CVLT Nation Interviews Horseback Part Two

Two months ago, I sent Jenks Miller, mastermind behind the band Horseback, a series of questions relating to nearly every aspect of the project. The interview was so large, it had to be broken into two parts. It is with great pleasure that I bring you the conclusion to this expansive interview with Horseback. I’d like to thank Jenks for his time and for being so thorough.

On Collaboration

Horseback started as a solo project, an intensely personal one at that. Your debut record was, as you’ve described, as a way to deal with you being diagnosed with OCD. It sounds like the sort of thing that one would be hesitant to even release into the world. The music has grown and evolved so much since then, and Horseback has shed the solo drone project tag quickly. Did you ever think that Horseback might become anything more than a bedroom project?

I didn’t intend for it to be more than that while I was recording the first record or two, but things change. I’d say it gained greater potential after The Invisible Mountain was reissued by Relapse in 2010. That brought in some offers from festivals, which allowed us to get out on the road for a bit. Last year, we played the Utech Festival with Locrian, House of Low Culture, Plotkin and Mueller, and William Fowler Collins, among others; the Boomslang Festival with Swans, Pelican, Sir Richard Bishop, and others; and Raleigh’s Hopscotch Festival with dozens of other bands. Still, those opportunities are rare, and since the guys in Horseback’s live lineup are all involved in a bunch of other bands (Caltrop, Airstrip, Hog, and Monsonia, to name a few, and I’m often busy with Mount Moriah), live Horseback shows have become more of a special occasion thing than a regular thing.

So the project remains largely a bedroom project, a creative pursuit that allows me to focus my energy in a daily practice, but sometimes we’re able to mobilize the live band for short tours.
Read the rest of this interview after the jump!

You’ve collaborated with two of my favorite bands, and two bands that are at the forefront of experimental metal influenced music. Your first collaboration was with Locrian and called New Dominions. How did you meet them and how did the collaboration come to be? Did you have any reservations about collaborating with another band, or did you greet it with excitement?

We met years ago on the net, though I can’t remember where, exactly. We both post on the Forever Doomed forum, so maybe it was there? I think we’re coming from similar backgrounds, musically, so a collaboration seemed inevitable. They came into town for the inaugural Hopscotch Festival in 2010 and we recorded together then. Both bands had already worked with Utech Records at that point, so the label was on board to release the vinyl. Denis did the cover artwork, which remains one of my favorite pieces from him.

I do have some reservations about collaborating. Recording anything of substance takes a tremendous investment, and most collaborations have to take place on a relatively small scale as a result. New Dominions, for example, was recorded in a single studio session, then edited together at home. I’m proud of the result, but I also wish we could’ve spent a longer time in the studio and developed more material. But that’s just the nature of the business these days.

Was it written entirely in the studio or were you able to write and demo beforehand?

Most of the material was improvised in that studio session, after which I edited the raw performances together into something with a bit more structure. We didn’t demo anything beforehand, but we did talk a bit about what we wanted to accomplish.

Your next collaboration was with the avant grade band Pyramids called A Throne Without A King. For this release, each band had its own track as a split and then an extended collaborative song. Your side of the split is very black metal influenced and truly the most “metal” thing about the whole package. Did you write or include this track so that it would contrast the drawn out drone influenced collaborative track?

That track was included in part to bridge the gap between black metal and textural “drone” and noise in an obvious way. The gap separating the two styles seems almost negligible to me at this point, largely because of the way upper-harmonics and fuzzy distortion function in classic black metal recordings to partially obscure melodic and harmonic movement. That buzzing, textural wash was what attracted me to black metal as a kid, and a similar effect allowed me to appreciate new music/serial music and modern classical (what is often labeled “drone” today) a bit later. “Thee Cult of Henry Flynt” pulls the thrashing/up-tempo rhythm out from under a classic black metal structure, then plays with the remaining textural characteristics. It’s probably the most playful track Horseback has released to this point. And it’s certainly the fastest.

The song ATWAK is very minimalistic. At times, it’s hard to believe that yourself as well as all the members of Pyramids are generating sound together. What was your musical role for the collaborative track?

I supplied some layers of noise and droning organ parts, which recording was then passed along by the Pyramids folks, one contributor at a time. It was a kind of musical version of that grade school game “telephone.” Rich and I had talked about where we thought the track might end up, but it became something entirely different by the end of the process. Faith and Aaron from Mamiffer were the last in line to add to the track, so they mixed it as well.

What’s next for future collaborations? Aaron Turner was involved with ATWAK, has there been any talk of a Horseback collaboration with House of Low Culture, Mamiffer or Jodis?

No talk of that specifically, but it could happen. James Plotkin and I have talked about doing something together eventually, but I don’t know if that would be a Horseback thing or something different. I’m currently involved in a very slow-moving collaboration with William Fowler Collins.

On Half Blood

I mentioned earlier that you shed the sound forged on Invisible Mountain, but that’s not necessarily true. A few of the songs on this new record have a similar vibe to the first three songs on Mountain. Were these songs that were maybe in infancy during the Mountain sessions, or did you feel like that sound could be further honed and/or embellished?

