Band of
Horses
These equine rockers look
gruff, but sound oh so sweet

Creighton Barrett, Rob Hampton, and Ben Bridwell, photographed for Spin in Toronto, August 11, 2007

With tattoos of blood-vomiting lions and a beard of near–ZZ Top proportions, Ben Bridwell looks like some throat-shredding death-metal devotee. But when the frontman for hirsute indie rockers Band of Horses steps in front of a mic, he’s anything but aggro: The ²⁹-year-old possesses a voice of such celestial clarity that it could soothe a kennel full of pit bulls.

He’s comfortable, even proud of that dichotomy. “There are dueling forces everywhere in my life,” he says before playing to a sold-out crowd at Washington, D.C.’s ⁹: ³⁰ Club. “Even individual songs that I write, I’ll try to include both positive and negative viewpoints. The new record is perfectly like Jekyll and Hyde in that way.”

An apt comparison, because it seemed that Bridwell and cofounder Mat Brooke (who has since left to start his own band) had swallowed a devious potion to deliver such a perfectly crafted, ex nihilo debut as last year’s Everything All the Time (Sub Pop), whose balance of woodsy grit and monumental shimmer attracted more than ⁶⁰,⁰⁰⁰ buyers. Ironically, one of the album’s most notable touches—Bridwell’s echo-drenched vocals—was a by-product of fear, not an aesthetic choice. “Early on, it was all about being insecure about my lyrics and about singing,” he says. “But now I just want to hear what my voice sounds like.”

Reverb junkies, don’t fear. Cease to Begin, their superb follow-up—recorded by Bridwell, bassist Rob Hampton, and drummer Creighton Barrett—doesn’t tread too far from its predecessor (though the echo is slightly dialed down, from “mine shaft” to “grain silo” levels). Divided between cathartic anthems like opener “Is There a Ghost” and pastoral gems, such as the NBA-star-referencing “Detlef Schrempf,” the album solidifies Band of Horses as the rare group that can appeal to everyone from granola-rock stoners to camera-phone-wielding indie kids. The thought of mass adulation, however, makes the bashful Bridwell anxious. “I love when people talk during a show, because it means they’re not paying attention to me,” he says. “I can only deal if I think of it not as a performance by Band of Horses, but as just a party where everyone came out to drink and we just happen to be playing.”

B Y GILBER T CRUZ
PHOTOGRAPH BY SIMON WILLMS

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