Home Counties release synth-fuelled final album taster ‘Dividing Lines’

Home Counties have shared new single Dividing Lines, the fizzing final taste of the band’s anticipated debut album ‘Exactly As It Seems’, out 3rd May via Submarine Cat Records. The band have also announced a stripped back live performance and signing at Third Man Records’ Blue Basement on album release day (tickets here).

LIVE DATES

3 May – Third Man Blue Basement, London (Album Launch)
5 May, Sound City, Liverpool
7 May – YES Basement, Manchester
8 May – Broadcast, Glasgow 
9 May – FOCUS Wales, Wrexham
10 May – Headrow House, Leeds 
11 May – Are You Listening Festival, Reading
13 May – Hare + Hounds 2, Birmingham 
14 May – Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
17 May – The Great Escape, Brighton
18 May – Get Together Festival, Sheffield
22 May – Oslo, London
25 May – Dot 2 Dot, Bristol
26 May – Dot 2 Dot, Nottingham 
28 Jul – Deer Shed Festival

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 debut album ‘Exactly As It Seems’, Home Counties unanimously lean into a fun, exploratory way of thinking.

‘Exactly As It Seems’ will feature previously released cuts including 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“.

Final album taster and new single Dividing Lines (originally operating under the working title Cowbell – for obvious reasons) surges out of the gates; a groove-stacked consideration of barriers to entry across a spread of cultural topics. Land ownership, the fickle end of the music industry, cryptocurrency & “fast cars” are all carefully reviewed, as the band deftly toe a tightrope of sonic references. From dance-punk and synth-pop to art-punk and unabashed, agitated pop, Dividing Lines is another intriguing insight into the band’s debut full length.

Speaking more on the initial inspiration behind Dividing Lines, vocalist/guitarist Will Harrison said: “The inspiration for ‘Dividing Lines’ came from moving back home to the countryside during lockdown and having little to do except walk. From encountering countless ‘no trespass’ signs and barbed wire fences, I became obsessed with the right to roam and land reform. Revisiting a demo called ‘Cowbell’ about the insularity of the post-punk scene of the time, I started drawing parallels between the social exclusion of land ownership and similar tendencies within the music industry.

Both the landed gentry and the music industry tend to reproduce themselves only within a closed social circle, and often along familial lines. There’s also a similar reliance on informal arrangements, the ‘no contracts signed’ nature of the industry which helps upkeep its exclusivity, maintaining similar dividing lines to that of landowners vs the rest.”

Listen to Dividing Lines via YouTube below.

When disenchantment runs high, when city life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be — when you’re forking out seven quid for a pint, shivering in a queue for a club night you don’t really care about, getting ripped off by landlords over blu tac stains, and squeezing in studio sessions around a relentless 9-5 schedule, there is only one logical response: fun.

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 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 Loud & Quiet, The Sunday Times, NME, So Young Magazine, The Line Of Best Fit, DIY Magazine, Rough Trade, Gigwise, The i, Dork Magazine, Wonderland Magazine, Clash Magazine and more.

Home Counties’ debut album ‘Exactly As It Seems’ is out 3rd May 2024 via Submarine Cat Records. New single “Dividing Lines” is out now. Home Counties embark on a UK headline tour in support of ‘Exactly As It Seems’ this May, with further festival appearances confirmed at The Great Escape, Deer Shed, Dot To Dot, FOCUS Wales, Are You Listening, with more yet to be announced.

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).

‘Exactly As It Seems’ track list

1. Uptight
2. Bethnal Green
3. Funk U Up
4. Dividing Lines
5. Push Comes To Shove
6. Wild Guess
7. You Break It, You Bought It
8. Cradle, Coffin
9. Exactly As It Seems
10. Posthumous Spreadsheets

PRE-ORDER ‘Exactly As It Seems’: https://subc.at/ExactlyAsItSeems