Wunderhorse Interview: Album Influences, Barefoot Drumming & Oasis Rumours

Wunderhorse’s second album Midas is out today & definitely deserves a listen. Music editor Millie had a chat with the band’s drummer Jamie Staples earlier this week, on the album’s influences, drumming without shoes, and whether they want to jump in on the Oasis reunion!

Millie: Just to start, so you played the BBC Introducing stage at Leeds festival on Sunday, even on such a small stage you had a crowd of 7000 people – how was that for you guys?

Jamie: Yeah that was really surreal, I mean we were a little bit gutted that the Radio One stage collapsed or blew away or whatever but yeah it was pretty special to see how many people still came. We really had no idea what it was gonna look like and yeah that was pretty special for us.

Millie: It was really cool, especially since we all thought it would’ve been cancelled.

Jamie: Yeah us too, but yeah when they offered to jump on that stage you know didn’t wanna turn it down

Millie: You guys played at Jumbo Records last night as well, it’s such a pillar of Leeds’ independent music scene. Are you excited to be back in Leeds again later in October?

Jamie: Yeah Leeds just does always seem to go off for us, we always look forward to playing here and it’s one of our favourite places to visit – definitely for going out for a drink as well.

Millie: Do you have a favourite place to go?

Jamie: We love the Brudenell, the main room there is always great to play, you can get yourself a pie and play some pool, its great.

Millie: I read recently that you juggle working with the band and working on a building site?

Jamie: Yeah for me either building or landscaping, which I try my best to run away from but it keeps clawing me back.

Millie: How do you balance that?

Jamie: With difficulty honestly, and I don’t struggle as much as my bandmate Pete has done recently. Well I’ve been doing this for a long time so I’ve managed to land myself in a few jobs that are flexible for me, but it’s taken me a while to do that. But yeah, honestly part of it is quite nice to keep your feet on the ground and get a fair days work for a fair days pay which you don’t always get in music. So it’s quite nice to get that element in my life, but at the same time I’m very ready to leave that behind.

Millie: You’ve been in some punk bands before, Shark Dentist and Teeth Machine, do you prefer playing in a heavier setting or with softer tracks, like Superman on the new album?

Jamie: You’ve done your research! I like playing the heavier tunes, I think we all do live, but as long as we make what we think we’ve made is a good song, we’re happy to play it live.

Millie: July seems to have made itself a permanent part of the setlist, and there is a physical effort from [lead singer] Jacob in the intro where he is getting into the song, do you all do that, is there a character you feel you need to possess?

Jamie: Not so much a character, more tipping into a part of ourselves in order to keep our energy up. There can definitely be a need on tour when you’re having to do that and you’re also conscious of it being real and not contrived. We bang our head together before shows – not literally – but we try to get into a headspace to give whatever we have to the floor that night.

Millie: I read that you never wear shoes to drum? Is that true?

Jamie:  Yeah always, I’ve never worn shoes to play. Its just something when I first sat down on the kit I wasn’t wearing shoes and I think when I started to learn the slide technique on the key pedal, I found it was a quicker route without shoes on. Its just the way I feel the most comfortable.

Millie: Highschool are supporting you later this year on tour, what other bands are you listening to right now that might be up and coming?

Jamie: Well, a lot of the bands, modern bands right now, Wu-Lu is a personal favourite of mine, and someone I’m always keeping an eye on and drawing inspiration on from drumming. There’s a lot of good bands at the moment, Highschool are a band we like a lot, they’re a bit different from us but they were willing and available when we were looking for our lineup.

Millie: As [debut album] Cub was seen as a solo project from Jacob, but Midas is a full band piece, is there any songs coming out that you had more influence on?

Jamie: Yeah I think everyone for this Midas record, Jacob came to us with the bare bones of the songs, ie chords and lyrics, but the songs where we would make things together before any chords or lyrics were a different way round of doing things as well. Some songs start with more of a feeling than anything else. I think you can feel everyone’s personality come through quite strong on this record, as far as I can tell anyway, which is not something that was lacking exactly on Cub, but experience has made this record in a short space of time, and we were all present for it so naturally the burden was spread across all of us and we all had input.

Millie: So you guys supported Pixies, they’re one of my favourite bands, and you’ve mentioned they had quite an influence on the album so how was it touring with them?

Jamie: It was amazing, it was surreal. They’re just living legends, we didn’t get to rub shoulders with them much, we all definitely got to say hi to all of them at points. I guess they’re a little bit further along and they know how they like to do things. But as a band, all 4 of us listened to them growing up and to see them perform live every night undoubtably rubbed off on the record. It was pretty much one after the other that we did it and not least they recorded a record off the back of it too if I’m not mistaken. So yeah, but I can’t say they were right at the front of out minds while we recorded the album but we were fresh off tour with them.

Millie: I’ve seen Nirvana be mentioned as a big influence for this album too, were there any other bands that influenced the album?

Jamie: Yeah, lots of people really, a lot of the records we were listening to while we recorded the album you know we often take the morning an intensive listening session if you like. Where you actually just don’t do anything else but listen to the records, which even as musicians we don’t do that often all about it was often – we should do more. It was The Beatles, particularly Rubber Soul, and The Rolling Stones. Also, a lot of replacements altogether definitely prior to the album. The essence of those bands that we wanted to capture. Obviously, Nirvana is a big influence anyway, especially if you’re wanting to make some heavier, darker music, they’re naturally an influence.

Millie: What are your thoughts on the Oasis reunion? Would you support them if they offered?

Jamie: Yeah, we’d support them in a heartbeat – in fact I think we should be put forward for it, I can’t think of anyone better. But yeah, its very exciting, I think we’ve actually heard bits about it over the last 2 weeks, I’ve had some friends in the music industry who have been saying it was gonna happen and I was pretty delighted to see it announced. We would love to be on one of those shows.

Millie: That’s everything from me! Thank you for your time Jamie! Can’t wait to see the show in October!

Jamie: Yeah, thank you so much & see you then!

Midas is out on all streaming platforms today & Wunderhorse will be performing Leeds Beckett Student Union on 19th October.