Having met in the haze of a never ending Balmain summer, Charlie Horses core of Crystal Rose and Paul McDonald started to write songs drawing from their upbringing in small town Australia listening to their parents records of Johnny Cash and Neil Young melded with the frenetic pace of the beautiful people on darling street in Balmain and the characters found in every pub. There was always music in the house playing somewhere through the freezing winters and scorched summers of the pairs youth which now framed in turn their own music, whether it be grandparents playing Irish rebel songs or still Vietnam ravaged uncles dedication to the stones and 70’s Springsteen, music was always there to provide a connection to the rest of the world. The only hint as to what was going on outside was names of bands in the city newspapers appearing at mysterious venues and what was shown on ABC TV…Countdown, Rage, Rock Arena, Beat Box.
With a desire to return to the creative isolation that defined their vision for Charlie Horse, the band built a studio in a remote valley in the Blue Mountains near Sydney and completed their debut album I Hope I’m Not A Monster. After spending most of the year searching for some clues to the perfectly distilled desperation of Jolene and the searing beauty of Cortez the Killer, the cinematic tales of Nick Cave and Cormac McCarthy, the expanse of Jaramusch and David Lynch, Charlie Horse took the songs out to road test them and to shake off some cabin fever. An EP and subsequent single ‘I Killed My Mind’ was released in late 2011 with an accompanying film clip as a prelude for the album which also includes a cover of Janelle written by the legendary Don Walker.
