The Horrors are the square peg everyone is trying to shove into the round hole. They are the band, creating a huge buzz in England and for that matter wherever they go. Musically, fans and critics have tried to label and categorize there music as garage rock, punk or gothic. They are criticized for how they dress and look by some, and loved for their appearance by others, but no matter what your opinion is on that, these lads are creating some damn good music and are not staying in line or following any rules while they are doing it. Faris Badwan is the lead singer in this band, and also did the artwork for the album cover and had his own art showing at the Bodhi gallery on Brick Lane in London this past October. Obviously burnt out on the same basic questions he has answered over and over again - he still graciously gave MUEN magazine his umpteenth interview and along with various quotes from the band members Joshua Third-guitar, Tomethy Furse-Bass, Spider "Rhys" Webb - Combo organ, and Coffin Joe-Drums, we give you a quick glimpse of this world called The Horrors.

"One of the reasons we were all attracted to each other and got talking to each other was because we had a similar look and all realized we had similar interests." ....Tomethy Furse to BBC Berkshire Entertainment

MUEN: How did you all get together?

FB: We wanted to find some means of being asked the question "How did you all get together?" on a daily basis, and decided the best course of action would be to form a band.

" The original idea was to be in a band playing garage covers, but as soon as we started writing our own songs it was painfully obvious that this was not going to be how we were going to sound ourselves".....Tomethy Furse to Drowned in Sound, Disband"

MUEN: When I am listening to your music, it is not just garage rock or punk, you have some techno and industrial sounds going on in there to. How would you describe your music and are you planning on fusing more musical styles together in the future?

FB: It’s very hard to categorise your own music as you listen to it with different ears. We have a great passion for many different types of music and things we like invariably influence us but we have no "plan" as such.

MUEN: Is it a group effort in the writing of the music and lyrics or who gets credit for creating the great sounds coming from this band?

FB: I write the lyrics but musically it’s totally democratic and responsibility is shared evenly... it’s not an easy way of doing things.

"We really didn’t set out to conquer the world, ’The thing we thought about was maybe putting out a seven inch single. We’re all record collectors, so the idea of just doing that was exciting enough.’....Joshua von Grimm to The List

MUEN: I am always interested in the answer to this question from musicians who are creating new sounds... Who were or are your musical influences?

FB: Musicians who have great integrity and passion behind their work... people who push boundaries, innovators - My Bloody Valentine, DNA, Kraftwerk, Bo Diddley...

MUEN: I love "Gloves" and "Sheena is a Parasite". The video to Sheena is awesome. (Produced by Chris Cunningham - acclaimed video music producer and video artist, whose first promo in 7 years was "Sheena is a Parasite" for The Horrors, a band that Chris picked off MySpace.) What is your favorite (and the bands favorite) song to perform live?

FB: I like playing "New Ice Age," a fairly new song that hasn’t been released yet.

It’s weird, because when we do gigs we just set out to play our songs and try not to annoy or wind up anyone - but we often cause loads of trouble in the process", "Still, we’re not interested in pleasing everybody. And we certainly don’t have a problem with pissing people off in the process. We don’t care what people think of us. If we upset people we’re not bothered in the slightest......Rhys Spider Web

MUEN: A Documentary was made about your tour last June in the U.S. What would you say was the best and worst moments of that tour? Are the American fans different than the European fans? (Come on..you know I gotta ask)

FB: People are different in every country. In some ways every state in the US is different too... the people in Sweden were very persistent."

Coffin Joe: We love playing around the country and seeing how people respond to us, as the London gig circuit is a small world. We just want everyone to hear our music, and if that means appearing in cool fashion magazines then so be it".... to Neily blogspot

MUEN: Are you still putting out the fanzines(mini booklets) and can you give a little information on how those came about?

FB: We are still putting out fanzines... we wanted to give people a further insight into the Horrors’ world- both music and other things we’re interested in. Josh wrote an article on effects pedals for the last one.. And we take it in turns to compile a CD - I did a girl group one, Rhys did a sounds from outer space one, etc. I illustrate the pages too.

MUEN: You are playing Coachella this year. You missed it last year but the band played a lot of other music festivals last year. As a music lover I LOVE music festivals. It gives me a chance to not only see my favorite bands, but to be able to listen and see live performances of bands I have never heard of before. What is it like on your end as a musician playing these festivals?

FB: It’s very different to small club shows obviously... the sound is invariably a lot worse at festivals and there are more technical problems, but the overall experience is usually great - getting to see bands you like, being seen by people who may not otherwise have come to a show.

MUEN: Okay, you get up there at Coachella, tear it up as you play your set..... then what are you going to do after that? Mingle with the crowd? Go see other bands perform? Grab a few groupies? Sleep? Travel on to the next gig? What....? Inquiring minds want to know..

FB: I’m going to build some sandcastles and hunt for sand crabs.

By RL Segarra