10 Questions With A Thousand Horses

One of my favorite new bands I’ve come across is southern rock band, A Thousand Horses!

This up and coming southern rock band puts me in mind of a cross between The Black Crows and Lynard Skynard if you’re wondering what they sound like.  This is a band with strong, soulful vocals and solid, skilled musicianship from all members based right here in Nashville. Best experienced live because they KNOW how to put on a show!

To learn a little more about them, please see my interview below AND check out the video that I just shot of them performing live last week at Nashville’s own, 12th and Porter! Hope you enjoy both!

Interview questions:

When did you become a band?

“Michael and I (Bill) have been writing and recording music together since we were 15. So about 8 years now. This band (A Thousand Horses) was formed around March of 2010.”

How did you come up with the name of the band?

“The band is named after a song on our debut EP. ‘A Thousand Horses’.”

List the names of the members of band and instrument.  Where are all the members of the band from?

• Michael Hobby-Lead Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica (Newberry, SC)
• Bill Satcher-Lead Guitar (Newberry, SC)
• Graham Deloach-Bass, Vocals (Savannah, GA)
• Zach Brown-Guitar, Vocals (Lawrenceville, GA)
• Jonathan Carman-Drums (Charleston, SC)

How did you get your start as a band? 

“A Thousand Horses was formed as an old band that Graham, Michael, and I were in  falling apart. As we lost interest in our old band and old group of songs, Interscope Records offered us a record deal for what was becoming A Thousand Horses. It was a strange time.”

Do you write all of your own songs?

“Yes. On our older material, we would co-write every now and then with an outside writer. All of the new material we are working on now is written by a member or members of the group. While co-writing early on was a great learning experience, a vast majority of the time the songs just felt awkward and forced. We’ve found through experience that no one else can say what we want to say better than us and certainly not “Joe Platinum Songwriter” of the moment. That being said, we aren’t naive, and we know that great things can come through collaboration, and they have for us. So we know that it would be an immature move to completely cut ourselves off from that sort of situation. Hell, if writing with other people was good enough for Tom Petty, it’s good enough for us.”

Where do you usually find inspiration for songs and process? Who writes most of music?

“That is an almost impossible question to answer. And I hesitate to even try to because I’ve noticed our best songs just happen. The more we write the better they seem to get. That’s a certain kind of voodoo I don’t want to try to manipulate. I just pray it continues to flow. Michael and I (Bill) were the original writers of the group but Graham and Zach have begun to throw out very impressive ideas as of late. You will begin to hear more and more of their songs in the future, I predict.”

Describe your music and musical influences.

“Wow. Another almost impossible question to answer. Im not sure any artist enjoys trying to describe their music. It’s a question that I always stumble over. Our biggest influences aren’t necessarily bands so much as they are songwriters. That comes through in our sound. We have always been more captivated by brilliant songwriting than jams and solos. Well, except Zeppelin’s jams and solos. Our influences are as deeply rooted in English Rock music as they are Country music, American Rock N Roll, Soul and Blues. Dwight Yoakam, Tom Petty, and Noel Gallagher are some of my favorite songwriters just to name a few. And of course living in Nashville there are brilliant songwriters everywhere, and some of them are inspiring as well. It’s a town that continues to push us forward as songwriters because here you know that your next door neighbor could be writing a better song than you right now. And we certainly don’t want that to happen.”

What has been your favorite experience as a band? Biggest challenge you’ve faced as a band.

“Well touring, and getting to play our songs has been the best experience of all. I mean, I love traveling and it’s a blessing that we have gotten to see the country and parts of Canada while doing what we love. 

As far as challenges go,

We have actually been very lucky so far. Sure we’ve lost a record deal, had managers, booking agents, and our drummer quit on us all at once. You gotta keep going. At the time I felt like we were being kicked while we were down. Now I realize it was all a giant blessing in disguise and I believe firmly in Divine Intervention. Now I see you can’t let a couple of assholes deter you from your main goal: Being great for yourself, the people that dig your music and support you and no one else. And to the people that have bought our music, come to a show, and given us the time of day, we are and will be eternally grateful because at the end of day, those are the only people who matter.”

What’s next for A Thousand Horses? Touring, new music? 

“YES. We plan on releasing a new EP very soon and plenty of regional tour dates should accompany that release. We will also being throwing a big CD release party/show somewhere in town for that. Details on that will be released as soon as they are finalized.”

One of your songs was on the ‘Footloose’ soundtrack.  Explain how that came about.

“The song they used was our song “Suicide Eyes”. I’m not sure of all the little details but basically the version on the soundtrack is actually the original demo. It made its way to Anastaia Brown and The director, Craig Brewer, heard the demo and thought it had the right vibe for the scene he had in mind. We had the chance to speak with Craig during the premier we attended and he could not of been more cool. We were and are honored to be a part of a killer soundtrack and movie like that.”

Thanks,

BILL SATCHER ( A Thousand Horses)