As The Horrors ready a long-awaited run of Australian headline dates, founding vocalist Faris Badwan reflects on their early days, their two-decade career, and new music.
If you were a card-carrying member of the mid-’00s garage/indie rock scene, it’s rather difficult to have escaped The Horrors.
Emerging out of the vibrant English musical community, the band’s members shared a mutual fondness for post punk icons like The Birthday Party, and – filtering this influence through a classic garage rock lens – it didn’t take long for nascent fans to catch on.
Debut single Sheena Is A Parasite came on fast, with its disturbing music video and frenetic composition turning heads. Before long, more singles followed, and so too did an EP and the band’s debut album, Strange House.
This rapid ascent brought the ostensibly-gloomy Englishmen down to Australia for 2007’s Splendour In The Grass festival, with Big Day Out and Laneway festivals fostering their respective returns in 2010 and 2012.
Since then, it had been all quiet on the southern front, with The Horrors staying away from our shores until a one-off return for 2025’s DARK MOFO.
It wasn’t like they’d been sitting on their hands during this time away, either. The group issued new records Luminous and V in 2014 and 2017, respectively, with their long-awaited sixth album, Night Life, arriving just months before their 2025 return.
As vocalist Faris Badwan tells The Music, their latest record was one that helped empower the group somewhat.
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“I think releasing an album is quite emotionally intense,” he explains, “Because in some cases you’ve spent years kind of trying to put this thing together.
“I think this one was particularly intense just because it had been seven years since our last full length record, and a lot has happened both in the world and within the band in that time. We also have a lot of new members and that whole thing, but I think it felt quite reenergising.
“It was a really good feeling to be playing again, especially after time without.”
As Badwan indicates, there was a bit of a line-up shift between these past two records. While founding bassist/keyboardist Tom Furse would depart in 2021, so too would founding drummer Joseph Spurgeon follow in 2024, and guitarist Joshua Hayward following the recording of Night Life.
Only Badwan and multinstrumentalist Rhys Webb remain from their formation. These days, the group is rounded out by Amelia Kidd on vocals and keys, Jordan Cook on drums, and John Victor on guitar.
The loss of this original line-up could be seen as something of a loss of control for The Horrors, though Badwan admits that a learning curve in the band’s so-called ‘creative process’ has been focused around the notion of letting go and relinquishing control.
“When you’re a new band and you get into the studio for the first time, you learn everything is about the spontaneity of being in this new environment, and in my case, I’d never set foot in a studio before we did our first single,” Badwan admits. “And it’s trying to work out what the expectations are of that, of that setting, and also what the possibilities are, which in itself is really exciting, especially when you’re 18.
“So you’re sort of learning which elements you can have control over and what you can maybe do with them. And then when you get to 20 years later, it’s about trying to find the parts of it that feel new and give you that same feeling that you had when you’re basically a kid.
“I think you’re always trying to capture that,” he adds. “The things that can spark the spontaneity and the whole approach of looking at things like a child. I think that’s like the best way to be in the studio.”
Likewise, part of this evolution that The Horrors have gone through is not only from a personnel point of view, but one of learning about what best suits the music they’re making.
After all, if Night Life was crafted with the concerted notion of approaching things through the eyes of a child, then they’re rather precocious children who understand the importance of depth and silence in the recording process.
“Realistically, it’s not the same band [as it used to be],” Badwan explains. “It’s me and Rhys writing now and it has been for a while, but I think that it’s interesting to me how you can learn a lot and you can be in different sessions and sort of honing ideas and how to express yourself.
“But the instinctive part, the part where you’re sort of reacting to things and trusting your ability to be responsive, that stuff is actually so similar to the way you are when you first start creating things. It doesn’t change as much as you would think, and I feel like I get better at expressing certain emotions or better at understanding the value of space.
“That’s a big lesson that I think often takes people a long time to learn,” he continues. “You just do not have to fill [the song] with loads of stuff – sometimes the atmosphere is [what’s important].
“I like trusting my ability to be responsive. I think I’m way better when I don’t think about things. I think that acting on instinct is when the best stuff comes out and it’s when somehow things feel more human to me that way. It’s just as much about learning as it is about unlearning and making sure that you’re not being too self-conscious.”
More than 20 years into the group’s career, the existence of The Horrors now makes up the majority of Badwan’s life. As such, the two-decade mark also brings with it a chance to reflect on these past two decades, including an admission that he’d never quite expected The Horrors to reach 2025.
