Max HeyraudDefying easy categorisation, Faster Horses has carved out a distinctive place in contemporary dance music by letting instinct, not genre, drive his trajectory.
Faster Horses seemed to appear out of thin air in 2021, emerging fully formed with his debut record Nightwalker. Since then, the name has been thundering across the global dance music circuit, galloping into some of the world’s most respected clubs and festivals, Glitch, Creamfields, Parklife, Glastonbury, Warehouse Project, Teletech Festival, Terminal V, Intercell, Vault Sessions, Rote Sonne and FOLD’s famed Unfold Sundays.
As that list suggests, the rising juggernaut has spent the past three years riding the line between big rooms and basements, between commercial and underground sensibilities. His sets and productions zigzag across the electronic music tapestry: techno, house, trance, garage, hardstyle, mid-2000s deep house and back again. What ties it together is a refusal to be categorised. In conversation, he admits that genre labels once stressed him out. The idea of committing to a box felt suffocating. His discography reads like someone actively breaking those shackles.
One of his biggest releases to date—now over 15 million streams—is his remix of Kerri Chandler’s “You’re In My System,” which led to him co-hosting Sarah Story’s Future Dance show on BBC Radio 1 alongside Chandler. A leaked collaboration with Morgan Seatree, “In My Heart,” remains officially unreleased yet has already racked up more than 500,000 SoundCloud plays. Labels including Space Trax, RAW, boisha, Hot Meal Records and Teletech have all carried his music in recent years.
We caught up with the dance-floor rule-breaker to talk limitations, his love for Ireland, classic techno, Manchester, Teletech and more.
You were performing with Pat Flynn a few weeks ago. That’s pretty iconic. How was that?
Honestly, it was a real ‘pinch me’ moment. The guy is an absolute legend, I think his music soundtracked a lot of our collective youths, and finally meeting him in the flesh was insane. I had no idea what to expect, but he’s actually the sweetest, most humble guy ever, and it was pretty wonderful that our first performance together went so smoothly.
One of the comments from the post about that set said, “Is Faster Horses secretly Irish?” which seems nearly fair enough, as you’re playing here a lot. How do you enjoy playing in Ireland? It seems like a natural fit for you.
I think from the start, this place was meant to be my home. I drew so much inspiration from Irish artists in the early days (and still now, of course) of my career, and even from my first show here (Limerick, back in 2022), there was such a buzz when I would play in Ireland. I think being from Liverpool, there are a lot of similarities in culture, but it was the way I was made to feel so at home immediately, like I belonged, which, if I’m being honest, was not something I ever really felt growing up in Liverpool.
I love playing here. I love the crowds, I love the energy, I love the way I’m not respected here because of how many followers I have, or because of how much I post on Instagram, but because of my music and my selections. I feel very much at peace here. Maybe it’s because my girlfriend is Irish, but it does feel like my home, and I’m pretty much living in Dublin now, which has been really nice.
Last year, you played all night long at Hidden. How was that? I would imagine that format is perfect for you.
I really love those all-night-long sets, and I’ve done a bunch now. They can be really physically and mentally draining but I think the key is trusting the crowd are with you, and in that regard there really was no better place to do it than at Hidden, which was definitely such an important club in the timeline of my career.
You played in The Racket Space in Dublin, writing about your love for playing in “sweaty basements. As someone who’s also playing a lot of big rooms, are you seeking out more intimate parties, too?
For me, intimate clubs always beat big rooms. Yeah, it’s a thrill playing to a huge crowd, but there really is just no way you can connect to the crowd on the same level as you can in a room with 200 people in it. I really enjoy playing big rooms in a different way, it becomes more like a performance, whereas playing in a dark, sweaty basement makes me feel like I’m a raver along with everyone else, except I get to be in control of what plays on the speakers. It’s very fun.
My girlfriend and I are actually planning on starting a new club night, focusing on those dark, intimate spaces, running in Dublin and Manchester. I can’t reveal too much yet, but I’m really excited about the prospect of that. I think it’s going to be really fun.
You’re part of the Teletech crew. How did that relationship begin?
It was actually Alex (Kander) who introduced me to the crew. I was attending the parties as a raver, and we met in the smoking area of Hidden in 2021. We became friends, and at the time he was living with Tom, one half of Teletech, and so I would go round to their place and through that I developed a friendship with Tom.
We were out for a drink one night when Tom asked me if I wanted to play at Hidden that night, b2b with him, for the student Thursday party they used to run. We did, and it was very fun. Slowly but surely, after that, he started bringing me on more of their lineups, first in the UK and then gradually into Europe too. It really is like a family, it’s such a small team for the size of the brand now, but I think that’s why it thrives – it’s just a collective of dedicated individuals, all who have a really serious love of dance music, pushing the boundaries of what can be done.
What scenes, crews, or parties are exciting you right now?
Scene-wise, I feel like I can’t not mention the garage scene that is absolutely blossoming in the UK. There is so much incredible music being made; some of the stuff I’m being sent by up-and-coming producers is really next level.
I really like what Radio Rudina are doing over in Vienna; they stepped into fill a green bathroom-sized hole in the scene and have taken it to the next level. Their curation is excellent, and the sound they’re beginning to push with their own parties aligns very much with what I enjoy on the dancefloor.
