What would life be without Raging Speedhorn? They really are a fucking unstoppable force of nature and, more to the point, they’re fucking brilliant! For their legions of fans, simply the fact of the band’s return in 2016 with the stunning Lost Ritual was cause for celebration enough, while the ensuing live shows proved especially sinus cleansing.
Since then, the band has seen members come and go, somehow finding time to release the blistering Hard To Kill – as much a manifesto as an album – between bouts of flattening their rabid fanbase in the live arena. Now back with awesome new album Night Wolf, which comes pressed on offensively pink vinyl for added awesomeness, we took the opportunity to catch up with Dan Cook and Andy Gilmour to learn more about the recording of the album, the insanity behind their most recent video, and the band’s love of all things 80s.
First question is that it’s been about 5 years since the last album, was there an aspect of COVID having had an impact? I know it’s a couple of years in the rearview mirror, but it just seemed to have such a shuffling effect on everybody in the industry, with even finished albums coming out some time after the fact – was that part of the reason for the gap between albums?
Dan: You know, we were just talking about this, funnily enough, with someone in Holland. Yeah, basically, we released the album in 2020 didn’t we, Hard to Kill, and it was the start of COVID or whatever. So, basically, we didn’t have much to do and, when we could get together – because we couldn’t play gigs or festivals – we got together and we wrote, so the album actually started being written straight away after Hard To Kill… maybe even just a bit before the release… but definitely straight after. So, with us living all over, we could only get together now and again, so we wrote the basis of it in the rehearsal studio. And then we went, when was it? About ’23 Andy? The beginning of 2023, we went…
Andy: Yes, it was the beginning of 2023 that we finally recorded it and, due to (I don’t know) various reasons that I shan’t bore you with, and us finally sorting out a label, it came around that now is the time when the album finally comes out. So, we’re all really champing at the bit for it to finally come out and for the world to hear the whole record. We did the two singles, and the response for the two singles has been overwhelmingly positive, so I’m just excited for the world to hear the rest of it.
Dan: Yeah, it was just basically COVID and then, you know, we had a few labels come at us and we eventually chose Spinefarm. And they, you know… there was a lot of talking and negotiations with them to get what we both wanted, and that’s basically what took the time.
And you did it, once again, at Parlour Studios with the awesome Russ Russell – you’ve had a long-standing relationship with him now – I guess, going back to him, you both know what you’re going to get out of that relationship straight away?
Andy: We jokingly call him “the secret seventh member”. He just gets us. He understands. He’s almost, like…a lot of the stuff, especially on this record, Dan and Frank were like writing a lot of vocals, lyrics, and stuff like that before the recording, and he was almost waving the flags going “yeah, yeah, this is great”, or “that’s not so great” or, you know… he knows how to get the best out of us. We’ll give him stuff and he’ll go “that’s great, maybe you should try something like this”. So, yeah, when it comes to producers, he’s like the only person I can imagine us ever wanting to do anything with.
Dan: Yeah, I think for Speedhorn, it takes a certain person to get us. Especially as, like I said, we wrote all the stuff over a couple of years before we went in, and it still wasn’t finished. I think most producers would have a heart attack, but he knows what we’re doing. We go in, we have the basis, and then we just chop, change, switch up, switch down, put in, write on the spot freestyle with the basic ideas, and Russ is very much a part of that. And, like Andy says, he’s like a seventh member. He just gets us perfectly and we have a great time.
He’s one of those people who’s so excited by chaos – he’s cheering from the sidelines whereas some producers can be a bit standoffish when things get messy, whereas he’s bouncing around behind the control room glass, right?
Dan: Yeah, he loves it.
Andy: He’s the ringleader!
Dan: [laughing] That’s right, yeah! And he gives us the energy back, and I think that’s what keeps it all so fresh, especially writing the final parts in the studio.
Andy: A good example of that is basically when you’re playing a banging gig – you’re playing an awesome gig, you’re giving everything, and the audience are giving the good vibes back to you – he’s very much the same way. It’s like, if we give him a good performance, he’ll give back that same energy, and it just makes for a much more productive session. He’ll say things in a way that don’t sound like just… being a dick! [Laughs] He’s always got a valid point to make and, if you’re saying “I don’t know, I think I should do it this way” he’ll always try it. He’s not scared to be wrong. I’ve worked with producers back in the day who just wouldn’t really want to try something, whereas he’s happy to basically go with the flow and, if it’s for the betterment of the song, he’ll be like “yeah, OK, I guess I was wrong – it did work”.
You’d never know, listening to it, that it was written over a long period – it flows brilliantly from the opening track to the end. Did you spend time with Russ to get the sequencing right, or did you already have something in mind?