“We had one ambition, which was to make our own seven-inch record,” he remembers. “That’s how we all met, through DJing seven-inches and sharing music. But in my head, even though I had no concept of what it would mean, I thought, ‘Oh, I’d love to do three albums.’
“I mean, some of my favorite bands only made one, two albums, whatever – even three is quite a big ask. I didn’t even really intend on doing music when I was 17 or 18, so I didn’t really plan to still be doing it 20 years later.”
Even at the time, it’s likely fair to say that some of The Horrors’ harshest critics hadn’t expected such longevity from the band.
At the start of their career, the group were occasionally viewed as something of a typical buzz band by the harsher critics, and one deemed unlikely to stick around once the initial excitement wore off. However, this idea of being underestimated is one that has always seemed preferable to Badwan.
“I think it’s a better position to be in when you’re doing stuff,” he notes. “And I think that my favourite records that we’ve done have been ones that were made with less expectation. I think a lot of that expectation comes from internal pressure, but it’s often things that you build up in your own head.
“It goes back to the instinctive thing. I think that you make better stuff when you’re less self-conscious, and adding expectation from external pressure is not for me – just not really the way I like to work.
“If I’d seen us live where the early shows were quite aggressive and very chaotic, but fun and unpredictable, I wouldn’t necessarily have expected a band like that to last for as long as we have.”
Thankfully, The Horrors have persisted despite their admittedly-low expectations of themselves, with numerous trips to Australia being part of their itineraries over the years.
Reflecting on the band’s relationship with Australia, Badwan admits that the group long adored their time spent in Australia, having played on the Laneway line-up with acts such as Twin Shadow, Girls, and more, while the Big Day Out trip saw them sharing a bill with the likes of The Mars Volta, Tame Impala, and more.
“We’ve particularly always enjoyed playing in Australia just because it seems like the audience – for some reason – have always been really engaged,” he explains. “I couldn’t believe how long it had been when I realised that we haven’t done a headline tour for more than 10 years.
“I really loved those early shows, and some people that were at those early shows came on our last trip when we were doing this Triple R radio session. We were doing these stripped-down versions of some of the songs and some of the people that came had been at our 2007 shows.”
While the crowds were undoubtedly seeing a different version of The Horrors than what had first visited in 2007, so too was the experience a vastly different one for the band. However, there wasn’t exactly a feeling as though the band needed to make up for lost time. Instead, they felt a strong desire to get back on Australian stages after so long and pick up where they first left.
Of course, putting the question of the reason behind this lengthy absence to Badwan, he admits he’s not quite sure why their previous albums didn’t come accompanied by Australian dates.
“I think we got maybe to a point where some members didn’t enjoy touring as much, and maybe that limited it in some cases,” he muses. “The current line-up is excited by the prospects.”
Now though, The Horrors will be visiting Australian shores for their first full headline tour since 2007. With dates scheduled in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth from April 10th through April 15th.
Admittedly, they’re eager to get back on-ground and show Australian audiences what they’ve properly been missing. “My favourite shows are instinctive and a little unpredictable, and I think that even as the nuance in our music changes, and the kind of feelings that the songs give you change, the intensity remains,” Badwan notes.
“My favourite shows are when you can sort of engage with the energy of the audience to make something that feels like it’s ‘in the moment’. That kind of connection that you get when you go to see a band that you love, it can’t really be replaced.
“We’re in a really different world in 2026 from the way it was in 2006, but I think that you get something from live music that you can’t really replace elsewhere,” he adds.
While The Horrors are indicating that Australian fans certainly won’t have to wait quite as long between visits next time, they’re also indicating that the latest album might be followed up with new material sooner rather than later.
“We’re lucky because I think [Night Life] almost feels like the first album of a new group in some ways,” Badwan explains. “We did a sort of double David Bowie cover with the new band at the end of last year, and that was the first time this new version of The Horrors had all been in the studio together.
“I think the fact that the line-up has changed has opened a lot of doors and it’s kind of fun to just explore those,” he adds. “That newness is essential for making the best stuff, so I think we’ll start on new songs pretty soon.
“I’m enjoying it in the same way that I’ve always enjoyed it.”
Tickets to The Horrors’ Australian tour are on sale now.
The Horrors – Night Life Australia 2026
With special guests
Friday, April 10th – Princess Theatre, Brisbane, QLD
Saturday, April 11th – Manning Bar, Sydney, NSW
Sunday, April 12th – Northcote Theatre, Melbourne, VIC
Tuesday, April 14th – Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide, SA
Wednesday, April 15th – Rosemount, Perth, WA
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source themusic.com.au ’
