The Healing Power of Horses’s new EP Summer Indoors (or outside wearing black) is cryptic, cloaked in semiotics only its creators can understand. Written in the confines of an attic over a period of self-isolation, t and c disavow genre. Summer Indoors (or outside wearing black) is intended for you, the listener, to interpret.
While c was unable to speak with ALT Citizen about the band’s release, t answered a few questions about the album’s inception, all while buying c yellow flowers.
Tape, your first release on the Glasgow DIY label No Soap includes a track titled “summer indoors,” did this song serve as inspiration for your new EP Summer Indoors (or outside wearing black)?
t: i think so. i’m not sure. maybe? i think it was in the water anyway, you know, like, floating face down. with most ideas you have to pull them out and give them CPR and hope the ambulance arrives soon enough, but no, wow, they’re saying four hour wait time, and this thing you are holding is like totally limp and it’s grim and you’re sweating and oh heavens how did this all happen? so you burn it but it comes back like one of those annoying birthday candles. i’ve lost the metaphor here. the answer to your question is ‘yes’.
Between the two of you, what is your creative dynamic like?
t: merriam-webster defines ‘dynamic’ in the context used here ie. ‘creative dynamic’ as a particular way that two or more people interact with one another determined by context, social roles, etc – and gives the examples of family dynamics and, interestingly, the dynamic between a doctor and a patient. the latter example sums the whole dumb thing up, which is to say – i am the patient and she (c that is) is the doctor. i am sadly prone to endless musings, general torpor, mental rigidity, insipid chord progressions, et cetera and she cures me in her infinite sweetness from all of these things. for this i am grateful. for this i am really super grateful, wow, and i mean this sincerely. when she is back from whatever game she is playing i will buy her some flowers, today, right now even. roses. or something similar. not too expensive though.
You’ve described your music as coming “from the castle of heaven, cool and warm.” How does your music blend two dichotomous sensations into one cohesive whole?
t: dichotomous sensations…. now we’re cooking with gas. in all honesty i am not sure how we are blending these things. i like drums. at the moment i like spiky sounds and dryness and i hate reverb. c’s voice contains enough heaven that i am emboldened to put most anything underneath it and it somehow works. maybe that’s the blend. i quite like that. quite amazing actually how well it works. sometimes i have struggled to see it as being particularly cohesive, so im charmed that you think it is. i’m sure c will be charmed too. i will tell her when i give her the flowers.
logo… or rune?
This iconography appears throughout the project’s visual language. What does it represent? Why is it important?
t: the logo? i drew it on a bathroom wall. i’m not sure if they’ve cleaned it up now or if it’s still there, next to all manner of intriguing pictures, crude symbols and profanities, which are its kin. i think c has some more erudite readings on what it represents, she’s better at retrofitting meaning than i am. i think it is just fun to draw.
What was it like to play the “Section 1 turns 5” Perfectly Imperfect gig with RIP Magic?
t: i just went out and bought flowers. attached is a photo if you don’t believe me – see, i am a loving and caring person capable of these sorts of gestures, and no, this is not just a stunt for this interview, i do stuff like this all the time, i am very romantic. they are yellow roses. to answer your question – we had a lot and a lot of fun. RIP Magic were majestic. we all enjoyed ourselves. i smashed my head into the PA at soundcheck at least twice and there was a nice crowd who were good and close and friendly. c was in the zone and commanded it well. i should have bought her flowers after that show, too. i think i just bought her breakfast instead.
c with her flowers
Listen to Summer Indoors (or outside wearing black)