“SXSW was bizarre because we would play and look out at the crowd and it was a bunch of people who looked like my dadâs age or older, moving like that,â Horsegirl guitarist and singer Penelope Lowenstein recalls, recreating a languid head-nodding as her bandmates laugh either side of her. âOf course, we really appreciate it,â she adds quickly, but the Chicago trioâs aim is not to make music for the generations above them: âIf older people feel our music is for them thatâs great, but we donât want them to feel too comfortable.â
Horsegirl, the latest signing to Matador [Snail Mail, Pavement], are making atmospheric and percussive rushes of noise-rock, and are â as you might have guessed â sprightly upstarts, both in terms of age and the freshness of the group. Lowenstein is just about to graduate high school, while fellow guitarist and singer Nora Cheng and drummer Gigi Reece are just finishing up their first year of college. The three of them met through playing in youth arts programmes in Chicago and, after bonding over their favourite music, started their own band in Lowensteinâs basement, where theyâre speaking to NME from today.
In the years since, theyâve been part of building a youth-focused community in their home city â one thatâs filled with like-minded bands around their age, including Friko, Lifeguard and Dwaal Troupe. Being a part of a scene has meant âeverythingâ to them, they say. âIt definitely pushes you when you go to shows of kids your age and youâre like, âOh my god, this is one of the best shows Iâve ever seenâ,â Lowenstein explains. âWeâre able to do something cool because weâre seeing other people do it.â
The trioâs focus is so much on creating a world of guitar music for their peers because theyâve sometimes felt like they havenât had bands they can get supremely excited about while theyâre at the top of their game. âAll the bands I would die to see live, either they donât exist anymore or theyâre on a reunion tour,â Cheng says. âSure, they probably still play quite well, they still rock and itâs awesome to see older musicians still being into it, but itâs obviously so different to seeing this band in their prime.â
âThatâs why being in Chicago is so exciting,â Lowenstein jumps in. âItâs all young people, and the music is really good and it feels unique and special. I feel like Iâm getting to see young guitar bands in their prime.â âOr right before they hit their prime,â Reece adds, laughing.
That Horsegirl are the first band to be picked up on by the world outside their community is âunusualâ, they say. âIt feels like it could have been any of us,â Cheng says, with a shrug. âAnd then, somehow, it just turned out to be us, which weâre very happy about.â Uplifting their friendsâ bands, though, is something theyâll continue to do as they gain more attention, the guitarist and singer noting they make sure to mention them in interviews and ask them to play their shows whenever possible.
Aside from being the chosen ones to lead the scene out of Chicago, signing to Matador in itself was a strange experience for the three friends. They were approached by the label during the height of the pandemic, when they would take their virtual classes sat next to each other in Reeceâs mumâs empty office. When school ended, theyâd jump onto the same computer to do label calls, the digital nature of the experience making them question if it was even real. âOnly recently have we started to feel the physical, tangible effects of this big thing,â Lowenstein says.
Horsegirl will be able to properly feel the reality of their journey soon, with the release of their John Agnello-produced debut album âVersions Of Modern Performanceâ, which arrives next week (June 3). Itâs a record that justifies the hype surrounding the band and then some â an intriguing, intoxicating mesh of jagged indie-rock, fragments of no-wave and Sprechgesang vocals cushioned by dense clouds of guitar. âThe Fall Of Horsegirlâ bows between glittering, discordant ornamentation and stormy chords, while âHomage To Birdnocularsâ rolls brightly through spiky riffs and rich layers of intertwining sound. It doesnât reinvent the wheel so much as find the three-piece decorating it in their own style; familiar but fresh.

Lyrically, the album stands out in part for flying in the face of modern musicâs obsession with relatability. The words donât lay out tales of personal strife or joy but offer cryptic riddles for you to place your own interpretations on. âWriting about our personal lives is just not something that Iâve felt the need to do,â Cheng explains. âI hear people talk about how they went through this emotional experience and wrote this certain song about it â it seems like a natural thing, they use that as an outlet. But itâs not natural for me to do.â
Just because theyâre not pouring their feelings into their lyrics so explicitly doesnât mean their songs donât carry emotion, they counter. âIt just doesnât have to be so direct,â Lowenstein says. âSometimes itâs just about capturing the energy between the three of us. We think of the vocal parts as an instrumental layer and if we sing âDance, dance, danceâ [as on the urgent chorus of âAnti-gloryâ], it has this percussive energy to it.â
Horsegirlâs natural instinct to do things differently extends to the final tracklist of the album, which varies between the physical and digital editions. On the physical version, youâll press play and hear âElectrolocation 1â first, which they describe as a âseven-minute ambient songâ. âWe were like, âWow this is the best song on the album, it has to be the first trackâ,â recalls Lowenstein. âEveryone whoâs put out records before was like, âWhy do you guys want to make a completely instrumental song the first track?!ââ
âIâm glad they said something cos I think about if it did start like that on streamingâŠâ Cheng laughs. âNo one would listen,â Reece says, finishing her thought. Changing things up for the digital release was a compromise theyâre happy with, allowing them to keep the physical version fresh for fans who already know what theyâre getting with a band like Horsegirl.
As it is, plenty of people will be listening to âVersions Of Modern Performanceâ, ambient opener or not. But regardless of their burgeoning fanbase, the trio are staying focused on school. Lowenstein will soon join Cheng and Reece at college in New York, with all three saying they see staying in education as a way to stay inspired and to continue being engaged with their music-making.
Aside from their studies, now they have somewhat of a platform, their focus is on creating something their peers can be excited about. âWe would love to get kids interested in guitar music and punk music,â Lowenstein, clarifying that Horsegirlâs album isnât punk but comes from a punk mindset, bandmates once again laughing either side of her. If anyone can kickstart a youth rock revolution, it feels like Horsegirl can.
Horsegirl’s debut album, âVersions Of Modern Performanceâ, will be released on June 3
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The post Horsegirl: Chicago gang making boldly idiosyncratic noise-rock appeared first on NME.