We sit down with Kate Cooper, one half of Australian duo An Horse ahead of their upcoming tour, to discuss the advantages of colder climbs, songwriting techniques and the perks of the American festival circuit and much more.
Hi, how are you today?
Good, how are you going?
Good thanks, I was going to say Good Morning, but I’m pretty sure you’re in a different time zone.
Yeah, it’s like 8 o’clock at night. So good morning to you; but evening to me.
You’re in Montreal right?
Yeah I am right now.
Is that home for you now, or just a holiday?
You know what, it actually was home for me for two years. But I had to move, my partner transferred to Toronto so we had to move there. I am holidays this week just hanging out.
So you’ve just come of tour of Germany and the Netherlands, how did that go for you?
Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the US
This was the big one.
It was busy; it was great, really great. It was exhausting but that’s the way tours should be. If its not exhausting I’m probably not doing it right. But it was productive.
You’ve got a little bit of time off now, how do you usually spend your downtime?
That’s a good question; usually I just start working again. Start writing. Catch up with people. I time my holidays so me and my partner can go away. So that’s what I am doing this week. Which is cool. I just try to get back to a vaguely normal existence. You know having a schedule so I don’t feel crazy.
So are you working on any new material this break?
Yes, I will be. I kinda have started already. I had a few weeks off earlier in the year. I don’t really know what else to do really. I guess even if I didn’t do this, I would still just write. So it’s a luxury where I just don’t have anything else to do so I can just hang out and write. I’m pretty lucky like that.
How do you approach the song writing process? Is it a collaborative effort?
It is eventually, but initially I start it. And spend a lot of time writing and rewriting in my house. And then when I’m at a point where I am happy I will send it off to Damon and he’ll not write to me about it for about a month, and I’ll think he hates it, and then he’ll eventually get back to me. I usually wait and send them to him in blocks of twenty, so he kind of needs time to process them all, whilst I sweat. But that’s just how we kinda do it. He goes through and gets ideas. Then we end up meeting up somewhere and kind of finishing them.
He’s based in Melbourne now isn’t he?
Yeah that’s right.
That must add a different dynamic to the collaboration?
You’d think so, but it really doesn’t. I have to do my thing by myself before I get him in the room with me. It’s exactly how we’ve always done it, even from when we lived 5 minutes from each other. So it hasn’t really changed anything.
So you meet on neutral ground?
Well a lot of my family live in Melbourne, so it’s always a good excuse to go to Melbourne. I am going there shortly for Christmas so it means I can escape the snow for a month. Play some festivals and hang out with my friends and maybe do some writing with Damon. And he lives in Melbourne technically, but he’s rarely there. So we’ve done some writing all over the place. It’s kind of cool, but it wouldn’t work with four other people. But with just one it’s fine.
So where do you draw the inspiration from, if you are writing in all these different places. Do you draw little bits and pieces from where you are?
Definitely. Yeah definitely. It’s kind of initially the reason I decided to stay in Canada. I’d reached a point in my life. It was 27 degrees and sunny everyday. All of a sudden I discovered other places in the world where it was minus 30 degrees and snowing. So that can’t help but do something to the writing. Environment really affects me, I’m really lucky that I get to move around and draw stuff from it.
Yeah, I mean it must be difficult to write a sad song when it’s 27 degree and sunny everyday.
Yeah, I still managed to do it. But it’s definitely easier to do it in the colder weather.
You’re going to be playing a few festivals over the New Year period, do you approach the festival set any differently to your usual club show?
Festival sets in Australia and American tend to be much shorter. In Germany they are really long. But in the US they’re way shorter than a club set, so yeah definitely. Because you have to remember you’re audience. Its going to be hot in the afternoon or early evening. I’m pretty sure they’re not going to want something slower.
So do you prefer the smaller club show or the bigger festival slots?
I like doing both, but what I really love are the big theatre shows. They’re the best. But really I like them all.
Are there any plans for these festival shows? Are you going to showcase any of the new material?
I don’t think so, no. We haven’t really toured the new record in Australia all that much. So we’ll probably just be playing a lot of stuff off that. And we’ll get to the newer stuff later in the year, hopefully on the way back.
So how has the reaction to the new record (Walls) been?
It’s been great, really good, positive and exciting and all that stuff.
Has it been released worldwide?
Yeah, I think it’s pretty much worldwide except the UK at this point.
Have you played Southbound before?
No, we haven’t. We played some festival there last year, but it wasn’t that one. Some kind of industry thing, but there was a festival as well.
Do you have expectations of the festival, or the festivals you’re playing in general?
You know what I’m expecting to have fun. It’s going to summer, it’s going to be minus 30 where I live. It’s going to be +40 or something so I am looking forward to having some summer.
So with the end of the year approaching, what have been your highlights?
This year we got to play Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits. Both those festivals were awesome. We finished a pretty extensive tour with Kevin Devine. Who I believe was just in Australia. That was great, they were just the best people, so that was a highlight. But just putting out a record, it’s like Oh shit that’s crazy that I can do that for a living.
Those are two pretty huge festivals, was that a pretty hectic time?
It was pretty hectic, it was great though. I mean it was pretty hectic with press and stuff. But it was kinda really awesome. You get so well looked after you kind of forget. You get driven around in golf carts and stuff. So yeah it is hectic, but you’re so well looked after you can just enjoy it. Damon and I were like Oh Shit we’re playing at Lollapalooza, that’s pretty cool. And holy shit there’s over 3000 people here. That’s crazy.
When you’re on these festival shows do you get time to see some of the other bands play?
No, not really, at Lollapalooza I got to see Lykki Li, which was pretty cool. I think at Austin City it was the beginning of a nine week tour, so I think we did our press and I was keen to get out of there. At the end of the day its self-preservation. Where we can we like to go and see bands, but you’d be surprised at how little we get to see.
So what does 2012 hold for An Horse? Any new years resolutions?
No, I don’t have any new years resolutions. The new year kind of depresses me, so I try not to think about it too much. But I think we’ll just put out a new record and keep on doing what we do. We’re enjoying what we do, and we have the opportunity. So we’ll just keep going. I guess we’ll try and write a new record and play better shows I guess.
Well that’s pretty much all we have time for, thanks for taking the time to talk to me today.
Thank you, sorry if it was a little confusing at times, I was walking to a friend’s house and it was cold outside.
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