Gigslutz Interview. Amelia Ward Meets: PEACE

With widespread critical acclaim from the likes of The Guardian and NME, Peace were hotly tipped at the beginning of 2013 to have success headed their way. And success they achieved! As we approach the end of the year we look back and see a band who have toured the world, graced the cover of NME and hitting the UK charts with their brilliant debut album ‘In Love’. Gigslutz spoke to singer Harrison Koisser before their Manchester gig in a festive interview to catch up with where they’re currently at and how they feel about their success laden year…

downloadPeace_InLove_jk

Hello Harry! Firstly, how has your day been?
Yeah, good, kind of busy! Had a lot of time to do nothing and a bit of time to do everything!

You are coming to the end of the tour, how has it gone?
Well. Really well. All the shows have been good, there hasn’t been a bad one.

Which has been your favourite city so far?
I don’t know… they’ve all been good, it’s all been a blur. It’s been really good all tour, I don’t know if there was a favourite city.

Do you have any tour stories? Any bad habits in the band?
Erm, I don’t think so! It’s all been quite chilled really. We had a massive accidental after party in Newcastle. Dom ended up DJing in this bar to loads of people and doing dance moves, kind of acting out what was being said in the song and then I put on Faithless – ‘Insomnia’ and no-one got it. It was like eight minutes and the last two minutes is the bit that everyone knows, so I was just shouting at the whole audience like “wait, wait” for six minutes and everyone was there just so bored and then it happens and I was like “there you go!”, this is what you’ve been waiting for.

Who or what would you say has influenced your sound?
It’s a hard one really, because there’s always sort of stuff you hear on a taxi radio or you overhear stuff and it catches you off guard and you’re like “oh, I’ll remember that”. But obviously we love classic bands. So between us we all like Zeppelin, I like Zeppelin, everyone does! And classic stuff, like The Beatles, Queen, David Bowie, but then a lot of more current stuff and 80s stuff.

2013peace_010113_JH_180201132013Albumsof201329.peace_010113_JH_63

You’ve been compared to current bands like The Maccabees and Foals, how does that sit with you?
Yeah, I mean that was quite early on, we had one demo online, we were into a bit more dance music then, I think that was something Foals had tried to do as well, trying to make the rhythms and sort of the sounds of techno work with guitars and bring that in, we were doing it in a different way but we were kind of trying to do the same thing I guess. Obviously we were a lot later than Foals but, there are some similarities.

You’ve been nominated for awards like NME’s best new band and BBC’s sound of 2013 awards. How do you think all that sort of stuff affected your success?
I guess people wouldn’t have taken us as seriously without a nomination. I don’t know really, I don’t know much about that side of the industry. The sound polls chosen by people in the industry, it’s kind of like a group of people say “Who’s working with who? Let’s rank them!” I don’t know, it is kind of a representation, because that’s how the industry works, you know, it’s quite an industry thing though. It’s more exciting for the people involved, like the artists, rather than the public. It is a good indicator of what’s going to be played this year by Radio1 and stuff, it’s a good indicator of what’s to come, so I think if you take it as that its quite cool.

Were you surprised by how well the album was received when it first came out?
I guess so yeah, it was quite comfortable. It was not what we expected but we didn’t know what to expect but it we’ve not been out of our comfort zone, we don’t think it has gone to big too fast. We’ve got a really solid fan-base that has been growing since the release of the record, it’s all really natural and good, its quite nice.

In the press this week Noel Gallagher has said that 2013 has been a “dog-shit year” and that the only good music was from Arctic Monkeys, David Bowie and Kanye West. Do you agree with that as a statement?

Not really, I doubt he gets to listen to much more than that.


So would you say he’d be listening to more mainstream stuff?

I think so. I don’t think he’s really in a place to give a fuck, he sees so many bands coming and going. I don’t know. I disagree, there’s been some great music released this year but a lot of music that maybe like a 40 year old man wouldn’t understand as much or be excited by. I guess I’ve always found that when older people hear something that sounds a bit like something they’ve heard before they get really excited or really dismissive. They’ll be like “fuck me, such and such was doing that in 1994” or they’re like “this is amazing, this reminds me of my youth”, but someone who’s like 16 and wants to go and see a band live and connect with the songs and doesn’t really give a shit about the sound, or they are sounds that they like, that’s exciting and that’s kind of what new music’s about for me. I mean, Noel Gallagher’s opinion’s great, he’s always going to say something a bit controversial but like I don’t know, it doesn’t really bother me. It’s no different from any other middle aged man… I know he’s in Oasis but… they were a great band, brilliant, I’ve listened to them all my life but you know, he is like a middle aged man, I’m sure he’d be the first to admit that.

Peace_AlbumArtwork_DELICIOUS

What has been your favourite album of the year?
I don’t know, obviously we worked on ours SO much, but then I like the EP that the vaccines released, it was a really good EP, I can’t even remember what’s been released this year! David Bowie’s record was good.

In terms of up and coming bands what would you recommend to our readers?
Superfood, Real Lies, Drenge. Those three are a good place to start.

We do a monthly radio show, would you like to pick a three song playlist to for us?
Yeah, well why not go for Super food, ‘Superfood’; the song’s called ‘Superfood’ and the bands called Superfood, Drenge ‘Bloodsports’ and Real Lies ‘World Peace’.

What have you got planned for 2014?
We’re going to release an album fairly early on, as soon as we can really, and then touring.

Are you going to be doing the festival circuit? 
No! We’re thinking of really picking and choosing festivals much more wisely. It’s like doing just big festivals is quite weird, a lot of people go to them, but a LOT of people don’t. We did Reading last year but we’re going to try and get round a bit more.

So more European ones?
Yeah, not necessarily do all the biggest English ones, but maybe think about doing a few big English ones.

With you doing the Wham! cover and with it obviously being nearly Christmas, how are you planning to unwind over the festive season after your busy year of touring?
I don’t know, I suppose I’m just going to see what happens. Last Christmas was quite nice, I spent it with my girlfriend. That was really nice.

If you could have one material gift for Christmas what would it be?
Dunno, some new shoes… (looks down at battered, once white, trainers). These are a bit… dead. So yeah new shoes.

What would be on your perfect Christmas dinner?
Erm… I like… things like… cabbage. I’m kind of like easy going when it comes to food. I would happily eat cabbage and sprouts.

The ‘Last Christmas’ cover, how did that come about?
We had a day off in the studio and we wanted to record a cover just because it’s good to do, and we were like “it’s Christmas”. And then after that we were like, “let’s record a video for it on a day off as well.”

What’s your favourite Christmas song?
I don’t know really, at the moment ‘Last Christmas’, just because it’s in my head all the time! But I don’t know really!

Fair enough! They’re all sort of guilty pleasures aren’t they… Good luck with the gig tonight!
Cheers.

Peace finish off their tour in Birmingham tomorrow night.

If you want to win a little Christmas present from Gigslutz in the form of a Santa hat signed by Harrison Koisser (very kitsch, we know), get on to Facebook and give our page a like!

@ameliasward