HORRORS FIND SANCTUARY
The DIY route’s appeal is in its affordability.
That all goes out the window when you’re paying East London rents on a ‘home’ studio.
UK goth rockers-turned-electronic post punk darlings The Horrors, had diligently plowed away in their own studio for five years, when “we had a look at the total amount of rent paid over the years and it was this huge number!” keyboardist Tom Furse explained. “It was insane.”
The band had built the studio in the bones of an old loading dock with the express purpose of recording their third album themselves. Their debut, Strange House — produced and mixed by an array of UK greats including Alan Moulder and Ben Hillier — had been pretty straightforward garage rock with a goth-punk edge. At the time, Furse was almost exclusively pumping out horror-movie licks on an organ. Their next effort, the Mercury Prize-nominated Primary Colours, was mostly produced by Portishead’s Geoff Barrow. His involvement helped embellish the band’s aesthetic with more electronic instrumentation. With a bit of encouragement, the band decided to self-produce their next record, Skying, out of their own studio. It was a creative success, so they followed the same path for their fourth album, Luminous.
It wasn’t a huge leap to go DIY, considering the band have dictated their sonic aesthetic from day one. Plus, Furse is an expert programmer, and guitarist Joshua Hayward is an electronics whiz who builds and mods all his own pedals. Once, when bored with standard chorus pedal options, Hayward built
