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Their aim? To help listeners find romance in their everyday lives.
They’ve already gained considerable attention on TikTok, with fans making videos to their unreleased tracks in locations described in the lyrics, including to their upcoming debut single, ‘Please Love Me’, which is out on September 5th. The track has already received exceptionally positive reviews from the likes of BBC Radio London.
Led by the songwriting collaboration between Naomi Mann and Charlie Butler, the pair share the intriguing lore behind their music as part of Music Is To Blame’s What’s to Blame? series.
Talk to us about your band’s name - who or what is to blame for its inception?
GIFTHORSE comes from the saying ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’ - which means be gracious if someone gives you something. You could say our songs are a gift. Take them!
What or who would you say is to blame for your music career?
Naomi: I started drama and dance classes really young - I was kind of a theatre kid! But I suppose when I started watching Hannah Montana on Disney Channel, the pop star dream set in motion. I also had an unhealthy obsession with ABBA, my parents would play them in the car on long drives or holidays and I used to watch their BBC documentary every night at about eight years old. I’m still a hardcore ABBA fan now and still want to be a pop star.
Charlie: The Smiths on DVD, a collection of all The Smiths’ music videos, which my brother and I religiously watched on long car journeys to France. I decided to learn ‘This Charming Man’ when I was 11 and I’ve never looked back.
What is to blame for the sound and/or sentiment behind your upcoming single, ‘Please Love Me’?
Romantic pop bands are to blame for the sentiment of ‘Please Love Me’. 60s girl groups like The Ronettes, with a special mention to ‘Be My Baby’. The Smiths, Blondie, Pet Shop Boys. Bands that were sincere, hopeless romantics, and classically pop.
The sound is inspired by The Jesus and Mary Chain, Phil Spector and Chappell Roan. Loud, proud and shiny.
Is London to blame?
We are endlessly inspired by London. Naomi grew up in Sheffield and moved down here in 2022, Charlie is a born and bred North Londoner. This provides two differing perspectives on the capital.
Naomi had an idealistic, romantic impression of the city before moving, which has seeped into our writing - for example, ‘Please Love Me’ is partly set in Hampstead Heath, one of the more iconic parts of London.
Charlie’s London was more grounded in its day-to-day reality: finding the romance in getting the W7 to Finsbury Park to go out in town or getting the night bus home.
Together, our words spin escapist tales of London, its nightlife and the characters we observe, which are set in unassuming yet familiar places in the capital - a late-night karaoke bar on Archway Road, Camden Road Overground, or a Northern Soul night in Hackney. London is a vital part of our story, identity and inspiration as a band.
GIFTHORSE is led by the songwriting partnership of Naomi and Charlie - who is to blame for what?
We’re 50/50 on everything. Naomi is a connoisseur of vocal melodies; Charlie is the riff man and arranges everything. Lyrically, we are inspired by our adventures in London. We do more character observation on the dancefloor than we do dancing.
You define yourselves as “frazzled English pop” - can you tell us more about that?
We have very classically English references - The Smiths, The Sundays, Pulp, Saint Etienne and also films by Richard Curtis - where the term “frazzled English’’ comes from - as well as Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral and Keira Knightley in Love Actually. Our music and the characters we observe in our songs work in that world; slightly bumbling and awkward but always gorgeous, charming, and extremely London.
GIFTHORSE’s music is perfect for when you're...
...sitting on the Overground, heading to the Hampstead Heath ponds on a Sunday afternoon with a mild hangover and an oat milk latte for survival. We encourage people to romanticise the beauty in the regular everyday - because if you look hard enough, you will find it.
What can we expect from GIFTHORSE for the rest of 2025 and beyond?
Lots of shows, now with a full band. October is an exciting month; we head out of London to play Tenement Trail in Glasgow (11th) and play London support shows with Gingerella (17th) and Lizzie Esau (23rd). Other than that, you’ll have to wait and see…
Anything else?
Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @thebandgifthorse to keep up to date with us.
Kai Palmer
Image: Lulu Schneider
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