With interests in visual art, fashion, filmmaking, painting, and music, by his own admission, Donegal local George Houston was quite indecisive about what he wanted to do with his life, but he knew that he wanted to be in the creative field. “I found with music,” he tells Post-Burnout, “that way I could sing, I could write, I could make videos, I could design outfits, and I could do so many different things when it came to music. It was food for the soul, and I remember around the age of sixteen, I started writing songs and I just loved it so much. I never looked back, really.”

“I think when I’m on stage, it’s probably me at my most comfortable,” adds George. “I love performing. I’ve always responded well. I suppose I started performing in front of my family – that’s probably where most people start performing [Laughs] – as a child. Probably doing fancy dress kind of shows [Laughs] for your parents, and you get notions about yourself, and I don’t know. [Laughs] You start doing school plays, and I don’t know. I never really thought about where it came from; it just developed very organically to sing live and do shows and things like that.”

With an eclectic music taste (or, in his words, “I’m not picky about the music I listen to”), George enjoyed writing, recording, and performing a versatile range of tracks. In 2020, George was to sit his Leaving Certificate exam, however, due to the pandemic, he was unable to, and he dedicated this time when he was in isolation to begin his own musical project. Immediate positive reception to his work made him decide to keep going, and he wasted no time in releasing his creations upon the world.

By September of that year, George had already released his debut single, “Boo Fucking Hoo,” and immediately released his first EP, Class of 2020, by the end of October. By June 2021, he released his first album, Cold Toast, and his second album, Undesired, released in November 2022. “I suppose the last twenty years of music in the industry, I think, is very…it’s so business-oriented and it’s so money-oriented, because the people at the top, they’re just trying to make the biggest profit,” George says. “So, what makes the biggest profit for them is doing singles, singles, singles, and they want cheap thrills. They want to get that kind of minimum effort, maximum reward. Get one song on a playlist and live off that for a couple of months. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

“So…I miss back when artists were encouraged to put our records and they were encouraged to put out full albums and bodies of work, because, I don’t know what it is, I, personally, just love writing songs and it comes quite naturally to me, and I’d always like to look at myself as an album artist, and kind of going back to before the industry tried to get all of the musicians just doing what was most profitable. I’d rather have some bodies of work and…albums. They’re kind of hand-selected playlists by the artists. [Laughs]”

Appropriately, on Friday the 13^th of this month, George dropped his third record, Vehicular Suicide, a horror-veneered album, taking inspiration from Universal Monster films, Hammer Horror, Italian giallo, ‘50s drive-in B-films, Japanese horror, and psychological, Stephen King-esque writings, which (in this author’s opinion) resulted in George creating one of the most interesting albums of 2023. “I wanted the album to be like a horror film, basically,” explains George.

“I wanted it to run like a horror film and feel like, as you’re saying, a cheesy, ‘70s film that…I say ‘Cheesy,’ but what I really mean is ‘Charming,’ because I love old horror films, and I love when you can see the craft of practical effects and things like that, and I wanted to bring that through in the production, because this is the first album where I’ve ever got people to come in with real drums and play drums, and real bass. Usually, I was doing synths and loops and things like that. I’m still learning as a producer; I’m not promising to be at an amazing standard.

“On the first two albums, it’s me learning how to do all of these things and I suppose I’m probably getting better. I still have lots of room to improve, which I’m willing to do, but I think with this album, I suppose it’s gotten more like a real band and it’s going in a direction that I’m really proud of. I was inspired kind of by artists like Fleetwood Mac, and The Doors, and Kate Bush, and artists who aren’t afraid to delve into the darker side of things.”

He adds, “All of the songs, there’s kind of a morbid theme about them, where it goes into the theme of a classic Halloween creature or a horror trope, and they’re all kind of about the destruction of the body and soul, and how they’re related to each other, and they’re all within that dark, horror realm. I got my driver’s license this year – [Laughs] just on another note! – and I remember listening to the tracks, like the demos, whilst I was producing the album, and there’s a scene in Thelma & Louise…at the end, where – spoiler alert! – they drive straight off this cliff, and it’s like their freedom from it all and I wanted [Laughs] – this is going to sound very morbid, as well! – but I wanted each of the songs to kind of have that really dramatic, camp feeling to it, that you just hit the ignition and you go off the cliff and you’re just, like, vibing. [Laughs]

“Obviously, in a cinematic, playful way, of course. I’m not advising people to be driving off cliffs or anything, but I wanted it to have that real, cinematic feel to it, that you’re just following the road and you’re enjoying the music, and you’re feeling it, and it’s melodramatic and silly, but, yeah, I don’t know. I’m probably describing it in a mad way.”