Those songs were written specifically for Half Blood. I felt like that krauty/harsh/blues sound could be developed a bit further, and I still do. I never intend to completely abandon past sounds as the project progresses; it’s about expanding horizons, not leaving them behind forever. I’ll probably circle back around to those sounds again eventually.

With Forbidden Planet being released on a limited cassette then later reissued as part of a double cd, it almost feels like Half Blood is LP number three, but it’s actually number four. How long have you been working on the material for Half Blood? Was there any overlap between it and A Throne Without A King or the recent On The Eclipse 7 inch?

I worked on Half Blood for about two years, since Relapse signed the band in 2010. And those collaborations you’ve mentioned took place around the same time, so there was a lot of overlap in terms of the sounds I was exploring and the engineering approaches used.

Forbidden Planet was accompanied by a quote “From the passage that introduces Solaris.” This gave the record an extra level of depth and gave something for fans to think about while digesting the record. Is there any such quote or passage that may help listeners “unlock” the material on Half Blood?

Yes, a passage from The Emerald Tablet is quoted in the liner notes for Half Blood. That quote, and The Emerald Tablet as a whole, helps unlock the record.

Some of the music on “The Inheritance” has a sort of Indian feel, and song titles such as “Ahriman” and “Arjuna” reference characters from Zoroastarian and Hindu culture and religion. Are these characters part of the overall theme of the record, or were they just direct inspiration for the specific songs? Are you interested in world music and would you ever incorporate more eastern scales or instruments in the future?

Those characters are part of the overall narrative, for sure. They introduce certain key ideas in Hermetic Alchemy, though this purpose clearly falls outside of the characters’ respective traditional roles. I am interested in world music (though that term itself isn’t particularly appealing) and comparative mythology; the latter discipline is another key to Half Blood. Many of Horseback’s guitar parts and larger melodic themes are based very loosely on eastern scales and ragas. One could probably find examples in each record since Impale Golden Horn, if he or she were so inclined!

On Mount Moriah and Playing Live

It’s important to touch on your other project, the alt-country band Mount Moriah, which is excellent in its own right. For people who may think that your choice to infuse Americana with metal and noise is just a gimmick, listening to Mount Moriah would be an awakening to the fact that this influence is authentic. How has playing with Mount Moriah helped you with your experiences with Horseback, or are they two completely two different entities that never intersect?

They do intersect, but it’s hard to explain exactly how. They are both coming from the same place, an understanding of the American South as a modern crucible of change, synthesis and discovery, both on a personal level and a cultural one. Mount Moriah is sonically more approachable, perhaps, but on a very fundamental level the bands are intimately related.

Mount Moriah has toured nationally. How do you feel when playing live as opposed to recording? Do you one day hope to take Horseback on a national tour?

I really enjoy making records. Records are the art object, as far as I’m concerned, and the process by which they come about is what I enjoy about making music. To me, live shows feel like an attempt to recreate a facsimile of a very intricately-carved sculpture, in an abortive time-frame and in front of an audience which is usually drunk. Live shows can also be magical things, of course, but those shows take a certain cooperation with an audience that is often elusive. Making records is a passion for me, while touring often feels like any other job.

Horseback has toured to Milwaukee and back, but that’s the furthest we’ve gone. I would like Horseback to tour nationally at some point, but a lot of variables would have to line up in order to make that possible.

Are you prepared or willing to bring any of the songs from Half Blood to a live setting? Have you rehearsed them at all?

Oh, yes. The live show is mostly slightly altered versions of the “rock band” songs from the records.

Do you enjoy playing Horseback material live? How has the reception been from audiences? Do you still perform solo shows?

I do enjoy it in small doses. If the live shows were to become habitual, I’m afraid they would lose the sense of electricity that they can have now. Most audiences seem to like the shows, though of course one’s mileage will vary depending on how much he or she is willing to suspend his or her expectations of what a live show is supposed to do. I haven’t performed solo in a long time. The solo shows were very different, mostly guitar solo stuff.

On the Future

What’s next for Horseback? Will you continue to plod ahead and continue your steady release of new material, or is it time for a break?

Always onward. I’m currently helping to get a reissue of New Dominions together, as well as a collection of rare and unreleased tracks from the last few years. My friends and fellow central-NC residents at Three Lobed are pressing a vinyl version of Impale Golden Horn, which will be the first time that record is pressed on wax, and I’m working on a new record for Three Lobed as well, which I hope will appear sometime in 2013.

What do you hope to accomplish with Horseback? What is something you hope to do before the project ceases? How have your goals changed since you recorded Impale Golden Horn?

Ideally, I’d love to see this project become a sustainable thing, a place I can go mentally for a portion of my time each day and a body of work I can develop without costing my family too dearly. In that regard, my goals haven’t really changed at all since the first recording. My artistic goals are broader, of course, but those are really defined on a case-by-case (or record-by-record) basis.

Thank you so much for doing this interview, I wish you all the best with all of your future endeavors, I always looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Thank you very much for your time and patience, Bryan. Best wishes!