And Now The End Is Near...I Did It My Way!

The second Team Horse release was a 5 track e.p. entitled 'Here Come The Hurricane', which was a line from a Simple Minds song, fact fans. I think Jim Kerr actually sings "Here Comes The Hurricane" but I liked the sound of 'Here Come' better. Feeling much more confident that there was an actual audience for this sound I really went for it again in terms of creating something downright nasty sounding. It was at this point in time I found out about a website called Echoes And Dust. They'd reviewed And So I Watch You From Afar and 'Gangs' had actually been selected as their album of the year. I figured I should send my CD to them for a review and lo and behold, the site's chief Dan Salter wrote some lovely words about the e.p. I didn't know it at this point, but this link would be massive in the reshaping of my musical 'career'.

A fair amount of the songs I recorded over the years all pointed to one thing. Sometimes it would be blatantly obvious, much to my embarrassment now, but 2009 would finally find see me get married. Up until this point in time I had a remarkable excess of time to make music. Now I had more time to actually live a little outside of the musical bubble, which in the grand scheme of things, was for the better. As many musicians find out, sustaining any level of success is extremely difficult. You raise expectations when more people are aware of you, which can lead to pressure to deliver more music that will appeal. This might actually be detrimental as you're so conscientious of what you're doing and how it will be perceived. Cruz had started out as a very specific type of sound. Electro beats and heavy guitars were the main components of the sound and the lines were starting to blur between Cruz and Foamboy. This came to the fore with the fourth Cruz album 'We Are Descendant From Lions'. The song titles were in English, yes you read that right, SONGS. I had decided to sing on Cruz tracks. I also decided to drop out the heavy guitars for the most part. Now, it's a pretty album and has some lovely moments but I'm forever in regret it wasn't just an all out Foamboy album. Cruz should have been a trilogy of albums and that's that.

I also put out another Team Horse album in 2009, entitled 'Glamorous'. The blueprint of scuzzy and hefty bass over clattering beats was still in place. The screeches and evil sounding tones were alive and kicking yet there's an air of pop in some of the melodies on the album. I can stand over this album still, unlike that Cruz album.

I felt I needed to put some closure on the Foamboy persona. The mainstay of the lyrical output of that era was always one of yearning. In 2010 I decided to dive right into my fixation with Mark Lanegan and Tom Waits and do an entire album of gravel voiced singing. I had been a smoker for nearly 20 years so getting a croaky depth wasn't exactly difficult. Unfortunately I also was listening to The White Stripes and The Black Keys around this time so pulled out the old Epiphone guitar and set out creating riffs over hiphop beats. I'm not going to lie, the album's a bit shit. But at the time I thought it was brilliant and exactly what people wanted to hear. 

I reckon I redeemed myself somewhat with the next Team Horse album, 'Children Of The Winter'. Taking the decision to ditch the vocals this album is probably a close relative of the Cruz album 'Esperanza' as it featured less punky abrasive tones and veered more into melody. Once again it got a nice review in Echoes and Dust and I think one of the local magazines, but by now my appearances on the radio were non existent. The gigs were also becoming increasingly minimal.

It was time to come up with another new entity, so Shadow Valley came to be. The sound for 'Shadow Valley', the album was full-on electronica. If I remember correctly, it was LCD Soundsystem that was the inspiration. It kind of helps if you have more than a shitty Casio keyboard when you are trying to become the next Depeche Mode, but that did not stop me. I did a pretty good job of disguising it though piling the sounds through my pedals to distort the sounds. Decidedly downbeat, this album could well have been a Foamboy album and it would have rectified matters on that front. I practiced those songs over and over in preparation of playing a gig but it never happened.

It's 2012 now and undeterred by all of this, I set about making an album that would primarily please me and nobody else. Named after a lyric from a John Grant song, 'Meet The Gold Dust Twins' would be the final release I would make, once again under the Team Horse moniker. It's a glorious riot of punky distorted riffs and beats but was only liked by Echoes And Dust. The wonderful review ended with the words ‘The Gold Dust Twins’ is the soundtrack to a formerly promising artist blossoming in to fully fledged talent. Heartily recommended.' The tracks were absurdly named, see 'Master Blaster', 'Colonel Hathi's Stomp', 'Digital Hulk', 'Bleach4cats' and 'Throwing Acid Is Wrong In Some People's Eyes' but I'd got my mojo back in terms of creativity and spark. I love listening to this album to this day and the final track on it 'Providence/Rhode Island' is 8 minutes of brilliance, even if I do say so myself. It's on Bandcamp, along with all of the albums mentioned above.

My last ever gig was a the Pigstock festival near Comber. An outdoor event organised by a local fellow who set up a load of tents in his fields and invited bands to come play. I was thrilled about playing it but my pregnant Wife Lee was less thrilled when she was made to walk up from the entrance rather than go to the car park area where I had to unload my gear. I played at the same time as a metal band, possibly Gacy's Threads, who despite being across the field, were far noisier than me. The audience consisted of Lee and the soundman. Robyn, my daughter was kind of there too!

In December 2012, my world would change upside down with the birth of our first child. As anyone who has a baby will testify, all of your time outside of work is spent keeping the little critters healthy and alive. My focus entirely shifted. I have to stress I regret nothing about this as my Wife and Children are my world and I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm blessed to have them and so much happier than I was firing out albums to fill the massive void in my life. I would record one more album, tentatively it was another Shadow Valley album, but I never finished the vocals properly, got fed up with it and then my 8track died in our roof space so it's probably gone forever now. I have a rough mix of it though, but it's for my ears only!

These days I write reviews for Echoes And Dust website. I must have written over 200 since 2013 or so. These guys have given me so much joy being part of their collective and keeping me feel as if I am part of the music business. I've given glowing reviews to so many local bands to help them along the way and every year I get invited to be part of the Northern Ireland Music Prize selection process, which thrills me no end. I hope you have enjoyed reading about the years I spent as a musician. My blogs will continue, I plan now on writing about the gigs I have been to over the years. There's probably over 200 or so to try and remember! Please do come back for more TeamHorseTales. Thank you!