Horse the Band Doesn’t Want to Ruffle Feathers … as Much as They Used To

Southern California's Horse the Band have always been a controversial band. They've never been ones to mince words or keep their opinions to themselves. They're loved by some, hated by others, and that includes both music fans and bands alike. The always-entertaining and often vocal band admits that it is trying to play a little more nicely in the metal scene's sandbox, since everyone knows each other and has to, well, get along. It's for the good of all involved.

"There was a period of time where we talked a lot of s---, so those bands hated us," guitarist David Isen told Noisecreep. "It was not something you see bands out there do a lot. Even if bands don't like each other, they don't say anything about it. So we thought it would be cool to be the band that didn't keep our mouth shut and said how we felt about bands we didn't like. That ended up not being a good decision."

These verbal disses went further than just general beefs, too. "Bands who were friends with each other then heard that we had talked about their friends, and that caused us some trouble with bands we didn't talk about. But we put that behind us," Isen said. "We're trying to be friendly now. The way we look at it is this: If you suck, that's fine, since you still understand our lifestyle and we understand yours. Even if a band sucks, we have the fact that we're all in bands in common."

'Desperate Living' hit stores via Vagrant on Oct. 6.