Calico Horse [ tickets ], a San Diego based indie-rock outfit, rose from the ashes of The Clock Work Army, songstress Emily Neveu and bassist Dave Pettijohn's former band. Along with making the band's major decisions, Neveu also sings, plays guitar and writes the songs. With the help of musician Pall Jenkins, the frontman for fellow San Diego group The Black Heart Procession, Calico Horse (namely Neveu) completed production of their debut album, "Mirror," after nearly a year of hard work.

The 13-track "Mirror" hit stores shelves in late July. The quartet just finished up a short West Coast jaunt following the album's drop.

Calico Horse [ tickets ], a San Diego based indie rock quartet, recently released their debut album, "Mirror."

LiveDaily contributor Maya Marin sat down with the foursome--singer/guitarist/keyboardist Emily Neveu, guitarist Matthew Mournian, bassist Dave Pettijohn and drummer Tom Peart--just a couple days before the record's release to discuss their musical influences, the band's writing process and more.

Let's start out with the band's history. For those listeners who don't know, you guys started out as The Clock Work Army.

Emily Neveu: Yeah, it started about two or three years ago. Dave and I met in college and started The Clock Work Army with a couple other folks and released a little five-song EP that was really different than what it's become today. It just morphed into this. Getting through the whole recording session--which took a year to record the album that's coming out--I think we grew a little as people and musicians, so the whole thing changed.

Tell me how you grew as musicians.

EN: For me, I broadened my musical horizons, I think. What I listen to today is severely different than what I did when I was a junior in college. That helps, and then finding the right people to play music with and to be inspired by also helps shape where we are.

Who are your musical influences, individually and then collectively as a band?

Dave Pettijohn: I think I speak for all of us when I say Radiohead. That's something that's in our CD players regularly.

And you do have a cover of "Idioteque" that I heard recently…

DP: We do, yeah. I like keeping track of all the new bands that are coming out, like we played a show with Beach House recently and I really like that album they have. That's something that I'm listening to a lot at the moment.

Matthew Mournian: For me personally, the bands that made me want to play music were The Cure, Sonic Youth, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Wu-Tang Clan—a lot of that type of stuff.

EN: I'm also heavily into Radiohead as well, just like every band, but lately I've been listening to Grizzly Bear. I also have always listened to Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee, just because that's rad. I also think Beach House is amazing.

Tom Peart: I guess bands that inspired me to play the drums are old San Diego bands like Drive Like Jehu, Three Mile Pilot, Tanner, Fishwife – stuff like that. I just really like that there was particular San Diego sound then and I'm really into it. It takes me a long time to buy a new CD. I think the newest CD I bought was …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead CD, "Worlds Apart" (from 2005.) It takes a lot for me to commit $12-$15 to something new.

You talked about a San Diego sound. How would you describe that sound?

TP: It's really hard to explain. I guess it's some sort of weird punk with a hardcore influence, maybe, but it's a little bit smarter than that. It's not just angry, angry, angry. I'll narrow it down to one band – Drive Like Jehu creates really good textures and rhythms without being overly complex or showing off.

How do the songs usually come together for the band? Emily, you're the primary songwriter, I believe.

EN: Yeah. With this record, I did a lot of it by myself so some of the sessions, I would come in with a full song and sometimes with just a little bit of an idea. We'd just work it out in the studio. As far as writing with these guys, we haven't really written together as a band -- couple songs, yeah, but not much. I'm really looking forward to that. We're promoting this first record before we venture off.

So before you actually released your debut LP, "Mirror," you'd already been playing a number of high profile gigs with some bands of note – you mentioned Beach House, Yeasayer, Black Heart Procession. Do you think that there's an advantage in going out and playing gigs and generating a buzz before actually releasing your album?

DP: Absolutely, otherwise people really aren't going to know you're coming, especially with the way all the record labels are nowadays. We find it's a lot better to do everything on your own as much as you can and as soon as you can, that way people tend to have somewhat of an advanced notice that you're around. It allowed us to build up a fan base prior to the record coming out.

That definitely makes an artist more appealing to a label, to have a built-in fan base. How do you approach studio recording? Do you attempt to recreate your live sound on the record or vice versa?

EN: I think because a lot of this album was done with just me and Paul, it's hard to do that. We didn't play a full drum kit on every song. We figured out weird stuff to fill in the gaps and things like that, so I think it's a little different than the live sound.

EN: It's a lot fuller, a lot more energetic. I like that. I like going to show and seeing and hearing something that's different than just popping in a CD. I think that's interesting.

One of my favorite things about the record are the really gorgeous layered vocals. I know that you've got the band members singing some harmonies as well, but they're not as rich as what you hear on the record. Are you averse to using pre-recorded tracks onstage?

EN: I actually had an idea. Once I get enough money, I want to invest in a loop station and try to do that. It's really hard to do though, I've tried it, but I think it would be a really cool thing to have. Whenever I see it pulled off beautifully live, I always think that that's impressive and builds a beautiful harmony.

I imagine it would take some practice

EN: Yeah, it’s really hard.

You had Pall Jenkins of Black Heart Procession at the helm as producer. How did his input influence the sound?

EN: I think it made it a lot more organic. We didn't just use normal instruments. We went in and just made sounds, hitting different things. He has this creation that he built in his backyard that he calls the object and it's just pieces of metal and wood, pieced together, so we were just hitting stuff. I think that was really cool. He added a lot of heavy guitar that sounds very Black Heart Procession-y and of course his musical saw. He's really mellow and easy to work with and encouraging. It was an honor to work with him. He's definitely not a dude who needs to have a $4,000 guitar. He has like a $200 bass that he uses. I like that kind of idea, that way of thinking. I like that it's a sound and it's not perfect but it's cool.

So where can people get a copy of the record?

EN: It's available online and on iTunes as well.

And your tour schedule is on your website and your MySpace page as well. Thanks for coming in!

EN: Thanks for having us. This was fun!