Wunderhorse’s debut album Cub has taken on a life of its own in the 20
months since its release, with sprawling, psychedelic numbers and sharp
grunge refrains alike igniting Wunderhorse’s ever-growing audience
Cub’s campaign and the months following have seen the four-piece graduate from
playing in basements and pubs to filling Glastonbury’s Woodsies tent and selling out
O2 Academy Brixton.
Across the mammoth tour leading up to and following Cub’s release, Slater and his
bandmates – guitarist Harry Fowler, drummer Jamie Staples and bassist Peter Woodin – gradually and naturally became a fully-formed band, and left the solo era of
Wunderhorse behind.
As their crowds have grown exponentially in both scale and ardency, and Cub’s tracks
have reached the status of cultural reference points within the younger contingents of
their fanbase, it seems harder than ever to recall a time when frontman Jacob Slater
believed that his career was over before his twenties had even begun.
Having burned himself out as the teenage frontman of the much-hyped but ultimately
ill-fated punk outfit Dead Pretties, Jacob retired to Cornwall to repair the damage that
he had caused himself.
It was whilst working as a surf instructor on the UK’s south western perimeter that
Jacob rekindled his love of songwriting: this time spinning introspective, considered
compositions which transcended his younger years and went on to form the
foundations of Wunderhorse.
The band’s second album ‘Midas’ came out in August 2024 to critical acclaim,
charting in the UK 10 Top, featuring in album of the year lists for DORK, Telegraph,
Rolling Stone, NME expanding their audiences in Europe, United States, Australia and
beyond.