Dan: It just happened. I don’t think we think too much about it. It’s just what it feels like and, like I say, with Russ at the helm – he hears all this, and Frank does as well, and we all do. But I think Frank and Russ have the overall endgame in their head, and everyone just throws in and it ends up how it is. I don’t think there’s ever a strict plan. It’s just to write something that rocks, and I think that the way that we do it with Russ, it really helps with how it works out, the track order, and everything.
Andy: Some things, for instance Blood Red Sky, it just cried out to be track number 1. So, if anything, I think Russ helped to make it a bit more intro-y at the start. But all the rest of the songs, it was literally just a conversation about the best lay out and I think everyone is happy with how we mapped out the album and, if you think it flows really well, then I guess we succeeded.
There’s a really good balance on the record, I think, in the production – in that it sounds really clear and coherent, but there’s also that rawness. How much did you track live in the studio, and how much did you separate things out.
Andy: Musically, it wasn’t recorded all live. Gordon kind of did his business, and then we all worked our stuff over it. I think that one of the things we try to do to keep the raw vibe is to try to keep overdubs a minimum. It’s not like the Smashing Pumpkins where they’ve got a hundred guitar tracks over everything! We’d rather have fewer guitars, so you can retain that rawness. There’s already a lot going on and it’s loud – you want to make it clear so people can hear properly what’s going on. Obviously, the guitars and everything can’t be all-encompassing, because we still need to leave space for Frank and Dan to do their business over the top of it.
Dan: One thing I noticed with recording with Speedhorn is like, you know when people record, they’ll do a verse and think it’s a good take and then they’ll do a chorus. That doesn’t happen with us, basically. Andy’s a bit of a one-take wonder on the bass and Gordon on the drums, and so you’ve got the energy there. Jim, he is as well, but if he isn’t happy with anything, he won’t drop it in, he’ll do it from the beginning, and he plays the whole song all the way through. He doesn’t want to drop in and stuff, so I think that gives a lot of the vibe. You don’t have all these cuts. I think a lot of bands nowadays don’t even take their instruments in – it’s all, you know, cut and paste! It just isn’t our way. And I think that’s why you probably still get that rock and roll energy.
Yeah – most of the bands I love the most have that sense of energy, and maybe the odd mistake gets in… it’s just more human and yet there seems to be an increasing push to things that sound super-processed.
Andy: Yeah, there’s a lot of syncopated metal going on at the moment. That’s my one take away from it. Everyone’s trying to do, like… basically, all I can say is, as much as I love them, Meshuggah have got a lot to answer for! [Laughs]
Dan: Meshuggah are one of my favourite bands and I do like what they do, and I do like some of the stuff that’s very [imitates djent], but not all of it! I like the rawness and I kind of like those albums that were actually recorded live, where you get all the slip ups, the coughs, the burps, everything. I love all that type of stuff – the breaths, the string scrapes and I think, although we didn’t do it live, we did it all in one take, so you get all those string scrapes, hi-hat hits, and odd bits.
It looked like you had a lot of fun with the single – Every Night’s All Right for Fighting – who did that?
Dan: A guy called Kieran from GLK Media did it – he does a lot of video. He did Night Wolf for us as well, and it worked really well. But yeah, the idea – the basis of it – was from me. It’s an idea I had with my old band, and we were all talking about doing it back then, about fifteen years ago, and it’s just something that never happened. Then, I mentioned it to Gordon when I first joined, and he was like “we’ve got to do that!”
And it was going to happen on Hard to Kill, and then it didn’t happen, and we’ve talked about it ever since and how great it would be. I was a big wrestling fan in the late 80s / early 90s. You know, the WWF, or WWE now, but yeah. I just thought it would work for a video, and Every Night’s Alright for Fighting, it’s got to be that hasn’t it? It’s got to be! [Laughs]
Andy: Obviously, that song’s not actually about wrestling – just so everyone’s aware. Because people are like “I can’t believe you based the video on the song!” But that’s not what it’s about.
Most of us weren’t in the Night Wolf video, but all of us were in this new one, so obviously it was like, you know… I’d say it was very much the Frank and Dan show, but then Daf was basically like the highlight for me – that came out beautifully.
Dan: The idea changed a bit from what I had in my head, due to constraints and venue size and then it was just… we were maybe going to do a Royal Rumble with all of us wrestling and have a crowd and everything, and it just never happened. But I actually think that what we did do, with Keiran’s input and his eye, and the way he edited it and everything, it actually came out a lot better than I imagined, so I’m kind of glad my original idea didn’t pan out. But I guess that’s what happens with the album writing process as well. It always changes and usually for the better.
Andy: Yeah, we all came away from the video shoot like “this is going to be so funny”, but, like, when we finally saw the first cut, we thought it was incredible.
Dan: Actually, the first cut is the final cut, we were like “this is perfect, don’t change it!” There are no changes in it.
