The story begins years prior to Mail the Horse, when a ragtag group of musicians and artists gathered weekly in woodsheds, kitchens or wherever they could find space in coastal New Hampshire to share their work and collectively scratch an artistic itch none of them could reach on his own. In this setting, longtime songwriting partners Michael Hesslein & Michael “Donny” Amidon and rhythm section Brendan Smith & William Lawrence discovered they shared substantial common ground in their musical tastes, and bonded over a love for timeless rock & roll, the short-fiction of Raymond Carver, and outsider folk music.

During the winter of 2010, through situations both fortunate and less so, the four friends found themselves sharing a dilapidated Bushwick duplex next door to a motorcycle club. It served as a home and recording studio, and hosted dozens of travelers, eventually becoming known as Gates Motel. In the summer of 2011 Chris May passed through, who once had a weekly gig with Brendan playing Kinks covers at a London bar. After hearing MTH, Chris learned the pedal steel guitar, joined the band, and the current formation was born.

Mail the Horse has spent the past four years synthesizing decades of influences, from Gram Parsons to Nick Cave, into powerfully executed folk-rock. The music conveys the fraternal bond of the members and an attitude that could only be carved out by New York City. Playing countless shows in NYC, from a sold-out NYE supporting The Felice Brothers to a backyard kegger hosting some of Nashville’s finest bands, and several national tours, Mail the Horse are in that small class of DIY bands who drag keyboards and pedal steel into punk houses. Their music has matured and swaggers with the best of them, and the new record, Planet Gates, brings their expert songcraft to the forefront.