Hot Press Meets Peace

Harry Koisser is describing how it feels to be sandwiched, loudly and sweatily, between Robert Plant and Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme.

“We flew back to the UK to do Later… With Jools Holland and were literally wedged between the two of them,” says the Peace frontman, eyes boggling at the memory. “We had to do that bit at the start where everyone plays together. I was jamming with Josh Homme. Incredible.”
Participating in Jools’ boogie-boogie knees-up is merely the latest ‘pinch me’ moment for Harry Koisser and the rest of Peace. Unheard of and unsigned just 18 months ago, the Birmingham four-piece are nowadays hailed widely as the UK’s answer to Vampire Weekend – a smart, literate pop group whose musical interests extend beyond the usual Britrock required listening list.
“There’s no sign of a backlash yet,” resumes Harry, well aware of the British music press’ build ‘em up, reduce ‘em to smouldering rubble modus. “Fingers crossed – so far everything is incredibly positive.”
Coming from Birmingham helps he feels. Far from the hipster-overrun wastelands of Shoreditch, London – imagine Fridays at the Bernard Shaw pub in Dublin metastasised into an entire neighborhood – Peace have avoided being lumped with a scene. They are judged on nothing more or less than their songs. It is, the singer reflects, a good place to be.
“We were never aware of that whole ‘you must move to London thing’,” he says. “Right now there are a lot of great bands coming from Birmingham. We’re from small towns in the countryside. We moved to the city after school and have found the scene to be incredibly vibrant.”
As to the incessant Vampire Weekend comparisons… well, Peace appreciate that listeners need a reference point. With their debut album recently released, the hope is that, sooner or later, their music will be judged on its merits.
“Everyone needs a comparison. That’s entirely cool, but I don’t see the relevance any more. If people don’t get what we’re doing now, we might as well give up.”
Just back from a dash across the Continent, right now Peace are living in the overtake lane, every day a break-neck dash. Young men with their heads screwed on, they’re in little danger of being overwhelmed, Harry feels.
“We are away so often that we haven’t really noticed what’s happening. We get home and our friends say, ‘Wow, you’re all over the papers’. However, we don’t see it. I guess when you’re in the middle of things, you aren’t best placed to figure out what’s happening.”
After playing their coveted Jools slot, Peace kicked back in proper newbies on the block fashion.
“I don’t know if anybody went for drinks. If they did, they certainly didn’t invite us! It’s filmed in a place called Maidstone, about an hour outside London so most people go back straight away. We however stayed in Maidstone’s finest Travelodge. And we made sure to carry on the partying afterwards. I think it’s called making the best of a bad situation!”

In Love is out now. Peace play Whelan’s, Dublin on July 9.