Horsegiirl: “I’m just a silly little horse”

We will get back to that silliness in a moment, but it’s worth noting that there is nothing silly about her approach to production, nor her craft as a DJ. Back at Sunshine Farms, her formative experiences with music were just as serious. She was classically trained and learned to play several instruments when she was very young. She started out playing classical music and jazz. Whether socially or musically, “we’re always the sum of everything we learned” she says, and those techniques and learnings still inform her productions today.

Exposure to such a wide array of genres lent her a broad appreciation for music and the knowledge that there is no single definition of what is possible in art. Every genre gave her something else and that still influences her work practices and the way she creates sound, if not the sounds themselves. For that, she has a much more personal approach. “I think my biggest musical training was always that I just loved music, I love listening to music and taking it apart in my brain while listening to it.” In that sense, despite all her training, she doesn’t consider her approach to music-making to be analytical or theoretical, but rather emotional, and anyone who has experienced her infectious tunes and live performances will surely agree.

With that, we’re back to talking about why it is now, more than ever, important to be silly. “I think it helps people to cope.” With what, exactly? She ruminates on this for only a moment, before coming back with a sharp critique delivered at a breathless pace. “I think there’s so many individual battles, as well as geopolitical battles, as well as the pressure to perform all the time. In the information age, everyone knows about everyone and everything all the time.”

If it feels like there’s a hint of the personal in that answer, it may well be because it’s a battle she knows better than most. After the incredible viral success of My Barn, My Rules catapulted her to digital fame in the human world, horsegiirL has been under the intense scrutiny that social media, the heir apparent to tabloid media, can bring. I ask her if that is why she wears a mask and if building an avatar helps to maintain silliness or personal and artistic freedom in the face of such attention. “I get this question sometimes about a mask and I’m always a bit confused because I don’t really know what you’re referring to. I’m just a horse, so I really don’t know what you mean.” Read: Nice try, fed. Still, even as an artist firmly planted in the animal world, horsegiirL is not unaware of her impact on the human world. “I think that breaking old norms and having a fresh approach to what you make and what you have to say always requires, for me at least, to do things with a pinch of salt.”

This doesn’t mean that her productions or her meme-heavy social media missives can’t be deep, meaningful, or impactful. But, rather she’s noticed that a lot of the songs that she really loves and that speak to her on a core level don’t need to read like a piece of investigative journalism or a political pamphlet. For her, happy hardcore is also a commentary on the times. In this world, it just hits the right notes to make people somehow manage to feel something. “In art, a sense of rebellion can definitely come from not taking oneself too seriously and going with your feelings.”

Those emotions are deeply important to her approach to music. In the past, partly because of her training and partly because of her hardwired ability to churn out bangers, horsegiirL has been hired to write songs for others where she didn’t have any emotional stake in the result. “It’s almost like prostituting yourself,” she says pointedly. “A lot of people choose to be in the arts as a way to escape this kind of rut of working in an environment devoid of creativity. If you then only do these kinds of work that are purely technical, you’re just this service provider. It spoils the joy of making music in total because you lose the innocence of making music for yourself.” While those works might have been technically excellent and even successful, they lacked that special impassioned quality that makes a horsegiirL production so personally affecting and so effective as a dancefloor weapon.

“Music somehow has this ability to express a certain depth of emotions that we can go through by simply being. A philosopher or an author would have to write an entire book to do the same.” Asked what kind of emotions she likes to put across in her music, the answer is no surprise. “I like euphoric because I like the big emotions. I’m not a minimalist,” she adds knowingly. It’s why she loves the frenzied 90s techno as well as hardcore and happy hardcore. Still, there is more to her records than that. She works a lot with contrasts and heavy instrumentation, which she admits, most of the time is hard and fast, but another quality of her music is that she likes it to be wholesome. “A horsegiirL record has a certain duality. On one hand, there is always this sweetness, playfulness and lightness. On the other, there are very heavy, hard drops and drums. I just have fun making music. I think that’s a huge gift and it spreads joy.”

That sweetness is nowhere more evident than in the adoration of her fans and it hasn’t been lost on horsegiirL. “You can’t choose your fan base. You never know what kind of people will resonate with your music. And I feel like every single person that has joined me and supported me on this path has one thing in common in that they are all incredibly open-minded and positive people.” Color and flair are impossible to miss in any of her sets as is the overwhelming sense of positivity and love in the room. Even the most cursory glance at the comments on her videos, normally a big no-no for any artist who wants to maintain a healthy sense of self, will tell you that.

Today is the day I discovered horsegiirL and everything changed. Nothing will ever be the same from now.

I’m just so obsessed with her infectious energy, love love loveeeee 🦄

And perhaps, most tellingly:

Finally, a Boiler Room set that looks like people are having fun

It’s that vibe that has people from every walk of life dancing. Whether harnessed or cosplaying, there is simply so much joy to behold at every glance. “Every time I play a show, I always feel like it’s such an actual true safe space. It feels like everyone’s welcomed the way they are and it doesn’t really matter if you are part of any specific kind of group or subculture.”

Obviously, she has worked very hard on curating her musical persona. But, how much of that safe space do you think is down to her and how much is brought by her crowd? “It takes two to tango. The rave is made by the ravers just as much as by the person that curates the music, if not more so.” I wonder if the experience of viral success ever worries her in that her crowd may well end up changing as a result of the algorithm placing her in an ever-expanding niche. “It definitely will change a crowd and it already has. It does attract a wider, more commercial crowd of people that may only come for these bigger tracks. But, overall, I think if you stay true to your initial message, the core kind of people and the kind of values you attract will stay the same. Even though the crowd has changed, the vibes haven’t.”

Overall, the thing that really stands out about horsegiirL, whether in her music or her communication, is an outstandingly positive mindset. In everything she does, there is a sense that regardless of what comes at her, love will always save the day, which she manifests in her every interaction. “I just feel like we are on this burning rock in space and we really would all benefit from realizing that it’s much more pleasant to lead this life with love. Obviously, it’s important to feel all of the natural emotions, it’s absolutely necessary to feel anger and also sadness, all of these things. But, where is that anger coming from? I have noticed that my life is much more colorful and beautiful if I don’t focus on negativity.”