Interview: Kate Cooper of An Horse

BY CHERYL CHENG
PHOTOS BY BIG HASSLE

Australia’s An Horse has not yet released full-length debut Rearrange Beds, which is released stateside March 10, but the band has already toured the U.S. with Tegan and Sara, performed at CMJ and scheduled two nights in Los Angeles—at the Silverlake Lounge and the Echo. Self-described as indie pop, the band offers catchy rock numbers as well as a very quirky, fun nature—just read their MySpace blogs. Kate Cooper, one-half of the duo with Damon Cox, recently spent some time talking with The Scenestar about An Horse’s upcoming album, the grammatical nature of her band’s name and what she really thinks of horses.

The Scenestar: As an editor, I’m curious about the band name. Could you explain it?
Kate Cooper: It was a conversation I had many years ago with a friend of mine who said I reminded them of ‘an horse.’ And I said, ‘Oh, that sounds pretty cool.’ And they made me a sweater with it on, and it just kind of stuck. I thought it was correct grammar for a period of time. But then my sister, who’s an editor of books, has since shamed me and said it’s highly incorrect and also professionally embarrassing for her to have her sister play in a band that exploits such terrible grammatical offense.

SS: [Laughs] Because it would be correct if the ‘h’ was silent.
KC: Sometimes you use ‘an’ before ‘h.’ You used to say ‘an horse,’ but you’d drop the ‘h.’ But you know, if you Google hard enough, on grammar websites, you get a lot of contradictory things on it. I just think it sounds cool.

SS: Do you also like horses?
KC: I actually don’t. I really hate them. They stink and they bite. I’ve ridden one a couple of times. But when my dad was a kid, he fell off a donkey and broke his arm, and he always told me about that, so since I was a little kid, I’ve hated horses. But some of them look cool. They look cool in pictures, but in real life they kind of don’t.

SS: An Horse toured with Tegan and Sara earlier this year. Could you tell me about that experience?
KC: Amazing. It was actually the first tour An Horse had ever done. We hadn’t even toured at home, because Damon and I had finished the [Not Really Scared] EP the day that Tegan and Sara were playing in our hometown in Australia. When I was hanging out with them, they had a listen and a couple of weeks later, Sara was like, ‘Do you want to come on tour?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah!’ At that point, Damon and I had plans to release [the EP] at home and had high hopes to get over [to the U.S.], but we thought it would be a long gradual process. So to have our first tour in the States with Tegan and Sara was amazing. And also, they’re good friends of mine. So to be touring with a band that’s first of all, nice people, but second of all, you love their music. And third of all, you’re playing to packed out rooms that were so receptive. It was just amazing.

SS: The EP has only five tracks, so did An Horse also perform some songs from the upcoming album?
KC: Yes, we had the record ready to go before we recorded it, and we were playing that on the tour as well.

SS: Could you tell me about the Rearrange Beds recording? I read that it was mixed via e-mail.
KC: We recorded it in Brisbane, and we remixed five of the songs and mixed five of the new songs with Howard Redekopp, who lives in Vancouver. It was pretty weird for me and Damon to kind of let go of it just because I like to be in the studio sitting there laboring over it. It was torture. But Sara was like, ‘No, I want this guy to mix it. I’m going to hook you up. It’s going to be awesome.’ And I’m like, ‘But he’s in Vancouver.’ But [Howard] was into it. He would send us mixes, and we’d all comment on it. It was really cool.

SS: What’s the songwriting process like?
KC: I bring in the skeleton bits, the structure, and then [Damon and I] kind of deconstruct it and rebuild it with a better foundation, if that makes sense.

SS: Where do you get your ideas from?
KC: Rearrange Beds captures a definitive period of time in my life. A really fucking shit year. A bad break-up. And they’re so brutal and getting over it and writing songs that reflected that. Getting over it and forgiving. And now I have to torture myself and poor Damon every night by singing about someone I’d rather not think about ever again.

SS: Both you and Damon also are involved in other music projects besides An Horse. How are they similar and different?
KC: Me not so much anymore, just because the other band [Iron On] is kind of on hiatus. The other band members are growing up and getting on with their lives, and I’m still playing music. I guess it’s similar in that I wrote the songs. But [Iron On] was a four piece, and I personally think An Horse is harder cos there’s two of us so we kind of have to make up for the lack of people in the band. But that to me makes it far more interesting musically and more challenging. I like a challenge.

SS: Is there a pretty big music scene in Australia?
KC: It’s got a healthy local music scene, but the music scene in Australia is weird. It’s a small country, so much smaller in comparison to the States. For us to go on tour, we could spend three nights and tour the country. Even though we live on such a huge island, the population isn’t there. It’s cool, the music scene, but it’s very political. It’s run by a couple of people, and if you don’t fall in sync with them then you kind of flounder in a sea of shit shows. I guess with any small scene, whether it’s music or art, there’s politics involved. That being said, one of my favorite bands ever, the Go-Betweens, is from Brisbane and they’re not even that well known in Brisbane.

SS: Really? I think they have a pretty decent following here.
KC: Yeah, they’re much better known outside of Brisbane and respected.

SS: My favorite Australian band is The Lucksmiths, who hardly tour the U.S., so when I saw An Horse was from Australia, I thought, ‘Oh, they’re never going to tour here.’ And now you guys are doing two shows in L.A.!
KC: For Australian bands to crack over here is really hard. I think we’re really lucky. We got the support of some amazing people and basically they’re on our arses. If we don’t come here, Sara Quin will kick my head in. I think it was part of her master plan to get us on a big tour first, and go, ‘Look, you can have this too.’ And now it’s like, ‘You have to do the hard work. Get in the van. Shut up.’

Kate and Damon seem ready for the hard work at hand. An Horse will perform for free at the Silverlake Lounge Monday, Nov. 10, as well as open for Bishop Allen at the Echo on Tuesday, Nov. 11. And regardless of whether or not you like horses, the Scenestar definitely recommends you check out An Horse.

Comments

[Janay]

Great interview!!! Great questions and of course nothing but thorough and insightful answers from the amazing Kate Cooper....and thank you Kate for FINALLY explaining what the hell "An Horse" means...

again amazing interview but PLEASE PLEASE for the love of your God..it's spelled "QUIN" not "QUINN"...how do you guys (people who post articles) always do that?

[charlotte]

Thanks Janay! I had "Quin" in my notes, but my index finger still punched 'n' twice!

[fussball]

Gute Arbeit hier! Gute Inhalte.

[Moni]

Great read and cute interview.