Wild Horse return with their electrifying new single “Magpies” — a fan-favourite finally given a studio release. The band discuss its raw themes, creative evolution, and what’s next for 2026.
We’ve been playing “magpies” live since 2022. We did notice how it quickly became popular with our fans at our shows so it did start to become a fairly regular inclusion in our set lists. For whatever reason we didn’t feel it was the right time to release it. I’m not particularly sure why, but we all felt we should hold it back. Maybe it’s one of those tracks which we thought sounds better live and would struggle to translate in the studio. However, when we were looking to record some new songs around May of this year, we decided we wanted to move our sound a little bit back towards are routes as a band playing together in a room, rather than a super polished studio recording. We found a producer who we felt could deliver that for us the best, so we felt “magpies” would perfectly fit this production style so we felt we had to include it this time.
As a band, we’ve had our fare share of dealing with sharks in the music industry. It’s the Wild West. Lots of people are trying to con you or sell you on a dream so we’ve learnt to not be so trusting. This song is an ode to that.
I think “Magpies” definitely fits into the rockier element of our sound. It was written over three years ago and captures a moment in time of how we were feeling when it was written. Musically, it’s definitely got a swagger to it. But it’s also a bitter “fuck you” to people who have tried to screw us. I think that comes across in the lyrics and in the music.
Jade’s addition has been brilliant. Her role is to essentially fatten up the bands sound. We got to a point where we felt we couldn’t go anywhere new creatively as a three piece. The tracks we were coming out with in the studio were becoming harder and harder to perform live. With Jade the band definitely feels more complete now. She also has a great energy which rubs off on the rest of us.
To me, a sign of a good band (and a good song) is one that is able to be their best both on stage and in the studio. Part of that is understanding that live shows and studio recordings are not the same thing. I’ve always found it quite boring for a band to go on stage and just play their tracks as a perfect replica to their studio recordings. I think if people are coming to see your shows you should give them something a bit different and exciting. It’s impermanence not to lose that spark in the studio, and the way to get around that is really understanding what the track needs. Some tracks need a much more polished production, whereas others (like “Magpies”) need to be a lot more rough and ready. The magic of a song like “magpies” is that it feels like you’re in the room with the band when you’re listening to it.
We hope that we can make 2026 the year we start to see music becoming our full-time careers. There’s a lot of new music planned, including another collaboration, & of course we will be back out on the road after our longest ever break. Lots more to come…
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