“We're massive geeks, really”: The Line of Best Fit speaks to Pulled Apart By Horses

“Luckily we’ve managed to keep the momentum going”, he continues. “I feel like the release of the first album was yesterday.” The band’s debut album, Pulled Apart By Horses, was released in mid-2010 to outstanding reviews, and summed up three years of heart-rending riffs, screams and incessant touring. “It was essentially all the songs we had at the time”, Tom explains. “We’d written a set and toured the shit out of it, and basically thought ‘we’re gonna record an album; we need to write a couple more songs.’”

As the band approach the release of their second album, Tough Love, however, Tom reflects on the differences in making it to the first. “We’ve had enough time, this time around, to let things develop naturally” he says. “We recorded the first one in just over a week, and it felt like a bit of a blur. With this one we’ve had a year of writing and trying stuff out. You wanna create an album that’s a good, solid all-rounder instead of a big mash-up of things.”

“If you wanna get something done, we’ve always thought it’s better to do it yourself”, he continues. “Me and Rob do all the artwork for the band. I’ve been designing a new shirt for us just now actually, but I’ve been staring at a computer screen for too long to know if it’s any good.”

On the subject of the digitalisation of music and illegal downloading, Tom is outspoken about the attitudes that he thinks are important. “It’s there and it’s happening” , he muses. “People are always, at some point along the line, gonna have your album and it’s gonna end up on the internet and people are going to download it. For us though, that’s why we wanna spend more time on things like the artwork and videos, and try to keep up that whole package that will give people a reason to buy an album.”

I ask if he thinks a band’s label can make a difference when it comes to making releases that are something more than just a collection of tracks. He not only heartily agrees but says it’s something that’s been important to them since the release of their first single ‘Meat Balloon’ on Big Scary Monsters. “Part of the reason we first wanted to go with BSM is that they understand all that, and they always want to give that little bit more to the people who buy their releases.” The band have, for three years, been signed to Transgressive records, a label responsible for artists such as The Shins, Foals and The Antlers. “It’s a similar thing with us and Transgressive”, he continues. “They’re a bigger indie label but they’re still very indie when it comes down to releases. They’re always into doing that little bit more with our stuff, which we love.”

It’s clearly a very good attitude to have, as the band have often sold out of their limited-edition singles. One such example would be the 2011 re-release of ‘I Punched A Lion In The Throat’, for which Tom and Rob did the individual artwork by hand. “We didn’t want it to just be another standard printed seven inch as the song had already been around for a while. I think it sold out within a couple of days, so it really is about giving something back.” He also remarks, “‘There’s nothing better than having a 12″ vinyl of one of your favourite bands. I think people are realising that the artwork and the lyrics and everything else that goes in the package are really just as important.”

On Monday the band released ‘V.E.N.O.M.’, the album’s ferocious lead single that centres around Tom howling the title over some of the most thunderous instrumentation the band have pulled out of the bag yet. In the spirit of keeping the release a bit special, he says the group wanted to make it something of an EP. “We wanted to release ‘V.E.N.O.M.’ with a couple of tracks that we couldn’t find a place for on the album, but didn’t want to lose.” He continues testily, “I really love a good B-side as they’re something really personal for the die-hard fans. It’s such a shame when they’re wasted.”

I mention to Tom that I noticed Tough Love also sees the band growing in lyrical content. “A lot of the lyrics on Tough Love are a bit more to the point”, he agrees. “So many bands are constantly singing about doom and gloom, and I was trying to give myself a bit of a kick up the arse as well. So yeah, a lot of the content is pretty positive. The other half is generally a collection of weird metaphors.”

“Me and James are massive geeks, really”, he chuckles. “On the first album there were lyrics based on The Legend of Zelda games, which we both love, and on the new one there are a couple of songs inspired by some weird Italian horror films from the 70s I’ve been watching recently.”

Eventually, the conversation turns to Pulled Apart By Horses’ infamous live shows. The band are renowned as one of the most intense live bands in the country, and have always relentlessly lived up to it. On several occasions, band members have been hospitalised due to their savage onstage antics. Tom assures me that, although they occasionally burn themselves out when touring, it’s still something they relish as a group. “The pressure’s been stepped up a bit now, but when it comes down to playing live, most of the other stuff doesn’t really matter.”

“We’ve always been seen as a live band though” he continues with an ever-so-slightly resentful air. “It’s just as important to us now as it was in the beginning, but it’d be great if with this album people would say we’re a good live band but have some decent songs too.”

On the subject of their live sound, Tom animatedly talks about working with legendary producer Gil Norton on Tough Love. “One of the reasons we were so excited for Gil to produce the album is that he understood that, sonically, we wanted to keep that raw, human element in it. It couldn’t be overproduced. We definitely wanted it to sound bigger than the first album, but you don’t wanna end up overdubbing twenty wanky guitars.”

As the conversation is invariably bound to do, it turns to how the group feel about where they are in their career, and whether or not they still feel disbelief when they hit a big milestone. “We still get that all the time, to be honest man. Everything we do we’re really grateful for” he says. “Things like supporting Muse a few years back… I mean, it’s completely ridiculous, but fuck it, why not give it a try and see what happens?”

As Tom pauses to light a cigarette, he continues; “When the band started off, we didn’t really intend to do anything with it, which I kinda think helped us get this far. It took up so much of our time we all lost our jobs, and from there it was pretty much the only way forward.”

“We had no idea this would happen, but it’s amazing. Everything that happens, we’re still like ‘fuck’.” Tom takes a long pause and says emphatically, “If we were to lose that excitement, there’d just be no point in doing any of it any more. It’s not like we’re gonna become millionaires off this.” He laughs heartily. “Even though we’re all absolutely skint… We were all skint in the first place, so it’s nice to be doing something like this instead of jobs we hate.”

We suddenly realise that the conversation has been going on for an hour and decide it’s probably time to call it a day, but not before Tom remarks how nice it is to have a decent chat about the band. Really though, that’s what Pulled Apart By Horses are – a group of nice, passionate guys doing things that make them happy, and welcoming anybody who cares to take an interest; something which, if Tough Love is any indication, is definitely not something to be sniffed at. Fingers crossed 2012 will as good to them as they so obviously deserve.

Pulled Apart By Horses release Tough Love on 23 January 2012.