We speak with Wunderhorse about life, Rock City and everything in between

Midas isn’t too overproduced, which a lot of artists fall victim to with their second albums, particularly after successful debuts. How did you stop yourselves from trying to perfect it too much?
I think we learned some lessons from the first one. So much of who we are is us as a live band, and I don’t think that was represented as well as it could have been on the first record. We wanted to make sure we nailed that this time. Part of playing live is that it’s unpredictable, and things go wrong. We wanted to capture that on the record, which is obviously a bit of a risk, especially in this day and age, which is a bit obsessed with perfection – whatever that means. But it was something we were all united on.

People are often critical of sophomore albums. How did you keep your heads down and block out all of the noise?
I work best, and the band works best, in isolation – not being too overstimulated while we’re working. So, that was definitely part of it. There was some pressure, definitely, but I try to keep those thoughts as far away as possible, and think about what we want to do, and what we are trying to achieve. When we turned up to the studio, we had all of these ideas but most of them didn’t fly. So, we had to write a lot of the record in the studio. But once it started flowing, it became apparent that it was going to work.

How did leaving the modern world behind shape your song-writing and creative processes?
It’s hard to say because you get caught up in the process. You’re almost too close to it to analyse it. But I think it helped us to keep it concise. Everything we did was in keeping with what was already there. If you start to let outside influences creep in, it distorts your reality slightly. I think being in an isolated place, with no contact with the outside world, allowed us to look at ourselves in a world of our own design. I think that’s why the album makes so much sense now, as a whole, and the songs co-exist really well together because they’re all from the same pool – the same place. They all generated from a weird netherworld we created for ourselves.

The album is ten tracks long, which is in line with the trend which seems to be emerging of shorter track lists lately. Was this intentional?
That’s always been an aim for us, when we’re on tour and bored, Harry (guitarist) and I always go through our favourite records, and try and see if there’s anything which shouldn’t be in there, and reduce it down to the really essential tracks. There’s always going to be people who like certain tracks more than others, but each track should serve a purpose, and do a job that none of the other tracks do, but be in keeping with them at the same time. It’s a balancing act you have to do when making a record.

That was an idea instilled in us by Craig, the producer, who has worked in this business for thirty years, maybe more. He changed the way we thought about music and records. He saw them as a world, not just a collection of songs. It’s its own living thing.

How does this differ to how you approached the first album?
I just didn’t know what I was doing! I still don’t, really, on a lot of fronts. I still have a lot to learn. But that first record, some of the songs I wrote when I was seventeen years old, and recorded when I was 23. So, six- or seven-years’ worth of songs. That was a collection of songs that I had bouncing around my head for too long. I just wanted to get them out. So, it was a little more disjointed in terms of the writing. This album was from such a short bracket of time, within a few months really. It makes more sense as a body of work.

This time around, the process was a lot more collaborative between yourself and your bandmates. What was that like?
It was good. I’m still writing the main bones of the songs, the chords and the lyrics. Having everyone around as I was doing that, to build on what I was doing as I was doing it, rather than at a later date, and having too much time to think about it – there was no time to think, there was only time to do. The other guys all jumped in really quick, and came up with their parts, and added things that I think, in the heat of the moment, I wouldn’t have been able to do, if I’d had time to think about it, and tried to take on some kind of musical director role. I think everyone’s innate personalities came through in a way that you can’t fake.

How has this changed your live show?
We try to mix up the live show as much as possible anyway. I always try to throw everyone off, or one of us will try and throw the others off. One of us will start a song with something which isn’t the song, and find a way into it, or we’ll take an old song – something like Purple – and I’ll just keep playing the breakdown and everyone has to follow along. So, I think we always try to keep some sort of spontaneity and unknowingness in the set. It keeps it fun for us, and it reminds you that you’re a musician. It reminds you to listen to each other. If you’re not listening to each other, it’s all going to fall flat on its face and you’ll look stupid. Which can happen sometimes! You do run that risk.

Speaking of the live show, you’ve played in Nottingham plenty of times before, including Dot To Dot and The Bodega, and now you’re headlining Rock City. What’s your connection with the city?

People always seem to be up for it in Nottingham. We’ve never had a bad show up there. People seem to be hungry for it, which is all you can ever ask for from a crowd. They don’t seem to be a pretentious crowd or anything, which is good – because we can’t stand that!

Beyond this, what other moments on the tour are you looking forward to?
I’ve always wanted to play Brixton Academy, which we are doing, so that’s a big moment for us. Vicar Street in Dublin, too – it’s a hallowed ground, so many of my favourite artists have played there. We played it with Fontaines DC, so now to do it again, a night under our own steam, feels good. Those two will be good. And Barrowland – I’ve never been, but everyone says it’s the best venue in the world. So, I’m looking forward to seeing that.

Wunderhorse’s new album Midas was released on 30 August and their Rock City headline show will take place on 3 October.

@wunderhorse_