I’ve never felt so naked in my whole life,” says Jacob Slater, the man behind the reins of rock band Wunderhorse. The Hertfordshire-born frontman is centre stage at his sold-out show at London’s Lafayette, 600 pairs of eyes transfixed by him. As he roars through a rollicking set of gritty rock, his face crinkles, his body bucks. Pouring out of him are vignettes of teenage trauma, delivered with a preacher’s zeal. He bares his soul; his heart is open.
“It’s kind of a relief going on stage every night,” he tells me the following day, when we meet in a bar in King’s Cross. “It’s like this is what I’m supposed to be doing.” This is fortunate, given Wunderhorse are currently on the road with Irish rock band Fontaines DC, having previously supported North Shields artist Sam Fender. Both have been enamoured by the band’s merging of muddy rock and Nineties-infused grunge.
