HOME COUNTIES announce Independent Venue Week tour for January 2025
HOME COUNTIES announce 2025 Independent Venue Week tour - dates in Tunbridge Wells, Ipswich, Hull, Halifax and Sheffield
Critically acclaimed debut album 'Exactly As It Seems' out now on Submarine Cat Records
Home Counties also headline 100 Club in London on 27th November 2024
-- tickets on sale here --
“Exactly As It Seems is a beautifully peculiar, joy-inducing triumph” - ★★★★★
The Skinny
"A feast of dancefloor-imbued bangers, 'Exactly As It Seems' is bursting with a character and attitude...a joyous, grin-inducing call to arms” - ★★★★
Dork
"Bouncy maximalist soundscapes...Home Counties have firmly asserted themselves as some of today’s brightest musical minds." - 8/10
The Line of Best Fit
"A strong and audacious debut" - ★★★★
DIY Magazine
“A debut album that is brimming with energy and personality from start to finish” - 8/10
Overblown
“An impressive and fun thrill-ride” - 7/10
CLASH Magazine
"Home Counties are set to be the hottest new indie dance act"
Rough Trade
"A band ready to redefine modern indie music”
Whynow
(29th October) – Home Counties have announced they will embark on an Independent Venue Week tour in January, with stops in Tunbridge Wells, Ipswich, Hull, Halifax and Sheffield. Running from 27th Jan – 2nd Feb 2025, Independent Venue Week is the UK’s annual 7-day celebration of independent music & arts venues and the people that own, run and work in them.
Speaking on their excitement to be involved in the 2025's edition of IVW, Home Counties' Will Harrison said:
"We’re buzzing to get back out on the road in January to play some of our favourite independent venues around the country, as well as hitting some new places we’ve never done before.
Independent venues have been absolutely pivotal to Home Counties since we started out, taking a chance on us and letting us play when we were still finding our feet. Especially in this climate where so many independent venues are at risk, it’s amazing to be part of this nation-wide celebration of the venues and people that are the lifeblood of music in the UK."
Home Counties released their debut album 'Exactly As It Seems' in May of this year to a wave of critical acclaim - and album highlight "Uptight" was also added to the EA Sports FC 25 Official Soundtrack. Home Counties will close out 2024 by headlining London's famous 100 Club on 27th November.
Tickets for Home Counties' 2025 Independent Venue Week tour, and the band's final headline of 2024 at the 100 Club are available now: homecountiesband.com
LIVE 2024
27 NOV - 100 Club, London
INDEPENDENT VENUE WEEK TOUR 2025
27 JAN - Tunbridge Wells Forum, Tunbridge Wells
28 JAN - Smokehouse, Ipswich
29 JAN - The Adelphi, Hull
30 JAN - Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh
31 JAN - Grayson Unity, Halifax
01 FEB - Delicious Clam, Sheffield
More about Home Counties' debut album EXACTLY AS IT SEEMS
Drawing from a broad-ranging pocket of influences: early 2000s pop, the “dopamine overload” of Confidence Man’s live shows, to LCD Soundsystem, The Slits, and the nuanced art-rock of ‘Remain In Light’/’Speaking In Tongues’-era Talking Heads, on ‘Exactly As It Seems’, Home Counties unanimously lean into a fun, exploratory way of thinking.
'Exactly As It Seems' features the synth-laced "Dividing Lines", their sharp-witted address of renting in London "You Break It, You Bought It", "Uptight" - described by BBC Radio 1's Jack Saunders as "a post-punk mirror maze of electronics", the "sprightly bossa nova rhythms" [Sunday Times Culture] of "Wild Guess" and their glitchy ode to east London "Bethnal Green".
Produced in its entirety by the band’s guitarist Conor Kearney, the band recorded ‘Exactly As It Seems’ in a small studio in Hackney where they convened every evening after work for months on end, “all six of us crowded in like sardines”, as vocalist and guitarist Will Harrison recalls.
The resulting body of work – mixed by the renowned Andy Savours (Black Country New Road, Róisín Murphy, The Kills) – dutifully captures the band’s rapturous live performances; a fizzing display of eclecticism all with a focus on melody in its purest form. Home Counties have always excelled at poking at life’s mundanities, but this time they supply the humdrum with some enormous pop hooks.
Thematically the album traverses the ups and downs of London life in your late twenties. “The album is about moving to London and the experiences of that,” notes Will. “It’s an album about despair at your current financial prospects, feeling guilty about your role in gentrification, being overwhelmed by consumer choice, and disintegrating friendships.”
Laments on renting and how rubbish landlords are ["You Break It, You Bought It"], turning 25 and not wanting to go clubbing ["Uptight"] and fear of social isolation in old-age ["Wild Guess"] – Home Counties always manage to balance the duality of lyrical frankness and musical buoyancy with gusto.
––
Having firmly established themselves as one of the UK's most vital alternative bands with their two acclaimed EPs 'Redevelopment' and 'In A Middle English Town' and double A-side single "Modern Yuppies" / "White Shirt Clean Shirt" - Home Counties have played host to notable sold out headline shows at venues including Oslo Hackney, the 100 Club and The Lexington, as well as embarking on nationwide support tours with Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, FEET, Courting and bdrmm, adding to further appearances alongside shame, Sports Team, Pip Blom and more.
Home Counties have received widespread radio support from Elton John (Apple 1) Jack Saunders, Sian Eleri, Huw Stephens (BBC Radio 1), Steve Lamacq, Amy Lame, Tom Robinson, Radcliffe & Maconie (BBC 6 Music) along with key press tips from The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, NME, Loud And Quiet, So Young Magazine, The Line Of Best Fit, DIY Magazine, CLASH Magazine, Rough Trade, Gigwise, The i, Dork Magazine, The Skinny, Wonderland Magazine, 1883 Magazine, Whynow and more.
Home Counties' debut album 'Exactly As It Seems' is out now, released 3rd May via Submarine Cat Records.
Home Counties are: Will Harrison (vocals/guitar/keys), Lois Kelly (vocals/keys), Conor Kearney (guitar/vocals), Dan Hearn (drums), Barn Peiser Pepin (synth/percussion/guitar/vocals) and Bill Griffin (bass/vocals).
More Praise for Home Counties
"Fabulous stuff"
Elton John
"A post-punk mirror maze of electronics"
Jack Saunders - BBC Radio 1
"Home Counties almost sound like a cross between Everything Everything, Talking Heads and Yard Act – electronic beats coupled with witty, socially-minded lyrics."
The Telegraph
“Whirring splendidly like the manic mastery of a Devo Sonic-Screwdriver"
So Young Magazine
"Effortlessly cool...an energetic release which traverses indie, dance, and punk"
1883 Magazine
“Ramshackle guitars dance around a series of weird and wonderful noises"
DIY Magazine
"The Elton John-backed six-piece pair black-as-night lyrics with a sprightly bossa nova rhythm, the contrast twisting the knife"
Sunday Times Culture
“Danceable post-punk, agitated guitars, prominent baselines and political lyricism”
Gigwise
"Home Counties perfectly capture a ‘dissatisfied and nihilistic youth"
The Rodeo
"Pair dark irony with synth-infused punk... Home Counties are a band with something to say"
Dork Magazine
"Home Counties are one of the most exciting new bands in the UK scene right now"
Clash Magazine
"Home Counties squirm, writhe and wiggle their way through undulating soundscapes that take in the quirkier aspects of indie, electronica, pop and post-punk"
Northern Transmissions
º
–
Follow, Home Counties
Instagram: @homecountiesband
Twitter: @home_counties_
Facebook: /homecountiesmusic