This horror theming expands beyond the lyrics and onto the music itself. As George explains, “I wanted the songs to feel like they were horror film tropes, and, instrumentation-wise, I really went in heavy on organs and strings, kind of orchestral kind of feelings. I wanted to add suspense in different parts with swells of strings, as seen in ‘Bleed Me Dry.’ And, again, throughout, I wanted it to feel like there was movement throughout all the album, kind of like a driving playlist, in a way. I did want it to be something to be listened to whilst driving, and with kind of a Kate Bush-y, Fleetwood Mac-y [Imitates galloping drums] drumbeats in the background.

“And then, on other songs – ‘Redrum,’ which is, as you say, a Shining reference – I wanted to have this real funk, house-y, remixed kind of feel, but it’s live at the same time, which is perfect for driving, to have this crazy, funk beat in the background, whilst someone is singing about murder! I just think it’s a really bad-ass way to listen to music. [Laughs]”

Yet, despite embracing the schlock of over-the-top camp horror flicks and their violent drama, the album also serves as a social critique and uses this playfully gruesome coating as an ostentatious juxtaposition to real-world violence and its celebration. The album’s opening title track directly criticises the sexiness we give to real-life serial killers through our fascination with true crime media and recreations. “The title track is about how serial killers are romanticised and idolised in our society, and how it’s kind of an ironic case of the victim egging on the murderer,” says George, with a laugh.

“Like, it’s a well-run motor of vehicular suicide, so to say. Which is a bizarre concept, but it’s very true and it exists, and I think, although it could be seen as morbid, I do think the whole idea in itself is quite funny, just this – which I wanted to get this across in the music video – it’s like us stabbing ourselves in the back by egging on these serial killers. It’s like, ‘Oh, we love you! Keep doing your great job’ or something. [Laughs] It’s just bizarre but hilarious at the same time, that it’s so accepted in our society. Like with this Jeffrey Dahmer Netflix series, of course, there’s going to be young, budding serial killers out there that’ll look at that and go, ‘Oh, yeah, thanks! That’s going to be good for my career when I’m older!’ [Laughs]”

Yet, despite the hyperbolic and exaggeratedly fictitious nature of the album, for George, it actually helped him. “For me, the album was an incredibly therapeutic process,” he says. “I wrote all the songs in the last year. They kind of got me through very difficult times, so, on a personal note, all of the songs are very much real and from real experiences, and I’m really grateful to have had the songs to help me with mental health and things like that.

“And on the more political stance, on songs like ‘Vehicular Suicide’ and singing about serial killers, like, it is real anger that it came from. Like, I remember writing the song, it kind of came out of nowhere. Hearing about the Jeffrey Dahmer incident, the new Netflix series. Although it is me going over-the-top and kind of dramatising it, the way the media has dramatised these serial killers. [Laughs] It’s coming from a place of real disdain and anger for all of this romanticising of just these disgusting people. Like, it is troubling to think that they’ve been put on this pedestal of fame, and it does trouble me a lot, and I think I’m one of those people who uses humour as a coping mechanism, which isn’t the worst thing, I suppose. There are worse ways to cope. [Laughs]”

George Houston’s latest album, Vehicular Suicide, is out now. George will perform an album launch/fancy dress gig at Sandinos in Derry on October 29^th. Tickets are available here. You can find George’s social media links here. You can hear this full interview on today’s episode of POSTBURNOUT.COM Interviews… at 14:00 (IST) on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music Podcasts.

Aaron Kavanagh

Aaron Kavanagh is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Post-Burnout. His writing can also be found in the Irish Daily Star, Buzz.ie, Totally Dublin, The GOO, Headstuff, New Noise Magazine, XS Noize, DSCVRD and more.