The Horrors‘ Faris Badwan has teamed up with guitarist John Coxon for a new track – listen to ‘Boiling Point’ below.
Released under the moniker Badwan/Coxon, the collaboration, which is part of a two-track 12″ released via Tough Love Records, is the first in an ongoing series that will see The Horrors frontman collaborate with a different artist for each release.
Badwan and Coxon, who is known for his work with Spring Heel Jack, Spiritualized and Treader, met a number of years ago when The Horrors frontman was looking for producers to work with on his solo material. Evolving beyond their existing collaborations, the pair have now shared something more improvisational and instinctive.
“The new songs we ended up working on were largely spontaneous and cut together from early takes with minimal overdubbing,” explained Badwan. “The lyrics were improvised and the focus was placed more on creating atmosphere and keeping things fairly raw and expressive.
“I guess I found it rewarding particularly with the guitar playing because it was so intuitive and completely free from any expectations of how a song should be constructed. There are hooks and repetitive sections but fewer traditional structures.”
He continued: “We tried to avoid doing any planning beforehand and focused more on responding to what was happening in the moment. I guess the sessions were kind of a constant dialogue where we would each respond to the other’s improvisation.”
The other track that features on Badwan/Coxon’s new 12″ is called ‘Promise Land’. Speaking on its creation, Badwan said: “I began by improvising lyrics over a drone track John and I created. Some time later I came across ‘To Our Land’ by Mahmoud Darwish, a Palestinian poet, and was struck by the similarities – there are a few lines that match really closely.”
He added: “Despite being half-Palestinian myself this was a total accident and I know for sure I hadn’t seen Darwish’s piece before.”
‘Boiling Point/Promise Land’ arrives February 5 as a download and limited edition 12”, which includes a very limited run of 100 copies that feature hand painted sleeves by Badawan. They will be available on Tough Love’s Bandcamp page.
