Formed in Brighton in 2015,
The Rocking Horse Club recorded an EP ‘We’ve Been The Rocking Horse Club’ in
2016, and since then have made festival appearances at Truck, YNOT, and
Together The People. The band have now returned in 2017 with an incredible new
single called ‘Straight White Male’ and we interviewed lead singer Ed and began
by asking him to describe the record.
I
guess it’s sort of a parody but we’re not trying to make too light of the
issues. It’s just about the way in which the world is generally much easier
when you’re straight, white and a man!
Were the political tones
important to you on the record or was that just how it came about?
I
guess it came about just from speaking to some female friends of mine. Some of
the things they told me about, some of the things they deal with every day, had
never crossed my mind and it was really shocking: people shouting at them
regularly in the street, almost every day; not feeling safe when they were
talking home. I just thought that was such a horrible thing for half of the
world to deal with on a day-to-day basis, and from there it just came about.
What’s the reaction been to
the track?
The
track hasn’t been released yet. From playing it live at a couple of my solo
shows, people love it and they find it funny. Obviously it’s about a serious
thing but it’s quite a tongue-in-cheek play on it. We’re not trying to take
ourselves too seriously.
There are also six other
tracks you’ve recorded?
I
think they’ll be future singles. We’re big fans of making music videos. I work
with my friend Mitchell who’s a incredibly talented film-maker so I think we’re
going to make some more music videos out of those and release them over the next
year.
Speaking of music videos you’ve
recorded one for ‘Straight White Male’?
It’s
been good. We’ve had the police called to us on two of the three filming days,
which made for some great bonus footage! But it all went off without a hitch
other than that. The video stars a young independent actor I found called
Stanley who’s the sweetest person you’d ever meet. He’s the pinnacle of
innocence, and he’s playing the ultimate straight white man and we just put him
in all these situations that normally straight white men are normally immune
to. Not to give too much away but there are some female builders who shout some
crass things to him and it goes on in that vein.
You didn’t get the police to
make guest appearances then?
On
the first day [when they turned up] it wasn’t a casual thing. A policeman came
up to speak to us and when we told him we were filming he said into his walkie ‘all
units stand down, I repeat stand down’ and a riot van came around the corner
and a couple of police walked across the park to us so they clearly had a sting
operation ready to go!
How would you describe your
live sound?
Our
live sound is pretty similar to the record. Obviously the record’s got a few
more frills on it but we tried to cut it live so it’s all pretty real. We’re
not into [anything] too flashy, just loud guitars. Everyone in the band – and I’m
lucky to be in the band with some incredible musicians who are a pleasure to
play with – is just loud and fast.
And you also do solo work
too?
I
do a few solo things but they’re quite low key. I’ve always loved rock music
and the band’s definitely the focus.
So when can you see more?
The
single and the video are coming out together on the 14th July!
What are your big ambitions
for the rest of the year?
We’ve
spent so much time working on these songs and recorded them – we started
writing them back in August – then we recorded them in January, and we finished
the first video in maybe April or May, so it’s all very exciting to show people
what we’ve been doing. I guess it’s nothing too ambitious other than to get as
many people as possible to listen to us and hopefully like it!
And finally, do any of you own
a rocking horse?
No
I don’t! There’s always been talk about changing [the band name] as we all
think it’s a bit ridiculous but at the end of the day we are a bit ridiculous
so it all works out!
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