There are so many parties doing such cool stuff at the moment, so here are a few of my favourites. The Shed Residents in Dublin are consistently bringing through amazing bookings and doing it with such flair. The Celesté boys up in Glasgow, and the Tais-Toi boys in Edinburgh, both bringing really headsy music to cities that might not get so much of it otherwise. Club Are in London, a really wonderful queer party pushing really great house music in a queer scene that I think sometimes can be a little over-saturated with techno, and I can’t not mention Meat Free. Manchester-based and female-owned, they’ve provided a safe space to listen to proper techno music in Manchester for so many years now. I used to religiously attend every edition at The White Hotel, seeing artists such as D.Dan, Phara, Tasha, The Lady Machine, and so many more techno legends, but if I’m honest, the highlight was always the 8am Blasha and Allatt closing.
You play a lot of different styles, and you’ve embraced that as a positive part of your identity as an artist, but some people prefer to be known for just one thing. Do you ever feel pressured to conform to a certain style?
I stressed about this for years, and for a while tried to conform to one sound, but I really just found it so boring. I love music so much, all types of music, and when I play, I want people to have an insight into what I’m currently bumping. When you look at all the great ‘selector’ DJs of our time, none of them stick to one genre. Sometimes I wanna play a disco track, and sometimes I wanna play a dubstep track. I think as long as you have the balls to blend them, people will enjoy it.
I’m pretty sure you’re the only producer I know making experimental ambient and IDM at the same time as 2010-era-esque deep house. How do these two polar-opposite worlds function for you at the same time?
Again, it all just comes down to what’s going on in my brain at the time. I feel like I make two types of music – music that comes from a place of emotion, which normally finds itself being more experimental, atmospheric, and music that comes from being on the dancefloor, and it’s probably sort of obvious how that ends up sounding. I grew up in the era of deep house, and it’s incredibly nostalgic for me. That sound was still around as I was beginning to attend house parties and discovering alcohol, and I really associate it with such an exciting time in my life.
Tell me about your Pathfinder alias. Where did that idea come from?
Pathfinder was born out of a need to create really ambitious projects, where I didn’t feel confined to any label’s requirements or have to worry about what my audience might think.
I love creating little worlds to get lost in with my music. I’ve always had an obsession with space, sci-fi and all things alien, and that really found its way into Pathfinder. It was heavily inspired by what the Ute.Rec guys were doing up in Norway, with their immensely beautiful analogue trance music, but also with a healthy dose of the super futuristic sounds artists like Priori and LDS were pushing, along with some of the darkness I discovered in Sepehr’s music. I think the Copenhagen scene also played a large part. What all these had in common was the atmosphere they would create. There were drums to dance to, but in the stereo image, a whole world was being created, and you could so easily become lost in it.
I haven’t released much as Pathfinder, but I’m very proud of the two hardware live sets I have on Soundcloud. They both took around 2 months to create, and I plan on writing another one soon. It’s great when you’re feeling a little directionless to have a project like that to focus on.
In another interview, you spoke about the move to Manchester being a game-changer for shaping your sound. Having lived there a while now, do you still feel that impact?
I’d say as time has gone on, I’ve begun to draw impact from other sources. I love Manchester and I always will, but I think that you need to progress and evolve as an artist, and I’ve really enjoyed drawing inspiration from new scenes and artists across the world, as I’ve travelled and discovered. However, the scene in Manchester is still absolutely flourishing and this place will always be my home. it’s where my life really began.
Let’s talk techno. You first came onto my radar as a techno artist, but you’ve mostly moved away from the genre. Are you still making much techno? Your recent track on ULTRANOVA was really nice.
It’s funny, because as an artist, I’ve really moved away, but as a raver, I’m more of a techno head than ever. On the dancefloor, proper techno is like nothing else. There’s a collective state of expanded consciousness that a good DJ, good sound system and good crowd can create. Everyone feels so in sync. A good example for me would be Freddy K and Chlär’s 3-hour set at Fuinneamh this year. I didn’t leave the dancefloor once. I was absolutely mesmerised by it, and the feeling of knowing you’re sharing that feeling with the entire crowd is hard to come by with anything except techno. I’m still making a lot of techno, and I play a lot of it in my sets. I don’t know how much I will release, but I’ve toyed with the idea of creating an alias to focus on this sound more.
Staying on the techno lane, your edit of Kerri Chandler’s “You’re In My System” ended up being edited again by Dax J. How did that come about?
Dax is an absolute legend, and I’ve always been a great admirer of him. I was so flattered when he asked if he could release the edit he’d made of my edit. I think he was playing it a lot, but there were elements he wanted to change to allow it to fit his sets a little more, and I was happy to oblige.
Also, tell us about your communication with Kerri at that time. What did he make of the edit?
I love Kerri to bits, he’s such a wonderful human. Initially, we had the edit taken down, and I thought, Oh well, that’s the end of that. Then, his team reached out and asked if we wanted to release it officially, and Kerri himself got in touch.
It’s funny, because as much as he’d never say it, I doubt Kerri was ever a fan of the edit. But there’s a reason he’s been around for so long. He knew that a modern, upbeat version would breathe new life into it, and I think it definitely did.
I feel very privileged to call Kerri a friend now. He WhatsApps me every now and then to send me a video of a kangaroo or something like that, because we had a conversation about Australia once. He joined me in the booth at AVA in 2024, and it was such a beautiful moment having him there.
How do you want people to feel after they leave one of your sets?
I want them to say, ‘Jesus, he’s an absolute selector’. That is all.
