Your New Favourite Band: Race Horses interview

While it may have been "rough around the edges" Race Horses debut Goodbye Falkenberg demonstrated "potential that was unquestionable", the kind that unquestionably makes them our new favourite band at least. Before heading around the UK with Fanfarlo this week, frontman Meilyr Jones tells us which of the Super Furries/Gorkys comparisons are more accurate and which are not, being bored of modern music and if there are any new bands they actually like.

You've said that around the time of recording Goodbye Falkenburg, you were "bored of modern music." Was there any particular tipping point when new music became irrelevant to you guys or have you always delved more readily into the 60's/70's?

I think there are less pretentions, and more fun in lots of music from the 50s to the mid 70s. Less scowling and moodiness. I think we were drawn to music with a sense of fun and contagiousness, There is still (in the early 70s) an overhang of that idea that music is entertainment, i like that idea. I think we were bored of contrived "edgy" guitar bands of the 00s. It's so boring and so far away from the spirit on which it's based on (rock 'n roll music). Saying that, there are always gems to be found. 

Did that, listening to older material, have an impact on the decision to record primarily in analogue? Did you want to make a un-modern sounding record?

I really like the sound of Tape, it sounds warmer, and adds character somehow. That was mainly the reason for that. But i think we did want to make a record that sounded un-modern, yes. But also, we really didn't want to make a 'retro' record. Nothing could be worse than that. We recorded in a variety of different ways, using all types of different technology (Minidisk, tape, cassette, pro-tools etc) to try and create a tapestry of sound.

It was recorded in sessions spread over nine months which today, when bands seem more and more to be in an out of the studio in a matter of weeks, sounds almost like a luxury! Did the songs in the end really benefit from having all that time to be tinkerd with/ throw out or started again?

It was the perfect way to make the record really. The aim was to make a really schizophrenic, varied and clostrophobic sounding album. To get the variety we needed, it really helped that we were recording in different studios all over the country. We went from recording in a clay hut, where we almost couldn't stand up in, to a church. The songs benefited from being recorded in different places.

I can see, for example, how some time must have gone into conceiving and executing a song (as brilliant as) Cacen Magmu? Did that one take a while?

Yeah, that was one of the big ones. We did the backing track in a proper studio in North Wales, did the big reverb bits in this church, and did the brass and choir stuff in Cardiff. The strange middle section the producer (david Wrench) made out of tape loops, and cut up sounds from the song itself, slowed down and sped-up. That was such fun to record.

Grown tired of the just-cos-your-welsh references to Super Furry Animals/Gorkys Zykotic Mynci yet? No. Okay, good! Both bands do, to our ears, sound like they've influenced you guys. And bearing in mind of course that we're saying this from across the Irish Sea, are you as surprised as we are that not many more Welsh bands have emerged influenced by both?

I think that Gorky's have been an influence on us, me and Dylan grew up loving them. And the first gig we ever saw was watching Gorky's and Catatonia. I like the Furries, but I wouldn't say i'm a massive fan. I think both bands had/have great imaginative ideas, and strive for a different way of doing things, and so do we.

There are songs in Welsh on the album. Did the fact that the Super Furries have done so before (and successfully too, Mwng made our albums of the decade - http://raggedwords.com/content/top-100-albums-2000s), give you the confidence to sing in your own language?

No, it's natural for us, and we felt confident in it. We speak, and sing in both languages. However, Mwng is a great album, and i think it was important in many ways. 

What's the plan for the rest of the year - tour, tour, tour? Or did I read correctly that another EP is in the works?

Yep. We need to finish an E.P and tour as much as we can, until we collapse. We're itching to get out there and play all the time. 

And finally, who are your new favourite bands... if you've managed to patch things up with modern music?

We really like Laurence Arabia, Oh no Ono and Feild Music. Also Let's Wrestle.