Hold Your Horse Is are a rising rock band from Brighton, next month they head to Nottingham for a gig at The Maze alongside MojoFury, ahead of the gig Nottingham LIVE caught up with the drummer Chris Rouse to find out more about the band.
LIVE: Hi guys, first things first could you introduce yourselves?
We’re a 3 piece Robin Pearson (guitar/vocals) James Penny (bass)
Chris Rouse (drums)
LIVE: How did you guys get started as a band?
Myself and Robin played in local bands and had talked about starting something together. Then we broke up our other bands and wrote some songs, for about 6 months, then we asked James to join after deciding that we didn’t want to stick as a 2 piece.
LIVE: How would you describe the Hold Your Horse Is sound?
Fast fun, no gimmicks rock songs! songs that make you want to nod or tap along too! Keeping it simple!
LIVE: Who would you list as your inspirations?
Lots of local bands from our area, Reuben, Elle Milano, Meet Me In St Louis, and some not so local bands, Riddle of Steel, At the Drive-In, Refused, definately Andrew WK hah!
LIVE: Your heading to Nottingham next month for what promises to be a cracking show, you must be looking forward to it?
Yeah we are, Nottinghams always been pretty good to us, and we’re playing with Mojo Fury who sound totally awesome! not met them yet but looking foward to it.
LIVE: What are your past experiences of playing Nottingham?
We played a show and it was good but the soundman was very drunk, after the gig we were packing down and it was nice and quiet, until the soundman started playing REALLY LOUD dance music saying he was testing his speakers! it was louder than we were!
LIVE: What can people expect from a Hold Your Horse Is gig?
“Half Hour Of Power” is our motto!
LIVE: Your new single “Forgive and Forget” is due out at the end of this month, can you tell us a bit about the track?
It’s one of our more angular songs! lots of stops and starts! it’s pretty full on. Robin initially said it was based on Jeremy Kyle, but I think it’s moved on from that now!
LIVE: Where can readers get hold of the track?
You’ll be able to download it from Big Scary Monsters website, and our website www.hyhi.co.uk and if myspace hadn’t been so rubbish as to make there site worse probably from there too!
LIVE: What are your plans once the tour is out of the way? Any plans for an album?
Probably another tour! we’re hopefully off to Europe later in the year which will be amazing. An Album is in the works, but wether it’s this year or next we don’t know. It’s an expensive business being in a band, and with 2 of us at Uni and one with full time employment we’ve got to make it all work with eachother!
LIVE: What are Hold Your Horse Is’ hopes for 2011?
Just to get out to more people, play Europe a bit more and reach a point where we can pay all the people who do us favours a nice wedge of money for their kindness!!
LIVE: Finally, anything else you would like to say to the Nottingham LIVE readers?
Come to the gig! in fact go to more bands gigs overall! Bands don’t make money from labels or sales really anymore, most bands get paid for playing shows selling t shirts and touring, so if people go along, it means more bands can thrive! bands don’t need big labels but they do need people at shows!
If you can’t make the gig, then download our stuff and pass it around friends!
Interview by Darren Patterson
Hold Your Horse Is and MojoFury will be performing live at The Maze as a part of their UK tour on 5 February 2011 – click here for more info
