A couple of weeks ago, Dark Horses released their third album While You Were Sleeping. We fired over a couple of quick questions to ask about the record and the launch gig taking place later this month

While We Were Sleeping album cover. Photo by Ali Tollervey

Your last album Hail Lucid State came out back in 2014, and while there’s been a few live performances and tracks released, it’s taken until now to get the album together. Has it been a long hard slog over all that time, or did you go away then regroup more recently?
Not a long hard slog as such but it’s been a real test of patience. It’s taken time to #1 find the right label home for the release #2 wait patiently for post pandemic backlog of vinyl production to run down and #3 all be in the same country together safely!

There was a bit of activity around 2017/2018 – the single XIII (which opens the album), and the track Yes Yes Yes (the second track on the record) which was released by Love Thy Neighbour to accompany their Triptych gigs. Was the plan at the time that these would form the start of the album, or were these one offs that it was just the right time to release into the world?
They were already part of the album, we were planning to release that in Summer 2020 but for obvious reasons that was not to be. As mentioned there was the added challenge of being in different countries and not being able to travel. The title now seems even more apt! But we well and truly awake now.

You’re playing at the Hope & Ruin on 15th April, and it’s billed not just as a gig, but a Live AV show in collaboration with visual artist James GM. Can you give us an idea of what he’s going to be doing?
James GM is a fantastic AV artist who is passionate about minimalist contemporary art, especially within the world of digital. From minimalist painters like Cy Twombly to modern animators such as Kevin McGloughlin and David Hughes, abstract visual art forms fascinate him.
He is using his programming background to create reactive visual pieces to compliment the music. As always visuals are a crucial collaborative part of how we like to work and of corse the advances in technology make for a great space for extermination and creativity. As the images will be reacting live to our performance we won’t know how things will look until we play! The fun is in the discovery!

While You were Sleeping has been released on a US label – will you be heading to the states to play some shows out there? Are there plans for more UK shows following the album launch?
We would love to make it across the pond one of these days but for now we will focus on closer shores. We are excited to be invited to join the fantastic Ravonettes at O2 Islington Academy on the 10th of May followed but a whirlwind appearance at The Great Escape Festival on the 11th May at The Fiddlers Elbow, with other exiting announcements to come, watch this space 🙂 http://www.darkhorsesmusic.com
We have more artistic collaborations in the pipe line, continuing to play with machine learning, film, dance and performance.