The Horrors - Let's Push Things Backward

Faris 'Rotter' Badwan looks moody as he trudges up from sound check and flops his lanky, two meter frame down in front of the spread — cold cuts, cheeses, tortilla wraps, bottled water, beer, and darkly coloured booze. A few moments before, while his manager twiddles the sound board and his four band mates strum, pluck, bang and key their respective instruments, Faris stands centre stage, backlit, hips cocked, pretending to talk (or listen) into a mobile phone. Given the general racket and the signal-blocking stone of the subterranean venue, it's a clear gesture of defiance and disassociation. Intriguing, perhaps, but it doesn't augur well for the interview ahead.

Back upstairs we make small talk for a moment and then, between delicate and disinterested bites of a sandwich, Faris looks up from behind his masses of dark, tussled hair, flicks his eyes from me to his assembled bandmates, and says, "I'm not going to do the interview. My voice is fucked."

Joshua Von Grimm (The Horrors' guitarist) and Tom Furse (bassist) act immediately - instinctually, even - to defuse the situation. They delegate the drummer ('Coffin' Joe Black) to one interviewer and keyboardist Rhys 'Spider' Webb to still another. Then, with promises of quiet within, they usher me to a side room, motion towards seats, and slide the door closed behind. Faris has his space, the journalists have people to talk to, and calm is slowly restored. The Skinny is beginning to feel as though in the company of a tightly knit, yet slightly dysfunctional, family where things are not what they outwardly seem.

"What might a Horrors fan be surprised to find in your record collection?" I ask.

"Probably the more dance-y stuff. The more trance-y side of it," says Josh without pausing to think. "Acid House. I really like drum and bass. Early Squarepusher. That sort of thing. So not what people would expect. I think people are generally surprised that we do like those sort of records."

Tom, like a good bass player, picks up the guitarist's train of thought: "It's funny — when you're in a band, people make presumptions about what you'd be into, what type of music you like. I think we just like good music."

As, to date, The Horrors' catalogue consists of only one EP and a few singles, I ask Tom and Josh to describe their music. Hopefully, the reasoning goes, with words they will be able to flesh out a fuller picture of their artistic influences and orientation than their available output presently allows.

"If you were to pick any one or two adjectives, how would you describe your songs?"

"Loud," says Tom.

"And fast," says Josh.

"Intense."

"Un-ordinary"

Un-ordinary in the context of mainstream radio perhaps, but surely there are comparisons to be made and prevalent antecedents to cite: quite clear in The Horrors' music as well as their image are the sensibilities — both sonic and stylistic — of the Freakbeat, Garage and Psychedelic movements. Tom runs his fingers through his helmet-like Beatles haircut and elaborates: "Although we don't sound like The Cramps, I like how they just took everything they liked about music until 1965 or 1966 and twisted it through their own strange aesthetic, their own strange idea of sounds and personalities, and spat out this weird sound that's very exciting really. I see what we're doing as very much that: as taking something and twisting it a bit."

Josh nods in agreement and seizes on a different aspect of what being 'un-ordinary' entails. "I think we all take a very special effort to like music and go back a generation. When I was first getting into music it was early 70s early 60s New York stuff. I went back to see what they liked about music, which brings you back to garage again."

"I think," says Tom, "that we've all made an effort to actually look back as far as possible to see what inspires an inspiration. You see bands that sound just exactly like The Libertines. And their influences were The Libertines. That's their sole, stock influence. People literally don't get it. Even the Arctic Monkeys do it. They're obviously a talented band. They did a couple of covers. One of them was a song that came out. It's called, 'Put Your Dukes Up, John,' by the Little Flames, which I thought was a pretty cool track. And the other one they just described as, 'some soul track from the 60s or something.' Those were their words. People just don't really seem to care. There's no appreciation, they're not bothered about the background of the music they like in the first place."

Listening to Tom and Josh, it becomes easy to gain a sort of scholarly respect for the boys. Self-styled archivists, curators and connoisseurs, they — to borrow and corrupt a Willie Dixon quote — profess an interest in the roots while many of their contemporaries scarcely take notice of anything beyond the fruits. Which brings us to an important (if delicate) question: why do The Horrors seem to polarise public opinion? From the amorous young 'Hors' who flock to shows and congregate online to sing the praises of the Essex five-piece, to vitriolic rock hounds who would wish severe bodily injury on any one of The Horrors, but especially the frontman, Farris - indeed, he has been already been assaulted in both London and New York - there seems to be very little in the way of middle ground as far as The Horrors are concerned. Josh answers first.

"I think it has a lot to do with the fact that people can't believe a band looks like this and really cares about music. Their initial reaction is: you don't care about music because you're dressed well. Well, we like dressing well but we really care about music. How I'm dressed really doesn't bother me. I didn't get into this band to dress like this. I dressed like this and I got into this band because I love playing music. It's not saying it bothers me. The bands I really like are always polarized."

"So," The Skinny suggests, "in a way, you're doing something right?"

Tom's voice assumes a professorial tone. "Every band, every good band polarizes opinion. Every great band causes controversy. There are so many bands that are middle of the road, that are… pleasant. But, you know you're doing something right when you actually provoke a reaction. If you're actually provoking an action, you're doing something that makes in impact."