Sludge metal experimentalists Sugar Horse have always been a band that pushes the boundaries when it comes to music.
Since their 2021 debut album The Live Long After, Sugar Horse have been constantly evolving, searching for their definitive sound without placing too much emphasis on finding it. To them music is the reward and the less restrictions placed upon its creation the more natural and satisfying it will be.
The band are on the cusp of releasing their second album, The Grand Scheme Of Things, which sees Sugar Horse edging closer towards their ultimate goal without jeopardising their addictive quirkiness and scope of production.
HEAVY caught up with vocalist Ashley Tubbs to find out more.
"It's been a long time coming," he stressed. "The release campaign has been long, and we recorded it quite a while ago now. I'm itching to finally have it out in the world, so folks can hear it, and it's not just me listening to it by myself (laughs)."
We ask Ash to tell us more about The Grand Scheme Of Things musically.
"Our previous releases have been pretty extended, between six and nine minutes long," he offered, "so we thought we'd try and move in a different direction for this record. So all of the songs are more… pop structure… so there's lots of verses and lots of choruses and everything tends to be under the five-minute mark. Most of our stuff… we plan stuff out from a songwriting challenge perspective, so the challenge is fun for us. Shortening - with music as slow as we play it - you get to (laughs) verse two and five minutes have already passed, so it was a big challenge to condense all of that into a four and a half minute song."
In the full interview, Ash highlighted the band's shift from their traditional extended space rock style to a more concise pop structure, addressing the challenges of creating shorter songs and the editing process they underwent to refine their music. The conversation then turned to Sugar Horse's evolving music career, particularly their collaboration with various artists on the EP Waterloo Teeth, where he shared insights into his experimental approach to songwriting, drawing inspiration from diverse sources and visualizing concepts before crafting them into music. The meeting concluded with Ash expressing optimism and a clear sense of direction for his future projects, indicating potential for continued artistic growth.