Pulled Apart By Horses Think Sleep Is For The Dead

The Leeds four-piece that goes by the name Pulled Apart By Horses had their most recent taste of life Down Under during this year's Soundwave festival, but are pumped to be returning for their own headline shows — four shows in three cities over four nights — but then, "Sleep's the enemy," guitarist James Brown says laughing.

"If you sleep, you're a loser. If you're in a different country it's too exciting to sleep. You want to go out and meet people after the show, then go swimming in the sea. Of course, if we were in England we'd probably sleep all day and all night, but I don't think we'll be sleeping on this tour."

"If you're in a different country it's too exciting to sleep. You want to go out and meet people after the show, then go swimming in the sea."

A year has passed since they released third album, Blood. "By the time we'd written those songs and recorded them," Brown explains, "those songs had been around for a year as well. So to us, those songs are practically two years old now. They've definitely aged and we're all really proud of them, but it's weird because it's been so long since we actually wrote and recorded them.

"We've already started the next record. We've begun writing and demoing and it's going a bit quicker than it normally does. So the game plan — aside from the fact that we never usually have a game plan — is that we're going to play some new stuff. We fucking love touring Australia, so we'll probably play a few songs off each of our albums as well as two or three new ones to see if Australia think they're complete shit or not."

One thing that Australians won't have to judge so critically is the band's on-stage presence. "I'm sure it's got something to do with nervous energy and ADHD and being impatient, but when we get on stage everything seems to change; it's like all this stuff just comes out. As soon as we get on stage this thing just happens and we all go fucking mental."

The four members have an innate ability to read each other's cues on stage, a skill no doubt learned through their long friendship. It's a skill that stretches beyond the stage and into their everyday lives. Even when they're not doing band stuff, they can be found hanging out together, drinking and watching bands in their hometown.

"The music scene in Leeds is thriving at the moment. Obviously it's one of the things that helped to propel the band when we started out in the early days and now there are loads of bands in Leeds so it's awesome.

"Kaiser Chiefs were a massive Leeds band during the indie phase that was happening at the time, but now there are lots of folk musicians and electro artists alongside the rock bands who are doing great things."