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Artist Interviews
Q&A: Race Horses
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 1 December 2009
Formed in Aberystwyth in 2005, this four-piece psychedelic pop group recently changed their name from Radio Luxembourg to Race Horses, apparently to avoid confusion with the radio station. Let’s hope this doesn’t lead to any embarrassing confusion involving racehorse owners. I guess we’ll find out next week when the band release their first EP under the new moniker, ‘Man In My Mind’, via Fantastic Plastic on 7 Dec.
Their musical influences come from a range of different genres, including krautrock, jazz and Motown, as well as from artists like Fiery Furnaces, Deerhoof, Faust, Neu and Bowie. You can sample that sound when the band head out on a brief UK tour later this week. Ahead of that, we spoke to lead singer and bass player Meilyr Jones.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
I started playing piano when I was about seven, and used to like singing bits and bobs of tunes too. I started making up melodies and pieces on the piano towards the end of primary school, but didn’t have any way to record them. I then started playing the tuba and really got into classical music – Rachmaninov and stuff – and liked that much more than pop music. But then I had a kind of mini-epiphany when my friend’s older sister played me ‘Rubber Soul’ by The Beatles, and suddenly I wanted to be in a band and make rock n roll music. That’s still my favourite record ever.
Q2 What inspired your latest EP?
Lots of things, really. Just before we made the EP I started reading a lot about mental illness, and I became fascinated by the way people slip over the edge and lose perspective. So there is a vague narrative that runs through the EP of a man who becomes disillusioned, withdraws into himself and eventually comes back, and remembers the first time he met his partner in the 1980s.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
It really depends; it can start from going to an unexpected chord on the piano, or something someone else in the band accidentally plays on guitar, and from there it naturally mutates. I think playing different instruments and not being tied to one method of working is important if you want to make new things. I played accordion for a while and that made me write very differently.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
So many. We certainly prick up when we hear any new record by Fiery Furnaces and Deerhoof, but that’s about it for modern stuff. I love lots of krautrock, Faust and Neu, but also, Bowie – I’ve just discovered ‘Scary Monsters’ and it’s melting my mind. I love Queen and Richard Hell, and Elvis Costello and The Only Ones. But also lots of jazz and Motown. I love Strauss and Mahler and Stravinsky. I’ve also just discovered and am really enjoying The Associates.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Nothing, I wouldn’t want to tell anyone what to think about our music. I hope they wouldn’t need a context or a grounding to enjoy it, otherwise it’s failed it’s purpose in one way.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest EP, and for the future?
To try and fulfil what we want to fulfil creatively, and to always make music that feels new and challenging to us, and sounds fresh to the ear. Oh yeah, and to have fun.
MORE>> www.racehorsesmusic.com
