. It's completely idiotic and the only people that buy into are idiots. The whole thing will fail and collapse onto itself very soon, and something will be waiting to trample it and get raped over the next four-five years forever. Ultimately it's about love of playing music. The bands that have that passion will stick around. All the other sh*t gets forgotten."

HORSE The Band – Earth Tour New Zealand Video Blog

Do you think you would ever start releasing records through the non-traditional route too?

"Yeah, we already do. Our next "release" will turn some heads [laughs], if anyone even hears about it. I'm sure it will fly under the radar of the media for the most part. Kids will be stoked though. But it's still a secret."

This whole tour is being videoed for a DVD, what exactly will be on it, do you have any idea when it will be out?

"We have so much amazing footage I don't think a DVD would do [it] justice. Actually before we left I wrote a pitch for a reality TV show and shopped it to a bunch of networks and producers in my spare time. We signed a deal with a production company so you may actually see all this stuff on a reality show soon if a network buys it."

Your latest album A Natural Death (Click HERE to read our review) has only come out over here in the UK but the new songs seem to be going down really well already. Have you been happy with the reception it has received from fans and critics?

"Yeah, I guess. I wouldn't say I'm happy with the album myself, but it's been that way for all of our albums. It got the best reviews of anything we've ever done. So I guess that is cool. But I mean, reviewers are just people that you would probably think were douchebags with horrible taste if you met them. The only opinions I care about are of other musicians I respect and if we still have fans. If your peers are into what you're doing and kids come to the shows then everything is ok."

It's been out in the US for a while now. Have you started working on any new tracks?

"No, just lots of ideas. I think it's gonna be a pretty drastic change for the better next time. We'll keep our heaviness, spazziness, speed, and energy but drop the metal for the most part. I think we're in the perfect position right now to make a defining album finally. All on the same page, sort of."

HORSE The Band - 'New York City'

So after this tour Jon (drummer Jon Karel who has been recently touring with HTB – DJ) has to go back to The Number Twelve Looks Like You. Have you had many applicants so far for the position yet? When do you hope to get everything sorted by?

"Yeah, there have been quite a few emails but we don't expect to find a drummer that way. We want a friend who just plays tight and bashes the sh*t out of their drums and makes up creative, driving beats. But we'll leave the option open for someone totally new too. So far though all these dudes into funk and jazz who have been emailing us we've just been linking to smithandwesson.com." [US firearms dealer who capitalised on the civil war in the States - Ed.]

What are you doing when you finish this tour? I know you have some North American tour dates lined up but are you going to take a bit of a rest first?

"We'll just find a new drummer and then continue 'Earth Tour '. There's two more legs, North America and then South America and South Africa in the fall. Then we'll write a new album."

Final question, after such an experience what's their left to achieve with HORSE The Band?

[laughs] "Nothing and everything. We don't really believe in 'achievement'. It's been a joke for us for a long time to ask people what their biggest achievement or accomplishment is. The concept of 'making a mark' just seems arrogant and completely unrealistic to us. We just play music cause we like to spend our time here creating and sharing art and release with people all around the world. No one's gonna remember us in thirty years, we'll all die. Everyone that saw us will die. The sun will die. Humanity will die. So who cares what we did except ourselves? No one."

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HORSE The Band's new album A Natural Death is out now on Ferret Records.

by Dan Jones

Further links

Ferret Records

Stateside label, home to Every Time I Die and many many more...

Horse The Band on Myspace

MySpace page of the LA-based weirdos