Why They Didn't Plan Much Beyond Album #1

“We’d never really planned anything beyond the first album [Moments From Ephemeral City],” singer Jim Grey admits. “It was just meant to be a little ephemeral project of itself. The response we had worldwide was really what triggered us to go, ‘Well, you know we should probably do this!’ We’ve got a very fervent fanbase all around the world.”

Caligula’s Horse began as a solo project by multi-instrumentalist/audio engineer/producer Sam Vallen, who had an album nearly done when, in 2011, he invited Grey to add some guest vocals.

"Harmonic density is a big thing that we go for, lots of bright colours and things like that in the sound; that’s what we really want to capture"

“After we’d done that, we realised how well we worked together, how easy the process was and how good the sounds we were coming up with were, so we started looking for a fuller sound – you can hear that almost in the first single from that album, The City Has No Empathy, because that’s the one we collaborated on. From there, once the other guys joined, obviously it was like, ‘Cool, we’ve got this sound now.’ That’s when to The Tide, The Thief & River’s End happened.”

It was positive reviews of Moments From Ephemeral City on the Prog Archives website that caught the attention of international prog fans, which prompted Vallen and Grey to find some like-minded compatriots to develop the studio project into a living, breathing musical entity, which led to The Tide, The Thief & River’s End, which in turn led to their being contacted by The Agency Group. This will see them in the States promoting their third album, the first taste of which, A Gift To Afterthought, is the single on which they’re touring nationally through January. 

“We go away and demo these things and bedroom-produce them to the best our ability,” says Grey, “and once they’re complete in that regard we’re able to take them to the guys and rehearse them in a live context. But it’s all written and arranged at home pretty much. We sort of set out with particular things in mind ‘cause we’ve got a particular approach that we want to have with the music and the things we want to capture are a bit different and a little bit more like us. So harmonic density is a big thing that we go for, lots of bright colours and things like that in the sound; that’s what we really want to capture. So all of these elements that we’ve realised over the last couple of years make our sound, those will be enhanced on the next album. So we’re aiming for even more colour, more brightness, more depth in terms of harmonies and trying to make it as fun and enjoyable and as hooky as we possibly can.”