Listen, listen—a world is speaking! A world where playfulness is a source of wisdom, and entertaining insane thoughts is serious business. For his third album, released on the Montreal-based label Secret City Records, Gus Englehorn named this world The Hornbook. With his wife, Estée Preda, by his side, the self-taught singer-songwriter and guitarist from Alaska has assembled a body of work that resembles an early-education tool for our hidden inner children—offering guidance on how to create a work of art. Mixed by Paul Leary (Butthole Surfers), his music isn’t a gentle stroll through the woods but rather a twisted mental exercise—a psychological thriller wrapped inside an obscure Jean Cocteau film, wrapped inside a children’s puppet show.
Heavily inspired by the indie, low-budget Montreal band The Unicorns, the outsider art of Daniel Johnston, and the spontaneity of his autistic younger brother Max, Gus’s devotion to keeping things DIY, lo-fi, genuine, educational, and playful comes as no surprise. With a sense of great camaraderie, this new album is here to teach you how to handle the growth of your own unicorn’s horn. What are the symptoms? A loss of vision, a whirlwind of emotions, an insatiable creative itch, an odd craving to speak in rhyme, to tell the tale of a reborn hero, and to discover what lies beyond. What do you mean, the other side? Well, that’s what we’re here for. Let’s dive in. Because despite all this infernal racket, dear artists, remember: inside you, there’s a precious jewel of love, and you can’t escape it.
Le Büro : You released your first album Death & Transfiguration independently in 2020. There’s a video on YouTube explaining the long process and resilience behind the recording. Can you tell us a little about this difficult and uncertain journey that took almost ten years?
Gus Englehorn : It was a long, drawn-out process, that’s for sure. I was a snowboarder for a lot of years, always playing guitar on the side. I knew I wouldn’t be a professional snowboarder forever, and my dream was to be in a band. I started trying to write songs—just trying and trying—but it was so hard. Nothing ever sounded good to me. So I kept going. My pursuit in life was simply trying to write songs for nearly ten years before I ever released anything. I think that's why I was so old when that first record came out. I was kind of clueless about art, music, and everything in general because snowboarding is such an insular world where all you talk about is snowboarding. Writing music was an eye-opening experience—it revealed a whole new world of possibilities to me.
Le Büro : How was it to transition from the snowboard community to the music community? What similarities and differences do you see?
Gus Englehorn : Estée and I actually talk about this a lot because it’s definitely very different. I guess snowboarders, skateboarders, and surfers are all alike in some way. In the snowboard world, everyone’s like, “Dude, so fun!” We’re generally happy and stoked on life. Artists, on the other hand, are more introspective. They have so many interesting things to say, but there’s often a more tortured aspect to their personalities. I spent a lot of time outdoors snowboarding, and when I became a songwriter, I suddenly had to spend much more time inside, alone. It was a big shift—one I needed, though.
Le Büro : The cover of your second album, Dungeon Master (2022, Secret City), features your younger brother Max in costume. Can you tell us about his passion for play and disguise?
Gus Englehorn : My brother Max is autistic, and his whole life revolves around dressing up. He even changed his voice to speak two octaves lower like the Hulk—for three years straight. He’s just hilarious. He always has some wild idea he’s trying to bring to life. He’s definitely a big inspiration, that’s for sure.
Le Büro : You’ve made a few educational videos teaching your audience how to write songs, make videos, or create a zine. What was the purpose behind these?
Gus Englehorn : The driving force behind all these videos is definitely Estée. She’s been passionate about film for a long time, and I love making them too. They also teach me something about myself. Some say teaching is the best way to learn—it’s always revelatory for me. I also crave camaraderie in the arts, which can be very isolating. It helps to feel less alone when you find someone who thinks like you. These videos are a way to connect with other artists and share thoughts.
Le Büro : There’s a saying that behind every great man is an even greater woman. How important is your wife, Estée, in your artistic journey?
Gus Englehorn : She’s everything. She’s so passionate, always there to listen and reassure me, and she works incredibly hard. Right now, she’s the one booking our DIY tour in the Northwest. She’s also the most talented person I know, but she doesn’t want to be in the spotlight. When we recorded our first album, she had to learn how to play drums in just one week—and she nailed it. She’s a natural. She’s definitely half of the band.
Le Büro : Your new album is called The Hornbook. What’s behind the title?
Gus Englehorn : A hornbook is a medieval book shaped like a tennis racket. It was used to teach the alphabet and prayers. I felt like the album already had a kind of children’s book quality, so in a way, it could be The Englehorn Children’s Book. It just made sense.
Le Büro : The video for One Eyed Jack is pretty epic and illustrates the song’s lyrics well. We follow an investigation of sorts and a trip to “the other side.” How was that video made?
Gus Englehorn : We shot it at my dad’s place, in this detached garage. We started looking around, searching for what we could use. There was his motorcycle, a pink door, a briefcase, some bright lights, all these vintage Hawaiian shirts I’ve been collecting, and a big pile of rubble outside. It’s always just Estée and me filming each other, with no budget, on 16mm film. I learned how to shoot just by reading a few books—like The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video—to get the basics down.
Le Büro : In One Eyed Jack, you sing:
"Well, One Eyed Jack looked through the crack / What did he see beyond the veil? / He was the door to the other side / What do you mean the other side?"
What do you really mean by “the other side”?
Gus Englehorn : In the Bible, there’s a passage called The Cursing of the Fig Tree, where Jesus destroys a plum tree. I love the mystery of these kinds of images—they’re so bizarre and out of place. Like, why would he destroy that plum tree, you know? To me, mystery is one of the most essential ingredients in songwriting. That’s what I’m aiming for.
I was thinking about people working on a railroad, singing or telling a folk tale that eventually turns into a kind of religion—where One Eyed Jack becomes a Messiah figure. Then he goes interdimensional, bursting into another dimension or something. I guess it’s pretty confusing. But my favorite thing is hearing other people’s interpretations of it.
Le Büro : You mentioned the Dadaist Hans Richter as an inspiration for Metal Detector, and that the video is a mix of the unconscious and consciousness, reason and chaos, sense and nonsense. Can you elaborate?
Gus Englehorn : The history of Dadaism is fascinating. Tristan Tzara was all about surrendering completely to chaos. I find that approach to art really interesting because it comes straight from the subconscious. But the question is: do you leave it raw, or do you shape it into something? I fall into the latter category—I can’t fully give myself over to chance.
My process involves diving deep into my subconscious, gathering ideas, and letting them surface naturally. I usually have a pool of disconnected lyrics, guitar parts, and other elements, and I collage them together until they start forming a story. That’s why my songs have a lot of contrasting ideas, time changes, and dynamic shifts—they come from different places but somehow align in the end.
In Faith, Hope and Carnage, Nick Cave talks about how the waking mind is all about logic, but language is inadequate when it comes to the biggest questions. He loves going to church because logic disappears, and he enters the realm of the illogical. I think being an artist is about dealing with that mystery. You always wonder, Why am I writing this? Where is this coming from? It often feels like creating something from nothing.
Catch Gus live at one of the upcoming shows and stay tuned for more dates across Canada and the US to be announced very soon!
Feb 6 - Montreal, QC - Esco (Taverne Tour)
Feb 7 - Québec, QC - Le Pantoum
Feb 8 - Québec, QC - Le Knock-Out (solo acoustic)
Feb 14 - Toronto, ON - The Baby G
Feb 23 - Ottawa, ON - Rainbow Bistro
Tickets at: gusenglehorn.com/shows/
