Gut zweieinhalb Jahre nach ihrem letzten Sub-Pop-Album „Cease To Begin“, mit dem sich die Band of Horses erstmals in den US-Charts platzieren konnte (Platz 35), feiert die aus Seattle stammende Indie-Rock-Formation mit ihrem dritten Longplayer „Infinite Arms“ ihr Major-Debüt bei Sony Music. Das Cover des Albums, das u. a. die Single „Compliments“ enthält, ziert eine Fotographie des mit den Musikern befreundeten Künstlers Christopher Wilson.
„Infinite Arms“ entstand in einem Zeitraum von 16 Monaten an den verschiedensten Orten in Amerika. Die Bedeutung der einzelnen Locations, an denen die Songs geschrieben und aufgenommen wurden, spiegelt sich deutlich auf „Infinite Arms“ wider. Die musikhistorische Bedeutung von Muscle Shoals, Alabama, die erhabene Schönheit des Appalachen-Gebirgszugs der Blue Ridge Mountains in Asheville, die glamourösen Hollywood Hills und die Weiten der Mojave-Wüste prägen den Klang und die Stimmung der einzelnen Stücke und ergeben in der Summe das bislang musikalisch geschlossenste Werk der Band. Die Ruhe der Wälder im Norden Minnesotas hatte auf die Musik ebenso Einfluss wie die Charaktere der einzelnen Bandmitglieder, die in South Carolina geboren wurden, und geben dem Album ein Gefühl der Geborgenheit und Vertrautheit.
Band of Horses besteht aus Ben Bridwell, Creighton Barrett, Ryan Monroe, Tyler Ramsey und Bill Reynolds. Ramsey und Reynolds sind zwar schon seit einigen Jahren als Tourmusiker mit der Band unterwegs, „Infinite Arms“ ist für sie allerdings das erste Studioalbum. Barrett und Monroe gehören bereits seit dem letzten Werk „Cease To Begin“ zum festen Line-Up. Während der gemeinsamen Tour zu „Cease To Begin“ und der Aufnahmepausen für „Infinite Arms“ wuchs die Band zu einem kreativen Kollektiv zusammen, bei dem alle Mitglieder ihren Beitrag zum unverkennbaren Band-Of-Horses-Sound leisten, an dessen Entwicklung Bridwell seit der Entstehung der Band im Jahre 2004 arbeitet. „In vielerlei Hinsicht ist es das erste Album von Band of Horses“, erklärt er. „Infinite Arms“ wurde von der Band selbst produziert – mit zusätzlichen Produktionen von Phil Ek – und von Dave Sardy (System Of A Down, Slayer, Oasis etc.) gemischt.
Band Of Horses live
22.08.2010 Hohenfelden - Highfield Festival
TRACK-BY-TRACK
FACTORY
„I was listening to a lot of Nick Drake and was really enamoured by the string arrangements in his songs. Also, I was trying to make it a bit dramatic sounding in a Bittersweet Symphony kinda way.“
COMPLIMENTS
„This was a song we recorded three times before we actually got the style that we wanted. It was all live in the studio except for the vocals. I’ve seen people leaving comments that the song sounds really produced when we just did it three times and chose a live version of it. I don't know how you can over-produce that.“
LAREDO
„I went to this cabin in Minnesota at the Canadian border and three or four of the songs on this record all came from the same four-day trip up there. I was just staring out at the lake for a couple of days and this one just kind of came out of nowhere.“
BLUE BEARD
„Bill Reynolds (bassist) played me a demo of Blue Beard that he recorded at home and I threw some vocals on it and played with the structure. I ended up playing drums on that one which is really strange because I’m a terrible drummer.“
ON MY WAY BACK HOME
„A lot of people reference the Beach Boys with this song without us even telling them that when we went to mix it we actually went to the studio where the Beach Boys recorded Pet Sounds.“
INFINITE ARMS
„This song deals a lot with the major theme of the record and being the title track that’s maybe a little obvious but this is one I’m not quite ready to unveil the mask on but I can tell you that it almost didn't make the record.“
DILLY
„I’m always wrong about what’s going to be the first single and I thought that this would be a good one to at least leak to blogs and shit like that because it’s just so upbeat and a bit different for us. It has a doo-wop feel which is a new horizon for Band of Horses.“
EVENING KITCHEN
„This is completely written by Tyler Ramsey (guitarist). He sent me a demo of the music, I recorded vocals on top of it and it was embarrassingly bad but luckily he had the foresight to record his own vocals and lyrics.“
OLDER
„This is a song of Ryan Monroe’s (keyboardist), which he wrote quite a way back and we’ve been playing it live for a long time. Like Evening Kitchen it showcases the other members which has been my main goal with this record.“
FOR ANNABELLE
„This is a homage to my daughter, as at the time of writing my wife was pregnant with our first child and I guess impending fatherhood was probably the main influence or inspiration for the song. Also, Tyler wrote the intro in five seconds.“
NW APT.
„I had the music down for this as a demo but I couldn't figure out what to sing on it basically and I think I just went to mine the territory of living in Seattle and some of the situations that revolved around that time. To me it’s comedic but I don't know if anyone will ever get what the fuck I’m talking about ‘cos it’s done in my usual way of masking the actual content of what’s really going on.“
NEIGHBOR
„I was messing with this synth guitar thing and I can’t play piano at all but with the synth guitar I could make guitar shapes and piano sounds would come out, so I just wrote in a little journal while staring out at that lake again.“
