Wunderhorse share their Reading memories and talk new album ‘Midas’

Wunderhorse have spoken to NME about their upcoming new album ‘Midas’ and officially expanding the group from solo project to full band at Reading 2024. Watch our video interview above.

The band caught up with NME backstage at Reading ahead of their performance on the BBC Radio One stage yesterday (August 24).

• READ MORE: How Wunderhorse banded together: “You’ve got to look out for each other. It’s a cut-throat industry”

During the interview, the four-piece shared some of their memories of the festival growing up and discussed their growth from first album ‘Cub’ and how that had impacted ‘Midas’, which is due for release on Friday (August 30). Check out the full chat below.

NME: Hi Wunderhorse! This is your first time performing at Reading – what does this festival mean to you?

Pete Woodin: “It is one we all came to growing up. I think most people in England probably do come of age at this festival.”

Jamie Staples: “Yeah, 10 years ago to this day, Pete, Jacob and I came to Reading. It’s usually the first-ever festival most kids go to, I think.”

Were there any sets that you remember had a big impact on you back then?

Staples: “Well, we went to see Drenge and we went to see The Orwells. They were the two bands we really dug at the time.”

How do you prepare for a festival show like this compared to a headline show where you know people are coming to see you specifically and they know your music?

Jacob Slater: “Well, you have to get yourself in the headspace a lot quicker. You arrive, everything gets set up and then you have to just jump into it, but that can introduce a bit more spontaneity to the set. There’s more that could happen. Sometimes, with touring, it becomes such a learned rhythm that it can sometimes get a little predictable. But at festivals, you never know.”

Things have changed in the band since the first album. It’s now officially a band compared to just a solo project. How has that changed the dynamic and what you’ve created with the new album, ‘Midas’?

Slater: “It’s just a natural development. We all toured lots together and a natural chemistry sort of happened. A lot of the album was written in the studio. I’d come up with the chords and the basic lyrics, but everyone would be there to sort of put their own unique print on it as it was happening, while [the songs] were still in this embryonic stage, rather than something that had been fully learned and fully realised. So everyone’s personality just naturally comes out a lot more.”

You’ve said ‘Cub’ lacked spontaneity. Is that how you were able to bring more of that into this record?

Slater: “I don’t mean to do [‘Cub’] down too much. I think what it lacked for me was, sonically, it wasn’t an accurate representation of what this band is really about. There weren’t too many rough edges, which is fine. You learn stuff on your first record and take that into the next one. But I think a lot of the stuff that we all love and listen to has that feeling that it could fall apart at any time. That’s missing in a lot of music today. There’s a lot of people aiming towards a very polished, perfect sound. We wanted to get as far away from that as possible.”

What were the biggest influences and inspirations on this album, then?

Staples: “The place we were recording in had been home to Nirvana at one point, Pixies, PJ Harvey… so I think they were in our minds [when we were] arriving. There was quite a limited record collection [there] and we all took the time each morning to put a record on. A lot of that would have been a few Rolling Stones records, some Beatles.

Woodin: It was specifically ‘Rubber Soul’ that was at the house that we were staying in. We listened to a lot of ‘Exile On Main Street’,  and there was one more Stones album – ‘Beggars Banquet’.”

What would you say is the biggest lesson you learned on the first album that you brought into this one?

Staples: “Well, I can’t speak for everyone, but I think when we recorded the first record, it was a collection of songs [and] a lot from Jacob’s past. But it was also in COVID, so we weren’t gigging. Off the back of that, we did many shows and almost reimagined those songs. For me, we took a lot of that into the second record because we wanted to make it sound live.”

Slater: “Some of the magic is actually where things go wrong. That’s been a big, big thing for us. We played a show last night and I didn’t have a guitar for the whole second half of it, and that’s interesting. So to embrace those things – it might take you somewhere you didn’t know you could go. So it can be scary as well.”

Follow all of the action as it happens on the NME Reading & Leeds liveblog here.

Check back here for the latest news, reviews, photos, interview and more from Reading 2024.

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