Horse Jumper of Love Fill the Sonic Space Between Soft and Heavy

When you learn that the indie shoegaze rock band Horse Jumper of Love got its name from an ancient Latin poem, you realize you're dealing with intellectuals.

"When I'm not listening to music, I do like to read poetry or fiction. I like words," the band's singer and guitarist Dimitri Giannopoulos tells New Times over Zoom from his New York City bedroom before explaining the name Horse Jumper of Love, which comes from the English translation of one of Ovid's epic poems. "Basically, he was heartbroken, and it was his way of explaining he couldn't just move on to another girl. He wasn't a horse jumper of love. At 18, that sounded cool."

Giannopoulos just moved to New York four months ago. Before that, he spent his whole life in Boston.

"I started playing guitar when I was 9. I took a few guitar lessons, but the teacher quit on me because I didn't want to learn scales. When I started writing my own songs, I started to like the guitar. I didn't want it to feel like homework."

Horse Jumper of Love started when a teenage Giannopoulos met fellow Boston high school students John Margaris (bass) and Jamie Vadala-Doran (drums). "We liked playing music and getting fucked up together. We'd hang out, play indie music from that 2010 era like Fleet Foxes, and drink a lot," he adds.

That friendship spawned a fruitful music career that started with the release of the band's self-titled debut in 2016; the band's fifth album, Disaster Trick, is set for release on August 16.

"The two albums I listened to for inspiration were Leonard Cohen's Songs from a Room and Hum's Downward Is Heavenward," says Giannopoulos of the process of putting Disaster Trick together. "From Cohen was the soft, emotional lyric-driven folk; from Hum came the heavier shoegaze stuff. From the two extremes, the stuff I wrote ended up in the middle. I was trying to be more direct lyrically. I tried to sound more mature and honest with what's in my heart."

For Giannopoulos, the songwriting process starts with a random thought.

"I do a lot of walking. I do the sober person thing of walking miles and talking on the phone," he explains. "I'll have a thought which I'll write on my phone. When I get home, I'll play guitar and think about how I can fit what I'm thinking into a chord progression. I'll do a voice memo of that and listen to it a few times throughout the week. From that, I'll think of an arrangement. Then I'll bring it to the guys and see what happens."

After the band's Florida debut at Gramps last summer, Miami will get a second chance to hear what noise comes from those long walks when Horse Jumper of Love returns on July 21 at the Ground. "I loved Miami. That was our first time, and it was beautiful. The show was awesome and packed," he says, warning first-time attendees not to expect to dance or mosh at one of their shows. "The music is emotional. It's soft with heavy moments and very personal."

Giannopoulos admits that performing live can be an intense experience for him. "I have a playlist of classical guitar and piano I listen to, or some ambient or brown noise just to calm me down. I try to be really calm before I go on so I'm not nervous. I used to use alcohol; now I use music."

That nervousness sometimes can manifest as an out-of-body experience for the frontman.

"It happens every once in a while where I feel myself watching myself," Giannopoulos says. "You know it's unnatural to be on a stage, and it feels sometimes like it's not what my body wants to do. But sometimes, the dissociative experience is interesting. I find a way to power through. Nothing would be more embarrassing than having to stop in the middle of a song."

DIIV. With Horse Jumper of Love and Dutch Interior. 8 p.m. Sunday, July 21, at the Ground Miami, 34 NE 11th St., Miami; thegroundmiami.com. Tickets cost $40 via dice.fm.