Hora Douse is an up and coming alternative punk trio from Manchester, England. After releasing their excellent EP Crash (which I reviewed for Seeing Your Scene back in February), we caught up with the band to see how the first-ever Seeing Your Scene tour with Petrol Girls went.
First up, how did you get into punk?
We all grew up as kids listening to pop-punk bands of the early noughties like Blink-182 and stuff, so not too different from a lot of people our age I suppose. Then it was a spiral of discovery from there. I went backwards and found a love for Nirvana and grunge, then sought out 80’s hardcore, 90’s post-hardcore like Refused and late 90’s emo, amongst everything else. Going to local DIY shows and being a part of a community made me realise there is so much more to “punk” and there are so many new and incredible independent bands out there.
Were there any major influences in the writing and recording of the EP [Crash]?
Not really! The three songs are all pretty different from each other and sort of act individually as standalone tracks. They were written quickly too so there wasn’t much time to consciously draw inspiration, I just wrote whatever felt natural. I remember we wanted the EP to be punchy and straight-forward, and I was listening to a lot of Jimmy Eat World when recording – not that any of it sounds anything like them!
Crash featured a few diverse styles, which track do you feel most represents your sound?
I think they all do. We are quite diverse people and have very diverse tastes from one another. Someone who promoted a show we played last year described us as ‘genre-hopping’ which I quite liked. Our “sound” is diversity.
Are there any plans for a full-length release?
Yes. We are in the midst of recording said full length with Bob Cooper (Nai Harvest, Self Defense Family). It’s going well. Everyone is feeling good about the songs so far.
You’re known for your energetic performances, what do you enjoy most about playing live?
I can’t speak for the other two but it’s a huge catharsis for me. It’s a totally different sensation to when I perform solo with my more mellow acoustic stuff, it almost feels like an exorcism.
Is there any particular track that you look forward to playing live?
I like playing “Speak”, and people seem to like that one a lot, which is cool. We’ve been testing out a new song called “Wither” on the run of shows with Petrol Girls and I feel really good about that one too.
Are there any bands you’d like to tour with?
We’d love to do a few shows with Single Mothers. They’re crazy good, we all love them and I think that we’d work really well on a bill as a pairing. There are two Scottish bands called Womps and The Sinking Feeling who we’re good friends with and we’d like to do a run of dates with them at some point. They’re both awesome!
How was the Seeing Your Scene tour?
Brief but a lot of fun. It’s cool to see a lot of new faces having a good time and being into us at the shows, especially since it was our first time in Bristol and Brighton. It’s always a pleasure playing with Petrol Girls too, they killed it every night! Definitely one of my favourite UK bands at the moment, for sure. We all had a listen to a mix of their new EP in the van on one of the drives between shows and damn. It is so fucking good.
What are your plans for the future?
Well, we did a week in the studio with Bob last month and did a few more days this month after the run of shows with Petrol Girls. A good chunk of an album is done. It’s pretty exciting and sounds really good so far. It’ll be a little while before that comes out, we’re going to hopefully finish it off later on in the year. We then played Leeds date this week with two of the best bands in Leeds; Walleater and Healing Powers. After that, Jonny (bassist) is having surgery on his shoulder so he’s going to be out of action for at least two months, so we’re going on an enforced break and I’ll just write some more.
