
Every Monday we will be bringing you interviews with UK or Ireland artists for Independent Music Monday. Recently we caught up with London based artist Mild Horses to find out more…
Where are you from and how did you first get into music?
I am originally from Norwich, but have also previously made music in Brighton and London. I first got into music at a young age, my parents were both very into music so I had quite a decent record collection to raid (early obsessions were Neil Young, The Cars, Blondie, David Bowie, The Boomtown Rats, The Doors, Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield and The Lone Ranger by forgotten jazz/funk band Quantum Jump).
Who were your musical influences when you were growing up and who are your influences now?
I was a teenager in the early 90’s so I fell hard for guitar bands. Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr, Pavement, Sonic Youth, Slowdive, Ride, Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lips, My Bloody Valentine, Slint, Sebadoh to name a few.
Now I’m probably of an more eclectic listener (as are most people I think, probably an upshot of streaming and the Everything Available All The Time consequences on peoples’ listening habits). Favourite artists of recent(ish) years are Animal Collective, Beach House and probably pretty much anything on the Bella Union Records label.
How would you describe your sound?
A mixture of psychedelia, noise-pop, dream-pop and electronica.
What is your latest release called and what was the influence behind it?
The new single is called Eye Of The Behemoth and it was a bit of an attempt to broaden the Mild Horses sound with some different instrumentation whilst still maintaining the DNA of previous releases. I like to try and keep it fresh.
What’s your local music scene like?
Hmmmm, I’m not really involved in the slightest with any musical scene around where I live, in fact I’ve only played live once in the last 12 years or so!
Around where I live seems to mainly be covers bands or acoustic singer/songwriters so I’m not sure I really mesh all that well with it.
What do you have planned for the next 12 months?
I’ve started making the new Mild Horses album and will look to play live a bit more (which shouldn’t be a hard target to beat!).
Is there anyone you’d love to collaborate with?
Any current or former members of The Wu Tang Clan, Isaac Wood (the former singer with Black Country, New Road), The Flaming Lips, maybe someone who can sing.
Any funny stories surrounding your live performances?
Mild Horses live performances have been scarce, but previous bands I was in played live a lot more. There was one gig I played with a previous band where every single instrument stopped working one after another (kind of making it a bit like Stop Making Sense by Talking Heads in reverse) until I ended up trying to keep playing on a guitar I had borrowed from another band which had an elasticated strap which I found almost impossible to play as it kept comically bouncing around in my hands.
What is the one thing that you want readers to know about you?
God loves a trier.
You can find out more about Mild Horses via Apple Music, Bandcamp, Instagram, SoundCloud, Spotify, Threads, TikTok or YouTube.