The Horrors Are Appalled by 'Lazy, Rubbish' Music Journalism

As the Horrors emerge from their crypt with third full-length Skying in hand, the British five-piece claim they've fallen victim to the international music press.

"Can we talk about how lazy most journalists are?" keyboardist Tom Furse asks Spinner. "Because that's probably the reason everything you read is the same opening two or three paragraphs: 'Horrors turned up in 2007 with their shocking debut, 'Strange House' and then managed to do some sort of turn-around with their Geoff Barrow Portishead-produced 'Primary Colours.' It's exactly the same thing."

"I personally think it's so documented and scrutinized because there's some understanding that we'll be very important in five years time," guitarist Josh Hayward laughs. "But I think a lot of journalists would feel uncomfortable having to express their own personal views. Having to put too much of themselves in the article."

"I'd prefer if they wrote more about how the record makes them feel, and less about the constant referencing to other people's work," adds Furse. "Because it detracts from the fact that it's actually an original piece of music itself. It's not anyone else's work -- it's our own."

This time, "their own" was compared to the likes of Simple Minds and their "baggy" counterparts, while their 2009 sophomore, 'Primary Colours' was boxed in with The Jesus and Mary Chain.

"It's almost like the article that gets there first -- and that's the base that pretty much everything else is written from then on," considers Furse. "When that [Simple Minds] thing came out, I did listen to loads of Simple Minds thinking, 'Maybe we accidentally ripped off a Simple Minds song.' But we didn't at all. I think it's actually a sonic thing."

"Isn't it normally because [singer] Faris [Badwan] has a deep voice?" Hayward interjects. "That's just the way people associate things: 'He has a deep voice. That means it sounds like this.'"

What the Horrors want is to be associated with their own music and legacy. Considering they've been under the microscope since their startling 2006 debut 'Strange House,' it's been an uphill battle for a band that doesn't want you to believe the hype.

"When you're on the outside and you buy magazines, you take it all for truth -- especially when it comes to interviews," adds Furse. "You take the words you see in there, and you accept them because there's something to be said for the written word. So when you find yourself on the other side of it, it's all rubbish. And your words are twisted and turned around and things you'd never said will have quotation marks indicating that you said it, it can be frustrating."


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