Rising Noise-Rock Quintet Twine Announce Debut Album New Old Horse; Share 'Sleeping Dogs' + SXSW Sydney

October 11, 2024

Rising alt-noise/country quintet Twine announce their debut album New Old Horse, out Friday, December 6 via Kitty Records, together with their latest single, ‘Sleeping Dogs’.

‘Sleeping Dogs’ is a guttural and melancholic examination of returning home after a period away, realising that your pains and dissatisfactions are still there, waiting for you. This exasperation manifests itself in images of oceans that “dribble”, a leash pulling at one’s neck, and in the stomping chorus: “sleeping dogs don’t dream / of living inside”. The howl at the end of the chorus was inspired by the folk musician Michael Hurley. “It’s an outpouring of emotion and a positive letting go of anguished feelings,” says Katsaras.

The new track joins album opener and lead single ‘Future Exhales’, a dark and feverish tale of suburban violence, attempting to quit smoking and the hauntings of a car crash. “I was trying to lean further into ambiguity rather than straight honesty, I had been listening to lots of Sparklehorse at the time which I think definitely influenced the style,” says Katsaras. From the on-set, the song offers a thrash of distortion, guitars and sinewy strings. “I wanted to experiment with more riff-based violin arranging as opposed to solely textural parts,” says Violinist Thea Martin. “I like the effect of the violin moving sonically across the parts of the band.”

The two threads that twist together to make South Australian band Twine are barrelling noise rock and wounded, stinging country. Their debut record New Old Horse is dazzling and devastating in equal measure; a tender yet eruptive exploration of wayward relationships and the aches of identity in flux. The dynamism of the album mirrors these disordered attachments and emotions – tracks of brute force quickly descend into mournful interludes from the violin, while slow tracks sprawl out and then explode into a pummel of noise and drums. Tom Katsaras’ unpolished vocals quiver and howl, giving each song a sorrowful depth.

Twine began in Kaurna land/Adelaide in 2021, initially as a solo vehicle for Katasaras’ experiments into brash, country-inflected rock. But as the band members shifted and finally solidified into their current line-up – Tom Katsaras (Vocals/Guitar), Matt Schultz (Guitar), Thea Martin (Violin), Alicia Salvanos (Bass) and Jackson Pagett (Drums) – the music became more of a collective effort, with Katsaras bringing his bandmates small fragments of songs that were then expanded and warped into new shapes. Part of the unruly power of New Old Horse (mixed by Alex Farrar, who has worked with MJ Lenderman and Wednesday) comes from this communal approach.

Since first forming, Twine have shared a collection of singles released to global fever and acclaim from KEXP, The Fader, Rolling Stone, Apple Music’s Matt Wilkinson, triple j and many more. Their debut album New Old Horse comes off the back of the band’s reputation for bracing live shows. They have performed support slots for post-rock veterans Mclusky (UK), acclaimed Australian acts such as Bad//Dreems, Grace Cummings and Armlock, plus spots on Aotearoa/New Zealand music festival Camp A Low Hum and Meanjin/Brisbane’s Mountain Goat Valley Crawl. In 2023, Twine featured on the line-up for Australia's leading artist showcase and industry conference, BIGSOUND, and this October, they will perform as part of SXSW Sydney.

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