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The Horrors: Back and under the influence with their album, ‘Skying’ – Metro US

The Horrors: Back and under the influence with their album, ‘Skying’

Faris Badwan might be a tad sick of journalists telling him that his band’s sound is influenced the Psychedelic Furs or early ’90s shoegaze. While they may be apt observations, the frontman for the British band is befuddled by all the talk of his predecessors.

“I just don’t understand it because I don’t know what it means. Everyone judges bands on their influences, don’t they?” Badwan reasons. “What people should be aware of is that every band exists because of other bands. You make music because you’re inspired by other groups. No band is entirely original. I don’t understand why some bands have their influences talked about more often than others.”

That the imprint of other earlier bands seems to be so clear for The Horrors — no matter how effective it may be for their dark, dreamy garage sound — may have led the group to be unfairly pigeonholed. But the band also associates itself with a variety of other groups, like trip-hop pioneers Portishead, with member Geoff Barrow producing their last album “Primary Colours.” Since Portishead is curating this weekend’s I’ll Be Your Mirror festival in Asbury Park, N.J., the band invited The Horrors along. We asked if there was potential for a Horrors-Portishead collaboration.

“I doubt with The Horrors, but on some level,” Badwan says. “I like the way [Geoff Barrow] works. I enjoy working with him and hanging out with him.”

The wind, rain and the sunset

The theme for this year’s I’ll Be Your Mirror series seems to be “I find it hard to believe you don’t know the beauty you are.” If you don’t get that reference, it’s a lyric from the Velvet Underground song which gives the weekend its name. Regardless, the two main headliners, Portis-head and Jeff Mangum have been missing from the touring circuit for several years. Thinking Fel-lers Union Local 282, Cha-vez, Shellac and Public Enemy also have not released any new material in years. But IBYM also mixes in a number of up-and-coming indie acts such as Cults and DD/MM/YYYY.