We might be missing out on the Big Day Out, but rock group Band of Horses is making a quick visit to New Zealand ahead of the festival in Australia.
Renowned for their live performances, they're kicking off their 2013 tour in Wellington tonight and will be showcasing their fourth album, ‘Mirage Rock’.
Ben Bridwell and Bill Reynolds are two-fifths of the band, which turns 10 next year, and they say they didn't think they'd still be around after a decade.
“No, 10 years ago I didn’t think we'd get a label deal or anything, or even write songs correctly, so no it’s always been a constant expectation crusher, in a good way,” says Bridwell.
Another unexpected bonus was collaborating with rock and roll hall-of-famer Glyn Johns, who's produced for some music heavyweights including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
Johns recorded the album live, with all band members playing at once as opposed to doing their parts separately.
“It's unnervingly easy, you just dumb down the approach and have to know what you're playing,” says Bridwell.
And while Mirage Rock benefits from Johns' mastery, Bridwell credits their 2006 single ‘The Funeral’ for much of their success
“It's still doing wonders for us,” he says.
Bridwell says he took to a deceased muse to get his creative juices flowing for their latest album - Ernest Hemingway
“I was just intimidated by a lot of the classic stuff, I just didn’t fit in really well at school, so I just finally got over that anxiety and so I just didn’t realise how easy it was to read Hemingway’s stuff, so I just read it all.”
Band of Horses play Auckland’s Powerstation tomorrow.
3 News
source: newshub archive
