New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The Police, Bon Jovi, The
Stranglers - a key thing that these three bands have in common is that they have or previously had one band member older than the majority, although this rarely exceeded a decade. Considering the success of these bands and the examples of many more who are out there, no one could argue that the significant age difference hampered their ability to connect with audiences, create truly compelling music and leave their mark on the history of music. One band who is taking this trope to a whole new level in the most rock'n'roll way possible is The Horn.
The pillar of this five-piece outfit is Nick True, a songwriter and former bassist of
Friends Of Gavin (an 80s rock band who toured with REM and left behind the series of unfinished work) who recruited the vocalist and guitarist Jonny Taylor, alongside
Danny Monk (multi-instrumental), Ed Cox (keyboards) and Alex Moorse (drums), to finally release those untold stories from decades earlier.
First up, we have 'Passion' mixed by Rich Turvey (Blossoms, Courteeners, The Coral), a kinetic indie-rock triumph that reflects the confident and cool nature of this time-travelling band. Taylor's placid vocal is an oxymoronic contrast to the central lyric, "there's a burning passion in me", as well as the intricate-yet-gruff guitar melodies, retro-influenced synth undertones and the buoyant and groovy bass. The whole thing ebbs and flows, with highs instilled in the bright-eyed chorus and lows when the percussion drops away and the melodies are caught adrift in the unknown. Overall, the track sits somewhere between Television and Blossoms, a further testament to The Horn's goal of bringing two indomitable eras of music together.
As for how 'Passion' got here, that's a journey in itself. Nick True wrote this when he was 26-years-old and it still retains all of that early earnestness that inevitably wrestles up against impatience and recklessness of youth. With the power of hindsight within his grasp, True shares his thoughts on the track while has finally come to fruition:
"I suppose looking back, it was about the roller coaster of life in my 20's. The song always stayed with me and a few years ago I came back to it and wrote the second verse which got me excited about it again. When I played it to Jonny, he liked it straight away and we started work on a new demo. We took it into the studio and came up with some new musical ideas like a new solo by
Danny which gave a lot of musicality to play against the constant rhythms. Now it's finished, it feels special to me because it straddles decades of my life and as the chorus goes, 'what a feeling' hearing it finally fulfilled!"
The Horn are Jonny Taylor (voice, guitar),
Danny Monk (guitars, programming), Nick True (bass), Ed Cox (keyboards) and Alex Moorse (drums) but it hasn't always been like this: several moments ago, songwriter and erstwhile
Friends Of Gavin bassist Nick True - to the uninitiated, F.O.G. were an acclaimed, north London five-piece who toured the UK with REM at the end of the last century, and ended up never releasing an album - recruited multi-instrumentalist
Danny Monk to see what magic might occur. Monk, a Sound Technology graduate from Liverpool
Institute for Performing Arts (founded by Paul McCartney) had a studio in Baker Street and much production/recording experience throughout the USA (including the Village studio in West Hollywood), and It's his eclectic chutzpah that gives the Horn its mid-Atlantic appeal. Correspondingly, once you hear Danny's superb guitar work on Passion, you'll understand why he cites late '70s New York No Wave art-rockers Television as a major influence and why "Room on Fire, Is This It? and anything by the Ramones" are not far behind.
Born in Massachusetts, but relocating to Cornwall at the age of two - his thespian upbringing ensured that by the time he was nine, he was treading the boards at the Minack Theatre - Jonny Taylor turns out to be the ace in the pack. Having said that, he easily mightn't have been: in 2011, after travelling through Thailand and Cambodia, Jonny ended up breaking his leg in a horrific motorcycle accident in Laos, before multiple surgeries ensured he would walk again two years later. Once back in the UK, and several years after this, Jonny,
Danny and Kingston-born drummer Alex Moorse formed a band called Montrell -
Elton John played their music on his Rocket Hour
Radio Show last year - before fate intervened in the form of Nick True and (Edinburgh-born, Newcastle University graduate) keyboardist Ed Cox, who joined forces to make up the finer reaches of The Horn.
At this point in proceedings, you'd be forgiven for thinking, if the Horn didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent them, and you'd be right. Indeed, one listen to their songs will convince you, you've had them knocking around the house for years. But whilst New Order,
Talk Talk and the Lotus Eaters all get an outing as influences, you also get fabulous song titles and subject matters: the Department Of Fate is so-monikered after a phrase in
Goldfinger lyricist Lesley Bricusse's 2006 autobiography - "The Department of Fate has taken good care of me" - and conjures up an image of a world where our comings and goings are controlled by a benevolent bunch of faceless civil servants; the Ashes to Ashes-tinged No.8 Dreams features a lachrymose dreamer still dreaming whist fighting at 'shit parties'; and Do It Now is a Seize The Day call to arms for anyone disaffected and tardy enough to demand such things. The latter is surely the Horn's signature song and a distinct reminder that it's possible to throw the Strokes, Lightning Seeds and Psychedelic Furs into the mix and still get more than the sum of the constituent parts. But, hey, that's where we came in.
www.instagram.com/thehornband/?hl=en
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