James Adrian Brown: ‘I realised I love making music for moving pictures’

The past two years have seen James Adrian Brown, guitarist with Leeds alternative rock band Pulled Apart By Horses, developing an interesting sideline composing instrumental music for soundtracks.
James Adrian BrownJames Adrian Brown
James Adrian Brown

Now comes his first releases as a self-described “electronic noise maker” for the ambient label Analog Horizons, run by Sam ‘Whiskas’ Nicholls, former !Forward Russia! guitarist turned lecturer at Leeds Beckett University.

Brown’s debut solo release was called To Be In Two Places At Once. A second single, Everything Follows, was accompanied by an unnerving and surreal video based on a concept from the musician himself. Brown says his interest in film-making stemmed from his love of photography.

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“I studied art at uni and I got into photography and then film photography, then iPhones and visual photography kind of destroyed it just when I’d finished studying. Everyone was on their phones constantly and I thought ‘that’s a shame’. Then over the past three or four years film photography is massive again, it’s incredible the resurgence it’s had, so I got back into that. I guess that’s why I thought I might be able to get away with filming (the video) myself.”

After writing music for Paul Sng and Patrick Jones’ short film Ghosts of ’39, Brown was offered a job composing the soundtrack to the Mexican horror film The Lost Cherry Blossom. “It’s a post-apocalyptic horror short, it’s got hints of zombie infections and pandemic kind of vibes,” he says. “I started working with lots of analogue synthesisers on that and shaped it into a dark, atmospheric horror score.

“It was a huge learning curve doing Ghosts of ’39 and The Last Cherry Blossom, but it was during that I realised I love making music for moving pictures. At the same time I was really getting into this electronic stuff for these shorts and I thought ‘I don’t need moving pictures to make this, why don’t I just make some electronic music myself’.

“Having a short film or video is almost like having a brief whereas this stuff I’ve been doing recently the only brief is what I want to personally create.”

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Brown acknowledges the influence of horror auteur John Carpenter on his own music. “I’d seen Halloween as a teenager but I didn’t realise until I’d grown up and studied a bit that he did the music as well,” he says. “He has toured it too. I think that whole crossover of film scores and performing them live is an incredible thing. It’s very similar to the world of rock bands, it creates such an emotion within that it’s spellbinding.

“But a big part of it during the pandemic was being able to keep creating and making music more than anything. Everything ground to a halt for everyone. I think all of this has really stemmed from being sat twiddling my thumbs in this flat waiting for someone to say you’re allowed to go outside.”

He admits he missed “being in a room and playing” with his Pulled Apart By Horses bandmates during the multiple lockdowns but also says the pandemic-induced pause in their activities has “given me and others the opportunity to rethink things and try different things out”.

He was however concerned by the findings of a survey by Help Musicians which suggested 22 per cent of musicians are thinking of leaving the industry. “That’s absolutely gutting to think there are people out there that have essentially given up, it’s really sad,” he says. “If anyone is in that position I think it’s important you think about the drive and the focus you had when you started doing it because that’s the reason you are where you are. You have to remember why you did it in the first place and where the energy came from and try and carry on.”

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While Brown continues work on a full solo album, Pulled Apart By Horses are also due to reconvene for a UK headline tour in April. The band’s fifth album is also slated to be released by Alcopop! Records later this year.

“The electronic music will definitely (continue). It was just going to be a four-track EP, I was going to put it out myself last September, then it was back to riding the horse,” he says.

“For now, I’ll leave it in the wings for a bit and crack on with the new Horses record, then after the summer, touch wood, I’ll have a record to put out with whoever may be interested.”

To Be In Two Places At Once and Everything Follows are out now on Analog Horizons. Pulled Apart By Horses play at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds on April 16. www.jamesadrianbrown.com

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