Charlie Horse wowed me with their debut single “Dead Roses,” so I was thrilled to catch up with one half of the band recently. Read on to see what Paul McDonald had to say about his duo’s debut album, their musical influences, and the need for “creative isolation.”
When I heard your single “Dead Roses,” I was struck by its classic sound, so I wasn’t surprised to hear you were influenced by listening to your parents’ Johnny Cash and Neil Young records. What is it about that music that really revs you?
Well, you summed it up right there; it is timeless classic music. I spent most of the ’90s coming from that school of art, have a different guitar in a different tuning for every song and then carry nine guitars with you on tour and at least five of them had to be Fender Jazzmasters and Jaguars. I started to think, are we just being clever for the sake of it and is this just sonic posing? I am not sure if you know much about music theory and chord structures, but it is generally deemed uncool to write a song that goes E, A, D but any song that is considered “classic” tends to have very simple chord structures. And we didn’t go E, A, D with Dead Roses, we went D, A, E, so how avant garde are we?
What was it about “Dead Roses” that made you want to release it?
I suppose people hassling me saying “this has to be the single,” ha! I was looking at releasing something a bit more obscure but got out voted by the band. What would I know? I do really enjoy playing it live as it tends to connect with a lot of the fans. It’s nice to have people singing the lyrics with you.
The single comes from your album I Hope I’m Not a Monster. I love the title. What’s the story behind it?
I was getting the train up to the studio when I noticed somebody had scratched “I hope I am not a sea monster” into the back of the train seat. I mean who does that, and what does it even mean? It had to be the album title.
I hear that you recorded the album in your studio in the Blue Mountains, because “creative isolation” is really important for you. Why is that?
Well, we started the album in East Balmain on Darling St. Not a lot of isolation there. Then we did some writing in Bread St in Edinburgh near the castle. Not a lot of isolation there as it is in the seedy side of Edinburgh, lots of strip clubs and drunks. So we packed up and took to the Mountains. It is important to us not to listen to trends and the opinions of all the experts. Give somebody a laptop and an e-mail account and they will want to tell you what you shoulda, coulda and woulda be doing wrong or right. The music we play does not come from any scene or desire to be cool, so that kind of counts us out of the race for a lot of things now … hah. Nobody dictates to the Drones or Jack Ladder what they should sound and look like. Well maybe they do, but I am guessing they don’t listen either.