“We did have a bit of a break, mainly from playing. After the first record came out we did a tour in the States, and we were quite busy at the start of the year as well,” Amy recalls. “We probably started thinking about getting onto something at the start of 2012. We actually recorded the album in July last year, so it’s taken a while for this one to come out. We didn’t want to rush the process. So rather than give ourselves a break, we gave ourselves time to develop the songs.”
With Crosswords, Super Wild Horses manage to strike a balance between sonic expansion and retaining their signature sound. “That’s exactly what we were wanting – still wanting to sound like Super Wild Horses, not like a new band or anything. It’s just a natural progression because we had given the songs a bit more time this around, we wanted them to express where we’re at,” Amy muses. “We’re not quite as hyperactive and manic as we were on the first record. In terms of recording, we still kept it predominantly live with vocals over the top. We put a few extra percussive things in, but we did make the conscious effort to allow the songs to breathe a bit more, to push up the vocals a bit more. Let the songs be songs, I guess.
“I think we’re both more comfortable with what the songs are and who we are as a band. That’s something that comes with playing in the band for a few years now. We were happier to let the songs be shown sonically a bit more than the first time. I remember saying to Mikey [Young, producer] when he was mixing Fifteen to push the vocals back into the mix, that we couldn’t stand hearing ourselves. This time we didn’t have that kind of worry, that concern. I think because we both really do love the songs on the record, we wanted people to hear what we were singing about. It’s nice to be at that stage. In the early days I think we were more concerned about being loud with overdriven guitar, boomy drums, and vocals that weren’t that audible. This time we didn’t want the opposite, because we still love that big reverb and sonic experience, but just that bit more clarity.”
Working with Mikey Young on Fifteen and Jack Farley on Crosswords, Super Wild Horses have benefitted from the assistance of Melbourne garage’s two foremost producers. “I guess they did have different approaches, somewhat,” Amy compares. “In hindsight, what Mikey was doing was really trying to step back so we could do what we were doing without him obstructing that in any way. Though Mikey was very hands on, the impression that he would give you was that he was hands-off. He was very good at tricking us, making us feel comfortable while he was working away in the background. Jack was the same in the sense that he was really easy going to get along with, really patient. He really didn’t take on too much of a producer role, not really telling us what to do. Jack would be pretty upfront about saying thinks like ‘you could do a better take of that’, or ‘it would sound better if we try it like this’. I feel that Mikey is really incredible at capturing a band’s sound the way it is. Jack, because we’ve known him for quite a few years, he had a really good understanding of what we wanted sonically and really helped us achieve that sound.”
During their nascent burst, the two members of Super Wild Horses displayed a seemingly even split between instrumental roles in the band – with Amy and Hayley often bouncing between drums and guitar during a live set. It’s a dynamic that still defines the band.
“It’s pretty democratic, we split everything pretty evenly on the record, plus a few that we wrote together. That seems to be how it works, in the periods when we’re not playing we’re both writing and coming up with ideas, then when we meet up we develop the songs. It’s all very natural and split down the middle. We’d both like to be the drummer if we were able to, neither of us want to only be the guitar player. So that’s split in half as well. In terms of other stuff in the band, Hayley’s the social media person because I’m a real idiot with technology. I take care of transferring money into other people’s bank accounts and things like that. It’s all split down the middle, but poor Hayley is stuck with the Facebooking because I can’t get my head around it,” Amy laughs.
BY LACHLAN KANONIUK
