Horse The Band Interview

Horse the Band has a reputation for being hardcore, and hardcore ridiculous. In fact, the band is downright silly. Their fans are often a reflection of their music, and their attitude as well. Horse has two albums, one entitled R. Borlax, which encompasses clearly sentimental topics such as slaying bunnies, and Mega Man video games, and the other, Pizza, which is about, well, pizza. The band currently approaches the release of their third disc, A Natural Death. As Horse the Band gears up for their new full-length, they continue to wreak havoc across the United States, and share their wholesome music with eager crowds night after night. The band currently shares the stage with The Number Twelve Looks Like You, and Light this City. On this particular stop of the tour, at The School of Rock in South Hackensack, NJ, Erik Engstrom, the band's keyboardist, and key element to the band's self-coined Nintendocore sound, took the time to discuss a few current, and somewhat relevant topics such as the new album, life on the road, and the meaning of the word Bunt.

Brandon: How's this tour going so far?

Erik: Great! It's been really cool. We haven't headlined for like a year and a half or something. We used to just headline all the time, and book our own tours. Then we got a booking agent, and we started doing support tours for like $50 a night. We did that all last year, and we didn't make any money. Well, we made some money. We sold merch. Now it's our tour, we call all the shots, and we get all the money. It's pretty awesome.

B: You guys have a new album coming out, right?

E: Yes, it's called A Natural Death. We wanted to do something that might actually have a meaning to someone this time around[write about] something other than just like a nonsense word, or an inside joke. So, we kind of like crafted the album around a few key concepts in like writing the music and the lyrics and how the art's going to be and stuff, and the song titles. It's about time travel, the brutality of nature.

B: Both things I can relate to...

E: Yeah. The meaningless of every life, and how no matter what you do, you'll never make an impact in the long run, and you'll be forgotten. It's not meant in a depressing way. It's meant in like a liberating way where you're like, Dude, whatever. I'm not going to act like I'm the shit right now, and act like what I'm doing is super important. I know that it's not, but I'm just going to do it because I feel like it, because I'm alive. I'll just do what makes me feel fulfilled, and not worry about it. I feel like a lot of people gauge their life on if anyone's going to remember them or think that they were cool, or just like other peoples reactions to them. It's just kind of like a waste of time after a while to worry about all that shit. But that's not what the album is about...anyways. The album features GameBoy drums and sequencing. I got this cartridge and you can program it, so we did a lot of GameBoy programming to like mix in and out of the real drums and real instruments. I got a new keyboard that has some real instrument sounds on it that are cool, like some strings, fuckin flutes, and horns, and shit. So there's kind of like a more epic, sad aspect to it. Then I still do all the Nintendo-y shit like that.

B: Is it still Nintendocore?

E: Yeah. I mean, it's still adventurous and fun at the core. It's definitely our most brutal album ever, not to sound cliche or whatever, but it really is. We got a new drummer and we let our bass player write more stuff. We moved in this direction. It's not brutal with like 'chug' breakdowns every five seconds. It's like really, really, really heavy at times.

B: Tell me about Lawrence and Friends.

E: We were like really bored in the studio. We just picked up a couple of random objects in like five seconds and were like, We're going to make a TV show about these guys.

B: And you did it?

E: Yeah. I was supposed to film the ending in Mexico, but I didn't do it because it's like too hard. But I filmed some stuff there. But I have some footage, and I need to finish it. But it's not going to get finished until we get back from tour.

B: You should finish it.

E: Yeah, it�s going to be good. It�s going to make people cry too. I wrote down the whole end of the story in a book, but I�m not going to tell you where it is.

B: What�s your favorite Nintendo game?

E: (long pause) Probably Duck Tales, or Rescue Rangers, or Super Mario Brothers 2.

B: Did you ever beat the second Mario game?

E: Yeah I think I did. I don�t know, I don�t play Nintendo very much anymore. If I do I only play like Super Nintendo, Nintendo, or Wii.

B: Is it true that you all went to college and got degrees before the band formed?

E: Not all of us. Dave went to Stanford, then he got a masters from UCLA in computer science. I went to UCLA and got a bachelors in cognitive science. So we would tour in the Summer when we wouldn�t have school. We�d start booking tours in like February. Then we�d go for the summer, then go to school when we finished. Then we became a full time band�sweet.

B: If you could go to any planet, which one would you go to?

E: Saturn.

B: Why?

E: It�s cool.

B: Cooler than Uranus?

E: I don�t know, there�s not a lot known about Uranus yet. Saturn has very high winds, and a gaseous atmosphere, and a solid rock core, and a molten core under that.

