- Always Late The Horn 3:53
‘Always Late’ is a timeless lament to an all-too-human shortcoming from indie-rock newcomers The Horn. Encapsulated in layers of swaying rhythms and dreamy-eyed melodies; the listener will be drawn into the anaphoric retelling of the many, many times where punctuality has failed the hapless protagonist at the heart of ‘Always Late’. It’s a relatable figure who was spun into reality by bassist and songwriter Nick True and then brought into audible life through Jonny Taylor’s charming vocals.
While this slow-burning track could be taken at face value, it also echoes something much deeper than poor timekeeping. At its core, you’ll discover the shared mortal inability to control the passage of time and events as they unfold before us. We imagine that we have power over such things, but ultimately the clock beats us to it and we’re somehow always late.
Offering the backstory to ‘Always Late’ is quite naturally the man behind the words, Nick True, who explains that:
“I am always late to literally everything, it’s because I’m always doing two things at once and so is Jonny, so I started to write it about me then midway through I made it about us both. That was a fun thing to do, so when I first played it to Jonny [Taylor] he laughed and then helped me polish it. We have such a great writing vibe – we sit down together and just bounce off each other, adding and deleting lines, words, chords and sections and at the end look back at what we did and have a drink to celebrate it. I read recently how Paul McCartney said he and John Lennon used to always come up with something; it’s the same with me and Jonny, somehow we always come up with something, it’s not always good of course, but sometimes we are happy and ‘Always Late’ was one of those happy moments.”
On the other side of that same coin, we hear from the band’s vocalist and guitarist Jonny Taylor, who recalls:
“When I first heard Nick sing and play it on guitar, I knew it was a hit, so we figured out the rest and I went home and made a demo version of it in my flat in my rudimentary set up. The production for me needed to be lazy synths and tender acoustic guitars that weren’t going anywhere in a hurry, like Nick. The track needed to sound ‘late’. Danny [Monk] and I are always waiting for Nick at the studio on recording days — but often I’ll turn it around and be the late one too, so it was a perfect song to play with Nick together onstage. But, it’s a pure song from him. Again, I think it proves simple songs are the most arresting.”
‘Always Late’ is The Horn’s sophomore single following on from rambunctious debut ‘Passion’, which has garnered early praise from the likes of Louder Than War, Indie Music Nation, Beautiful Buzzz, The Other Side Reviews, Reyt Good Magazine and many more, as well as Hoxton Radio’s Tallulah Styron.
About The Horn
The Horn are Jonny Taylor (voice, guitar), Danny Monk (guitars, programming), Nick True (bass), Ed Cox (keyboards) and Alex Moorse (drums) but it hasn’t always been like this: several moments ago, songwriter and erstwhile Friends Of Gavin bassist Nick True – to the uninitiated, F.O.G. were an acclaimed, north London five-piece who toured the UK with REM at the end of the last century, and ended up never releasing an album – recruited multi-instrumentalist Danny Monk to see what magic might occur. Monk, a Sound Technology graduate from Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (founded by Paul McCartney) had a studio in Baker Street and much production/recording experience throughout the USA (including the Village studio in West Hollywood), and It’s his eclectic chutzpah that gives the Horn its mid-Atlantic appeal. Correspondingly, once you hear Danny’s superb guitar work on Passion, you’ll understand why he cites late ‘70s New York No Wave art-rockers Television as a major influence and why “Room on Fire, Is This It? and anything by the Ramones” are not far behind.
Born in Massachusetts, but relocating to Cornwall at the age of two – his thespian upbringing ensured that by the time he was nine, he was treading the boards at the Minack Theatre – Jonny Taylor turns out to be the ace in the pack. Having said that, he easily mightn’t have been: in 2011, after travelling through Thailand and Cambodia, Jonny ended up breaking his leg in a horrific motorcycle accident in Laos, before multiple surgeries ensured he would walk again two years later. Once back in the UK, and several years after this, Jonny, Danny and Kingston-born drummer Alex Moorse formed a band called Montrell – Elton John played their music on his Rocket Hour Radio Show last year – before fate intervened in the form of Nick True and (Edinburgh-born, Newcastle University graduate) keyboardist Ed Cox, who joined forces to make up the finer reaches of The Horn.
At this point in proceedings, you’d be forgiven for thinking, if the Horn didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent them, and you’d be right. Indeed, one listen to their songs will convince you, you’ve had them knocking around the house for years. But whilst New Order, Talk Talk and the Lotus Eaters all get an outing as influences, you also get fabulous song titles and subject matters: the Department Of Fate is so-monikered after a phrase in Goldfinger lyricist Lesley Bricusse’s 2006 autobiography – “The Department of Fate has taken good care of me” – and conjures up an image of a world where our comings and goings are controlled by a benevolent bunch of faceless civil servants; the Ashes to Ashes-tinged No.8 Dreams features a lachrymose dreamer still dreaming whist fighting at ‘shit parties’; and Do It Now is a Seize The Day call to arms for anyone disaffected and tardy enough to demand such things. The latter is surely the Horn’s signature song and a distinct reminder that it’s possible to throw the Strokes, Lightning Seeds and Psychedelic Furs into the mix and still get more than the sum of the constituent parts. But, hey, that’s where we came in.
SOURCE: Official Bio
