Given how vibrant their music can be, it was rather ironic that I met with Home Counties on a very miserable June evening. We had a few pints, and they told me about life as a bright and often poppy group with a past in post-punk, and attempting to survive amongst the dirt and the bling of London life. As their name suggests, these guys grew up amongst more green and spacious ends, quite contradictory to where we were currently positioned.
I was keen to hear what Will Harrison and Lois Kelly, the duo that share frontperson duties, had to say about their journey of artistic discovery. Unsure if it was Bethnal Green’s overpriced booze or the guys’ open familiarity, but the evening suddenly switched from miserable to thoroughly enjoyable – and very enlightening.
Exactly As It Seems is their latest release and first full-length offering, with many bangers such as ‘Bethnal Green’ which stands out as the most immediate ‘hit’ among the ten tracks and ‘Uptight’, which covers the sad reality of going off going out. Also standing out on the record are ‘Wild Guess’ and ‘You Break It, You Bought It’, both of which hold high relevance to the current lethargic positivity about today’s existence as a young adult.
The other band members – Barn, Bill, Conor and Dan, were not able to join us that evening but Will and Lois covered the whole lot about what it’s like to be a part of one of the UK’s most exciting acts. While the setup isn’t ideal (phone balanced on top of an ashtray to record), we plowed on through the questions and let an hour and a half drift by.
Where do you guys record your stuff, do you have a studio or more of a home setup?
WH: Most of the stuff we actually record from home. The last album, like half of the stuff we did, was probably at home.
Where do you guys keep all the equipment, do you bring it with you to each others’ places?
WH: To be fair, we practice in Homerton in a rehearsal studio that’s really near to our house. But we um … we don’t really record as a full band. We like, produce and then record. So we don’t actually carry anything.
Are you guys all old friends? How do you know each other?
WH: We all went to school together.
LK: Dan and Will have known each other since they were about two.
WH: Yeah, we started our first band when we were in year five at school. We were about ten. We played at our assembly in our little Church of England primary school. I think we played either Green Day or Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and I dressed up as Billy Joe Armstrong.
LK: Must have been the coolest assembly ever.
Especially in a church school. Where did you guys start playing as a band?
WH: So we grew up outside of London, near High Wycombe. We actually were in a different band called Haze for many years. Half the same people basically, and then we moved to Bristol and formed Home Counties when we lived there. Then about three years ago, we all moved to London.
How are you finding living in London?
WH: Expensive.
LK: Very expensive. But good fun. Lots of good music on.
WH: I like London less and less the more I live here. When I first moved here I thought ‘this is sick’. I guess compared to where we were before it is. Not Bristol though, Bristol’s amazing. London feels like a different area is a different city. But now … I can’t be arsed to go anywhere except from like, Hackney.
Do you guys go out a lot?
LK: We go to the pub a lot and watch gigs. But we’re not really big clubbers. We don’t really go clubbing anymore.
WH: In Bristol we used to … I was so ‘clubby’. Three times a week – I loved it. Here the clubs are more ‘corporate clubby vibes’ and full of ‘Saturday shirts’.
LK: We do like a good karaoke night.
WH: We drink at this sort of ‘proper boozer’ in Hackney called The Globe. They do karaoke and it’s hilarious.
How do you guys feel your music ‘fits’ into London? How do you guys see yourself within the London scene?
Will – I don’t really feel like we’re a London band at all. Although the whole of our first album is about the experience of moving to London, we’re not in the sort of a fashionable South London scene. I think our relationship with London is more of a detached, observational standpoint. I suppose that’s what the shape of our first album was like, just that experience of moving to London, and that’s how London has influenced the album, rather than us being a part of it.
Do you have a favorite track that you’ve recorded? What would be your favorite track on the recent album?
LK: Mine changes all the time.
WH: Yeah it changes every day. Sometimes I hate some of the songs [laughs].
Do you regret recording any songs? Would you go back and change anything?
WH: I wouldn’t say I regret any of them, but I’d probably do it completely differently now. The way we recorded the album – over the space of a year and doing it every evening, rather than going in two weeks in the studio – that meant we constantly fell in and out of love with different things, and wanted to move in different directions. So when we started recording it was maybe more punky, and then it grew more electronic, and then we had to go back and tinker with the other songs. It was constantly shifting. I think the songs I like the most are probably the most electronic, poppy songs, and the ones I like the least are the more punky, raw ones. I guess that your stages always change.
I do like ‘Bethnal Green‘, it’s probably my favorite track of yours.
Lois – I do like ‘Bethnal Green’. It’s the first one we wrote from that album altogether.
What’s it about?
WH: Moving here. Being here at this pub. We spent a lot of time here. The most fucking expensive pub in Bethnal Green. It was so exciting to move here, but then, like, what were we really doing?
Do you miss home sometimes?
WH: No.
LK: Home’s really not far away. But it is very rural, very conservative. Everyone knows who you are.
Would you say there is a message that you try and convey through your music or is it more from a fun, carefree standpoint?
WH: If you like our earlier stuff, it’s a bit more political and ‘messagey’. I don’t think we write in a way where we’re trying to be like “this is what we want people to take away”. It’s more just about the experience, and sometimes it can have political, social or socioeconomic reflections. I think it’s important to detach yourself from that early on, before every song had to be about something and have some sort of message. I think that was the big difference with this record. It was, like, “let’s just write about experience and then it’s less constrained” and less trying to be … ‘academic’. It’s just, like, more about, “this is life”. You don’t always want abrasive, dissonant guitar music puncturing your enjoyment of existence. Yeah, life’s boring as shit sometimes, but sometimes it’s good to dance and have fun. I think when we play live especially, it’s fun. It’s not some sort of academic, political experience. It’s a collective, euphoric moment.
Have you ever made a song which you were more conscious or apprehensive about releasing?
WH: The only ones I was worried about were the more personal songs on the record. More about emotional things. Those songs, like, ‘Wild Guess’, for example, were very sombre and reflective, so I was more concerned about releasing those. It wasn’t really about upsetting someone but more the feeling of vulnerability.
Words: Anastasia Bolshova // Photos: Alex Amoros (cover) and Lily Doidge (body)
‘Exactly As It Seems’ is out now via Submarine Cat Records. Stream and download the album along with other previous music from Home Counties via Bandcamp.