Wunderhorse Strives to Leave Their Golden Touch with Upcoming Album Midas

Wunderhorse, fronted by Jacob Slater, is quickly trotting toward being the next big English rock band. If you google search Wunderhorse, comparisons flood their features. And, it’s true, they have that English rock classic sound you hear in Fontaines D.C. (although they’re Irish), Sam Fender and Foals coupled with the vulnerability of American artists like Elliott Smith and The Pixies. Yet, Wunderhorse is emerging as a force to be reckoned with in its own right. They effortlessly go from catchy indie rock to full walls of sound, and vulnerable tracks–allowing any listener to get behind a song and ask their friends if they’ve heard this band yet. 

I thank my lucky stars every day for Zoom. Most especially for connecting Slater and me over video in our respective home bases of Cornwall and Chicago. Slater carries a tongue-in-cheek swagger, mindful of his words, not too confident, with a chuckle behind some of his answers. He left home at 16, escaping to London, and doing what any 16-year-old in London with musical talent would do…started a punk band. Slater’s band at the time, Dead Pretties, reflected his mentality, “Everything being sort of balls to the wall, just very, very full on, all about this really hectic life, live performances, and quite aggressive music–because that's just how I felt all the time.” As he got older, he craved something different. His soundtrack shifted. Slater explains, “I felt it wasn't an appropriate vehicle anymore. Honestly, I felt like I was getting up on stage and doing what everyone expected of me. I felt like I was kidding myself, kidding the people who came to see me, so that’s why it folded.” Listening to Wunderhorse now, one can still hear the edginess of this part of his life. There’s experience behind the lyrics, stories told, and an evolution that he’s still a part of. When I asked what the biggest lesson he learned from that period of his life was, he hit me back with, “Don’t trust anyone from the music industry.” We laughed about that. He continued with, “I think to be more exact I learned to look out for people that really had your best interests at heart because they're rare.” 

Photo by Elena Saviano For Monster Children

Just before the pandemic, Wunderhorse started putting their pieces together. The band's members are a hodgepodge of artists and friends who eventually formed a dream team in Wunderhorse. Pete Woodin, bassist, and Jamie Staples, drummer, floated around Slater in various projects and growing up. Guitarist, Harry Fowler, has known Slater since they were 14. Slater explains, “We were always in different musical projects. We were both a little nervous to be in the same thing, because mixing, you know, business and pleasure...I think when Harry joined, that's when we really started to gain some momentum.” Wunderhorse is a tale of right person right time. Slater added, “I reached out to people who I thought there would be good personal chemistry, but also really good musicians, and people who actually in lots of ways are technically better than me. I feel it's a good position to put yourself in. It’s outside of your comfort zone and pushes you to new areas.” Throughout the interview, Slater mentioned various moments of putting himself outside of his bubble, one of them being his acting debut in the Sex Pistols biopic Pistols. He likes to teeter this tightrope, being comfortable in the uncomfortable, tipping himself right over the edge before reeling it in.

The way Slater is feeling is clearly articulated through his tracks. There are ones of love, frustration, angst, addiction, growing up, and vulnerability that make it impossible not to find a moment of relatability. His voice bites and cuts with passion while easing with carefully formulated instrumentals. Slater’s way of both punching and pulling back keeps the listener in his pocket, eager to hear another. When I poked him about his lyricism he explained this almost innate meditative state that makes him write, “I always have just gone off that raw feeling when something hits you right between the eyes in your own life or in your friend's life…I don't know what's going on internally with the inner mechanics of your being when you write a song…but sometimes something happens. It just clicks everything into gear and you get a song.” He doesn’t force his hand, his hand forces him. He added, “Before you've noticed it’s happening it’s already happened, those are usually the good ones. Annoyingly, they’re kind of rare as well.” Slater’s punk past lingers in his voice and performance. There’s a snarl on his face and being. It’s captivating and makes me hope for a U.S. tour. 

Wunderhorse’s 2022 album Cub, received a lot of acclaim, and rightfully so. Its rock storytelling of adolescence put them on the map. Slater explains the success of Wunderhorse and Cub as a creeping process, “We're not massive, but it's nice that we've slowly developed a bit of a following. People are starting to really wrap their heads around it and are into it. But, because it happened gradually…I was focusing on the next step, the next thing, the next piece of work, which is Midas.” Two years later, the band is shifting in a different direction with their upcoming album Midas. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrT3Wx4YnRA

They’re almost stripping the gold that’s associated with the fairy tale king, keeping it simple and fluid, “one of the main things we wanted to do is to make an active choice to be less musical, and pick one musical motif and just go round and round on it.” Wunderhorse decides to bring the listener to a different place, one that’s bare and exposed. Slater said, “We wanted the sound to keep all the mistakes and make the sound roar…this overarching theme of things being broken or discarded whether that be people or things, stuff that didn't quite work, things that had been left behind.” Cub was mostly written by Slater himself, but this time, “Everyone’s got skin in the game. Which is great, because if something fucks up, everyone’s got to take responsibility,” he says with a chuckle. Wunderhorse released “July” and “Midas” off of the upcoming record, and with it, they’re introducing themselves again. Two years later and with many tours down their belts, they’ve got a new attitude, and a new air surrounding them. Midas performs as a launching pad for Wunderhorse, a reset button beside them. Slater says, “I weirdly view Midas as the first Wunderhorse record. Obviously, it is the same project, but it felt like the first breath of a new thing.” Wunderhorse is making their rounds on tour with Fontaines D.C. If you’re in Europe, catch them on the road and keep me in mind because I will be jealous. Until then, American fans will be waiting urgently for the release of Midas on August 30th. I’m eager to watch Wunderhorse take the world by storm, leaving a trail of gold in their midst.

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