B: So it�s hardcore?

E: (Laughs for an inappropriately long time)

B: What�s up with the word �bunt?�

E: It�s when you�re so fat - well you don�t even have to be that fat, because sometimes it just happens � but when you have a butt in front...or a butt cunt. You know when you see a fat person and it�s like hanging down and it makes a little butt formation that hangs over? That�s what it is.

B: Which is more important, to be �ware� or to be �aware� of Warepizza?

E: Um�to be aware. Just know that he exists, know what could happen, but you don�t have to live your life in fear over Warepizza.

B: Tell us a good tour story.

E: (Looks at Dash Arkenstone, HtB bassist, sitting in the back of the van) What was the most recent thing that happened? Oh yeah. One night Nathan (Winneke, vocalist) got drunk. He kept lighting M200�s and throwing them at people before they blew up, which is like kind of funny, but at the time it was not funny at all. Then he was launching real fireworks from behind Heavy Heavy, Low Low�s van. Then security came out, and we played. Then he got drunker. After the show he was like completely out of control. He was running around, and he climbed up on top of Heavy Heavy, Low Low�s trailer, on the roof of it. He totally caved it in. It was like a nice trailer. We were like �dude get down!� He wouldn�t get down. It created this huge drama. Anyways, it was fine the next day. He was just really drunk. Everything was cool with those dudes. Like two days later, our trailer broke its baring, and we couldn�t replace the axles. So we had to buy a brand new one for $5000 and leave our trailer on the side of the road just because of a baring. It�s kind of like creepy karma exists. Touring is bleak, depressing, and sad. Being a musician is the worst job in the world. It�s a meaningless, isolated existence.

B: Is it really that isolated? Don�t you meet new people in every city you visit?

E: Well, at first it�s really fun. Then like after a while, you stop meeting people. I don�t know. I just met you, but I feel like I haven�t really like talked to anyone new for a long time. People like stop talking to you after a while.

B: Like the people you�re touring with you mean?

E: Oh, no. The people we�re touring with are cool. Heavy Heavy, Low Low, and So Many Dynamos were cool. We haven�t really talked to Number 12 or Light This City yet because they just joined the tour yesterday. That part�s fun. I was kind of joking. It�s different than people would think I guess. You have absolutely no privacy or personal time. You�re always with the same dudes, and they just fart, and fucking fart, and fart. Everyone complains about how everybody�s farts stink, but theirs are the worst. It�s just like, you live with garbage. One person gets sick, and everyone gets sick. We�ve been sick for like three weeks straight, just like passing it around. You�re probably going to get sick from sitting in here.

B: I hope I don�t get the Horse the Band disease.

E: Dude, it�s a bad disease too because as it carries itself on it gets worse because nothing can kill it, you know? It just becomes a stronger version and passes on. Then someone that�s already had it gets it again because it�s even stronger. We�re like creating a new biological warfare in here.

B: I'm sure all the farts don't help.

E: Dude everyone in this band except me and Dash are fucking disgusting. I wouldn't even call them human beings. I would call them low life pieces of shit that just like spew diarrhea particles in your hair. That's the main thing that they've done with their lives. Their main accomplishment is being able to make it smell like shit and spread fecal particles into my lungs. I hate them so much. (Pulls out a Fart Chart) Look at this shit! These are the farts. (Pointing to Nathan who has the second most fart tallies) Nathan complains the most, but he's in second place. He�ll just sit in that chair and go �Phhhhhttttt.� Like wet, fucking, feces farts, every day, spraying wet shit everywhere. Whoever�s in first place isn�t allowed to complain about smells. Then I bought a hamburger the other day, and Ed, who�s vegan, goes �Oh, that smells so disgusting.� I was like �look at you!� (Pointing to Ed�s chart, which clearly has the most fart tallies) �You piece of shit!� It�s really fucked up. Anyways.

B: Are we going to be impressed with the show tonight?

E: Yeah, I'm kind of tired. We stayed out till like 6:30 in New York last night. We played Europa in Brooklyn. It's new. It's a pretty cool place. I think the shows are going to start to get good soon.

B: Are you playing any tracks off your new album tonight?

E: Yes, one, it's called "Murder." It's kind of evil, but there's way more evil on the album than that. There's like the evilest song ever, which Dash wrote. It just like chills you to your very core. Woah. Serious woah. There should be stuff on line in the next two weeks or something. Not that song, but at least one, something new.

B: Thanks for doing this interview, good luck tonight.

E: Thank you, you're nice.


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Tags:  Horse The Band  , Erik, interviews

Brandon Weiss    April 01, 2007