Having grown up together in a small village outside of Buckinghamshire, it’s a sense of shared experience and easy camaraderie that sits at the heart of Home Counties: a band combining a lyrical eye for life’s smaller moments with a musical sensibility that’s increasingly prioritising synths, hooks and the power of a good time.
Formed of Will Harrison (vocals/guitar), Conor Kearney (guitar), Lois Kelly (vocals/ synths), Bill Griffin (bass), Barn Peiser Pepin (synths/ percussion) and Dan Hearn (drums), and with two EPs – 2020’s ‘Redevelopment’ and last year’s ‘In A Middle English Town’ – already under their belts, the sextet’s new material comes informed by a 2022 that saw them head out frequently on the road, playing their own sold-out headline shows before joining Psychedelic Porn Crumpets for a UK run in August.
“I don’t really consider us a guitar outfit anymore. We want to be a more melodic band, with pop tunes and catchy songs,” explains Will. “We just love songs that are dancey and we want our gigs to be fun.”
Having recently moved collectively to London, the likes of forthcoming single ‘Bethnal Green’ shine a relatable light on the capital with the same nuance and fondness for specifics that Home Counties’ early material showed their hometown. Those tell-tale punctuation marks are still there as they head towards a 2023 debut album: an eye for the day-to-day, all-too-relatable details of crap modern living. Yet, coupled with an ear for hook-filled, grin-inducing melody, the pay-off is one riddled in joy rather than despair. Or, as Conor succinctly sums up the current ethos of the band: “My life is ruined cos I can’t afford rent, but I’m gonna dance about it.”