WORKHORSE, the western-tinged, dream-pop project of Kaurna land/Adelaide singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Harriet Fraser-Barbour, have unveiled their highly anticipated debut album No Photographs, out now on Dinosaur City Records.
Influenced by vast Australian landscapes, queer western films including Desert Hearts and Brokeback Mountain, apocalyptic dreams and the sounds of Julee Cruise, Chris Isaak and Mazzy Star, Workhorse’s debut album No Photographs was written and performed by Harriet Fraser-Barbour, who utilised Adelaide’s first lockdown in March 2020 to experiment with creating band music as a solo musician.
The first eight tracks of the album were recorded in just two days on reel-to-reel tape at Milestone Recording Studio in the Adelaide hills, with Harriet slowly layering additional instrumentation over the past two years, playing all instruments herself including guitar, bass, drums, slide guitar, organ and vocals, with additional pedal steel courtesy of Frank Boulden, and violin by Skye McNicol (Dag).
Workhorse formed in late 2016 when Harriet Fraser-Barbour (Wireheads, Fair Maiden, Ripple Effect Band) invited a handful of friends and local musicians to collaborate on her sun-drenched recordings. The band went on to release their debut EP No Sun (2017) via underground Naarm/Melbourne / Meanjin/Brisbane label, Tenth Court.
Release: August 12th, 2022, Dinosaur City Records