Super Wild Horses: Double Trouble

Does being a duo secure a bigger or smaller rider? TIM SCOTT tackles the big questions with Super Wild Horses’ Amy Franz and Hayley McKee. Photography by KELLI MORRIS.

Amy Franz and Hayley McKee are Super Wild Horses. Talk to some people in the Melbourne music scene and they’ll tell you the jury is still out on the duo’s instrument-swapping minimalist garage pop. But if their record launch at the Lithuanian Club in April was anything to go by – more than 200 payers and positive reviews – the pair have become quite the “buzz” band, despite their potential to divide.

“I really don’t see us as having a very wide audience, and we probably give a lot of people, who can actually play their instruments, the shits,” jokes Franz while sipping a Corona outside the John Curtin Hotel on a Saturday afternoon.

Buzz band is perhaps not the best way to describe Super Wild Horses either. This ain’t some Dash and Will shtick or one-note novelty, although the pair agree they aren’t Melbourne’s most accomplished musicians. But their eponymous EP – released on Melbourne’s Aarght! Records and recorded by Mikey Young (Eddy Current) – is an assured debut that proves that while talent is one thing, approach and dedication are just as important.

A conversation with Franz and McKee drifts from the new record to touring and pimple problems, but it begins where all discussions about music should: the rider. As a two-piece, do they end up with more or less free beer? “Well we did at The Tote last week, we got a huge rider. The door list is different because you usually get one person per band member, so we get really shafted on that. Then you have to start sneaking people in. That’s why for our album [launch] we are starting a big band,” jokes Franz. 
“We had some problems with riders a couple of weeks ago when we played in Sydney with the Duke Spirit,” adds McKee. “We were getting ready to play and they wouldn’t give us any beer. The bar didn’t open until 8pm. They were too busy squeezing lime juice. So we just kept standing there. They just kept standing there. It was a stand off. It was the worst show we’ve played. I think it was the product of really rushing our drinks. We rushed to the stage, and as soon as we got on they turned the house music off. It was kind of awkward.”

So it’s fair to assume that not every show has been as successful as the launch at the Lithuanian Club?

“At that gig [in Sydney] we were playing with a highly polished professional band and the people there probably wouldn’t dig us stuff so much,” says Franz. “Our launch was very fucking good because everyone came and looked like they were having fun. Twooms, the drummer from Deaf Wish, told me that every time we made a mistake people would cheer.”

Though both originally from Perth, McKee and Franz formed the band after moving to Melbourne. Their relationship with Aarght! – home to ECSR and the Ooga Boogas – reflects the loose familial spirit of the Melbourne scene. Alongside bands such as the Twerps and UV Race, Super Wild Horses reflect the new breed of Melbourne rock.

“I really don’t see us as having a very wide audience, and we probably give a lot of people, who can actually play their instruments, the shits.”

“We don’t have any formal arrangement with Aarght! at all. We never really even talked about it that much. Per [Bystrom] was the one that heard about our stuff on MySpace who I then believed sent our link to Rich [Stanley] and Mikey, who we recorded with.”

“We like their stuff, they like some of our stuff so it’s nice,” adds McKee. “We’ve been really lucky in the sense that things so far have just fallen into place. There are no delusions of grandeur, but all the cool stuff that we’re really interested in, we’ve been getting the opportunity to be involved with.”

The pair also have a stepbrother, stepsister-type relationship with the UV Race – the loose proto-punk act fronted by the charismatic Marcus.

“When they were recording their album they asked us to come in and record ‘Accidental Lover’ which is a song that Marcus and I wrote together. We ended up recording four or five songs with each other,” says McKee. “All those guys are amazing. I mean to see their guitarist Al play in so many different bands. He can play any type of music I reckon. The dude doesn’t stop.”

During their April launch, McKee and Franz even joined UV Race on stage for a few songs as UV Horses; a collaboration that reflected the informal atmosphere of the night. So what prompted the unique venue, a hub of Lithuanian communal and social life in North Melbourne?

“Originally we wanted to do it on the restaurant tram [Melbourne’s famous Tramcar Restaurant], but when the trams weren’t working and the boats weren’t working we started thinking of halls,” explains McKee. “We found a good RSL club over in Prahran but that’s not really our hood.

“It was a fun night,” she adds. “We had to get back there at 10am the next day to clean up and when we arrived they were having their morning tea with all these old school Lithuanians and the kitchen was packed. They actually invited us to stay for lunch but we were a little shady.”

Speaking to Franz and McKee you quickly realise they are BFFs first, bandmates second. They are confidants and support each other through music and more. “You should have heard us talking about our pimples today,” jokes Franz.

“I think we are pretty emotional but I think it comes down to how we are both feeling, we look at each other an awful lot during a show,” says McKee.

Their rise in popularity, however, is still a surprise for them both. “When we started practicing we never ever did it with any intention of playing live,” explains McKee.

Franz agrees. “For my birthday Hayley made me a Super Wild Horses box because I’m really bad at cutting out clippings. I have my mum in Perth hounding me to send stuff over, so I’m now diligently putting stuff in there to the point where I’m getting obsessive about it. I was surprised the other day I opened it and something fell out because it was so full.”

While they both have plans for the future, they also want to keep a lid on the present.

“In the next little bit we want to focus on finishing up some half done songs and recordings. Our songs are so short anyway,” says McKee. “I think we grow in confidence when we are enjoying the gig and at the moment we are having fun and enjoying it so things are working out.

“We don’t need as much preparation between shows anymore,” she continues. “When we first started playing I know I had to really psyche myself up. I still do, just not as much. Thank God for the rider.”

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Super Wild Horses will perform alongside Your Animal and Howl at the Moon tonight (May 20) at the Northcote Social Club in Melbourne. Cost: $10.