Why Horses? announce ‘these hands’, release new single ‘cat’s cradle’

The Cardiff art rock five-piece release ‘Cat’s Cradle’ ahead of their sophomore EP ‘These Hands’, releasing October 16th via Brace Yourself Records.

A marked ability to lead the listener toward a particular feeling - and then let them do with that what they would - shone through even the most confrontational of moments in their 2025 debut EP, Yeah, Hi?; in ‘Cat’s Cradle’, Why Horses? drop the coaxing and compromise for a more claustrophobic one-way road through Lester’s consciousness. Soon after opening with scaly, slow-picked electric and Lester’s drooping tenor, the track belly-drops into a Weird Fishes/Arpeggi-esque whirlwind of waterlogged drums and cold, brassy guitar lines chiming toward the upper register; his own loss of reality becomes our own, with chattering crowds and braying violin blotting out a once-normal, if repressive, state of mind.

“At its core, ‘Cat’s Cradle’ is about rejecting absurdism,” Gabriel Austin Lester, lead singer and guitarist of Why Horses?, shared in a statement. “I wrote it after reading Cat’s Cradle by Vonnegut which explores lots of absurdist ideas. I loved the book but I’ve always hated absurdism because being brought up Christian, I’ve always believed that everything has a purpose. I’ve also struggled a lot with this belief though, which the lyrics also explore in some way. My vocal delivery gives the perception that I’m descending into a type of madness. This is purposeful and something Zein (Checri, producer) and I worked on together in the studio.’

‘Cat’s Cradle’ is available to stream now via Brace Yourself Records.