The process of making a music video can be so exciting because you’ve got time and budgetary constraints, so it’s a lot like making music, where the fact that you’re learning as you go makes the end result that much more interesting.
Dan: Yeah, I had to go to Primark for some white trainers and spray them yellow for Frank, with some can of spray paint [laughs]. That’s how low budget we were. And I was sticking tassels on my jacket with double-sided sticky tape, you know what I mean? It was just proper, yeah, low budget… but it worked out.
Andy: Sometimes, in a way, the naffness and cheapness of it makes it more endearing, in a way. Imagine doing the same video where you have, like a really big budget. It wouldn’t have the same fun aspect.
Dan: Also, we ran out of time because we set the fire alarms off in the building with the smoke machines and we had to wait an hour then, and we thought we had the venue for two days, but we only had it for a day. Oh man, what a… we just, yeah… the guy in the boxing club was incredible. He was such a nice guy; he didn’t have a go at us or anything.
Andy: He just turned up with the alarm going off and we thought he was going to kick us out for sure, but he just turned up with his Mrs and was like, “well, at least we got to try out the code and see if it works for once!” [Laughs]
Dan: It actually worked out better because of the constraints. We would never have been able to film all the moves. So, we were just going for it, just doing silly things, and going for it. And then the actual moves that ended up in the video were a bit slapstick and it just looked great.
Speedhorn as an entity has been around for a long time, have you felt there’s been a shift in how you’re reaching out to people because, I’ve noticed as a band you’re pretty active on social media and all that stuff. Have you found that it’s more challenging to reach new people as well as your existing fanbase?
Dan: I think the social media aspect is me basically learning it. The rest of the band don’t know a lot about it and luckily my partner is a social media manager, so she’s teaching me. She’s too busy to help us, but she advises me on what ways to go with it. So, I guess that’s why everyone looks to me to do it and… it’s a pain in the ass to be honest, but you’ve got to do it.
Andy: He’s too good at it, that’s his problem [laughs].
Dan: Basically, I’m learning day by day and, you know, it can be good fun, but getting footage of us is a nightmare. But, yeah, as far as the fans – there’s something about Speedhorn fans that’s just absolutely incredible – especially coming from the outside in – they’re the most loyal fans I’ve ever known. A bit like your Motorhead fan, or whatever, they just seem to have been there from the beginning. And then you get the people who are really happy we’re back, who hadn’t realised that we’ve released a couple of albums. But, yeah, every time we speak to someone, they’re like “Speedhorn, yeah, we saw you in the year 2000” or whatever. The funniest one, we got lost when we went to Europe last time. We couldn’t get out of the tunnel port, or wherever we were on the other side and sort out all these new rubbish things that you have to have – visas and carnets, and all that rubbish.
Andy: Thanks Brexit!
Dan: Yeah! So, we got lost and, instead of going into France, we ended up coming out again [laughs] and there were all these security guards there, and we were like “we just want to get in – we’ve got some gigs to do and that…” So, they asked us what band and there was this real old guy who was like “oh, I’ve got your single!”
It just seemed like everybody, at some point, knows the band – it’s great. I think working with Skindred – they’ve taken us under their wing quite a bit lately and it opened us up to a whole new crowd of people that probably weren’t into the more extreme stuff. And I think we have a bit of an accessibility that gets people into it, and we went down so well on those European shows, and the UK shows. I think that’s helped a lot as well.
Andy: I think that one thing that’s definitely in our favour, especially on the newer stuff… well, I guess we sort of started on Hard to Kill, but definitely on this new record – there’s just a catchiness to it. And we have a swing and a swagger that makes you… some of our stuff’s still really riffy and heavy, but it’s not just any old sort of riffing. There’s a swagger and a swing to it. It’ll be easier for people to pick up on that now.
You know, we like to think we’re doing it authentically. It’s not like we wanted to become more accessible, it’s just how we feel ass a band. I think a lot of it is due to the fact that not really any of us just sit there and listen to metal music all the time. Frank, when we’re playing gigs, he’s playing like funk music at full volume on his little stereo. We listen to loads of things, so it just makes it more interesting for us musically, and now it’s come across on the stuff.
So, you know, I think without trying to be… I think there is still that authenticity there, and it doesn’t sound forced and, whether unconsciously or not, I like to think that people pick up on that and we have that swing and that swagger, and that’s what brings people in. It’s also what helps differentiate us from bands with a similar sort of grounding to us – a similar genre. And you know, we like to think of ourselves as a rock band. We’re not like a sludge band or a metal band or a doom band. We’re a rock band, so we just want to play music and have a good time and let people have a good time with us.
Dan: It’s all about the riff. You’ve got to have a good riff, and I think a lot of bands miss that nowadays as well – there’s no riffs anymore. [Laughs] It’s just music or rhythms.
It’s that whole monster groove, isn’t it – there’s something so engaging about that kind of mid-tempo, head banging riff. It’s so instinctive.
Andy: I heard another interview where it was jokingly described as “racket core”
Nice! That’s a bit backhanded!
Dan: Of course! [laughs]
Andy: We just want to make a racket and have a good time doing it.
Dan: I thought you were on about tennis! [Laughs]
The album art has kind of gone from the sublime to the ridiculous – from the art you had from Lost Ritual, to the 80s Teen Wolf vibe in the new one. Who designed it for you and how involved were the band?
Dan: I think that came about from… we decided that we wanted to call the album Night Wolf. Frank and Gordon liked the idea of Teen Wolf from, you know, the early days and things – so, we knew we should have a wolf, and it should be this, and should look like that. So, Gordon’s talking with Dominic Sohor, and he drew the basic wolf. And then Daf actually joined the band just a few months before we recorded and he’s a graphic designer and he was coming out with all these ideas and stuff and we were like “right then, have a chat with Dominic” and Daf ended up taking over the artwork, and Dominic left it with him because Daf had all these ideas, and it basically grew from there.
And then it was like, well, we love the 80s [laughs] we all love that time – TV, movies, music, colours – everything. Gordon’s quite a bright person, colour wise. And he always wears tie dye stuff, and he wanted it bright. It just ended up becoming a bit more of an 80s theme – the artwork – and it’s all from what we like, and I guess that’s what influenced the videos as well – Night Wolf’s a pastiche of Teen Wolf; the new one’s basically the wrestling from the late 80s / early 90s.
And, yeah, like the inside of the album, everything is great, and it’s all 80’s influenced. So, as an involvement, we were very involved, because Daf’s obviously the guitarist and he did everything after Dominic’s initial drawing. And it’s turned out great. We’re all just well happy with it.
Andy: The vinyl’s going to be obnoxious pink [laughs]. You can see it from space while it’s spinning on your deck! I wanted the vinyl to be uber pink!
Dan: I wanted it to glow in the dark as well, but… too expensive.
It reminds me of the old 80s video rental shops, and the horror section in particular always had that garish vibe to it – it’s really cool.
Dan: Yeah, we talk about it all the time in the band. It always ends up with some conversation about an 80s movie, or we have Erasure or the Communards on in the van. We turn up to a gig and everyone’s playing metal, and we’re playing 80s pop bangers! [Laughs] It’s just the way we are, it’s what we love, and we always talk about it. It was just natural for us to do it.
Andy: And another thing is that I’m really happy about the fact that vinyl has made a comeback because another cool thing about the 70s / 80s, album artwork was always made to be on a vinyl – the size of a vinyl. You’ve got this amazing artwork that, on a CD [mime’s searching a postage-stamp sized image].
I used to joke with my other band, when we got our first album on vinyl, like “smell the glove is here!” [Laughs] It’s something to get excited about. There’s something about having an album on vinyl – you can properly look at the artwork and there’s just something more interesting about it than having a CD or a download. I love the fact that we’ve gone with that, that the artwork will look amazing and then you take the vinyl out and it’s going to be a crazy pink. It’s awesome. You haven’t even put it on yet and it’s awesome!
I love that – I still read all the liner notes, and it’s so much more exciting. I can’t listen to downloads – they don’t feel real when they’re on the computer only. I can’t quite explain it, but there’s a tangibility to records that makes them so much more special.
Andy: Just having the sleeve in your hand. It’s a decent size. You can hold it. It’s not like a CD. It’s a proper physical thing with the artwork the size it’s supposed to be. So, I’m really glad it’s one thing that has made a comeback. Just having a physical vibe to it, just gives a bit more meaning to it.
Dan: Yeah, I mean streaming’s great, but I remember queuing up at midnight outside HMV for The Black Album by Metallica. You know, kids don’t have that nowadays. You don’t have to save up for your favourite record, CD, or cassette. When it comes out, you just stream it. Which is great in a way. It has its advantages.
Andy: With a vinyl, you have to listen more. You put it on and let it go. Whereas unfortunately, a lot of people in this day and age, they just cherry pick songs on Spotify, so you don’t get the whole vibe of the thing. You just like this song or that song, and it’s… for me, it’s like some of my favourite songs were just album tracks.
Dan: Yeah, that’s very true. Not the singles.
Andy: And you just wouldn’t come across that stuff if you were just cherry-picking stuff.
That’s how you become a fan- through the deep cuts – they’re something you treasure, and it changes your relationship with the band over time.
Dan: Absolutely.
And, with that, Dan and Andy are off to the next interview. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, Night Wolf is absolutely fucking awesome and you need a copy in your life.
