Peace in our time

With a name like Peace, you might reasonably expect the band to fit the stereotype of the dreamy hippy.

But that’s barely half the story.

Cool indie-rockers who play sunny pop, they may look chilled, but are driven like souls possessed. Already a huge draw live, selling out venues at home and across the Atlantic (yes, they’ve already cracked America), the release of their debut album will see Harry and Sam Koisser, Doug Castle and Dom Boyce become one of this year’s biggest bands. Just watch.

“We are not a hippy band but we are quite peaceful,” says frontman Harry.

And the name? “I can’t remember who thought of that,” he says. “It was a mixture of things. There was a photograph of people celebrating the end of World War II. And when I met Doug at college, always used to say ‘Peace and happiness...we are the future’, like a hippy!

“There was also an uncle who signed off a letter to me with ‘Peace’.”

The band was formed when Kidderminster lad Harry met friends Dom and Doug. They bonded over a love of indie-rock and shared boredom with their day jobs.

“I was holding a stick board in Birmingham for a nightclub,” says Harry. “Doug worked in an office, which is funny because he’s the most un-office job type person you can imagine, Dom was doing manual labour, and Sam worked at HMV.

“Quite funny, we had jobs but universally hated them. When you’re 19 or 20 I don’t think anyone wants to be working.

“The band was clearly something we wanted to do, and we thought if we carried on it might take off a bit, although we didn’t think about the future too much, we just did it. We were bored, more than anything.”

Among Harry’s influences was his father. “My dad was in some band from before I was born,” he says. “It was an R&B covers band like The Commitments, called Blind Lemon. He taught me drums. I worked the rest out for myself and against his will I learned to play guitar. I was almost kicked out!

“My mum’s dad was a drummer too — though she played saxophone.”

Peddling hard-edged melodic-rock, they are vaguely reminiscent of Oxford’s very own Foals, but less polished, with added psychedelic swagger and an early-90s Shoegaze twist. To be honest, it’s hard to pin down. There are flashes of grunge, math-rock, Afro-pop, Brit-pop and the loved-up ‘Madchester’ indie-rock initiated by Messieurs Brown and Ryder at the paisley-patterned end of the 80s.

“We are messy, fuzzy and groovy,” says Harry, 21. “That’s what it will say on my grave: ‘Here lies a groovy mess’ on a tie-die headstone.”

Their debut single Follow Baby came out a year ago, followed by an EP, Delicious, and debut album In Love, last month. The album was produced by Jim Abiss (whose credits include Arctic Monkeys and Adele) and charted at Number 16.

“In Love kind of manages to celebrate every aspect of something it probably maybe isn’t really capable of making sense of,” says Harry, cryptically. “Saying that, does anything really make sense? Like, the camel’s milk doesn’t curdle... think about it.”

The band began the year playing to 1,700 fans at London’s trendy Koko on New Year’s Eve and went on to play the South By South West music conference in Texas. The ongoing buzz has seen them already tipped as one of the year’s biggest acts, much to their surprise.

“It’s ridiculous — but in a good way,” says Harry. “I didn’t think I’d like it so much.”

Next Friday, April 26, the band play the O2 Academy Oxford. The show has already sold out.

“I want everyone to know we are big fans of Oxford,” he says, genuinely. “We have also played The Cellar and thoroughly enjoyed it.”

The show is their first in the city since a packed set at the East Oxford Community Centre for last year’s Gathering festival.

“That went well,” he recalls. “We thought no one was going to be there, so it was really good to see it packed. Students: we love them! They are doing what I could never do. All my friends went to university, but I didn’t go — which is why I got stuck with Dom, Doug and Sam.”

It’s true that students and teenagers do make up the bulk of their fan base — a connection forged through near-constant gigging.

“We are trying to play live as much as possible,” says Harry. “Being physically in a city is much more powerful than anything online. It might not be seen by as many people, but if people are there it means more to them. And we have been doing that over and over again.

“We have, pretty much, toured solidly since February 2012 — with the exception of studio time; we haven’t had more than two weeks off. But while last year was a heavy year of touring the UK, this is going to be the world. And in better transport instead of an old van.”

He is, he says, achieving his ambition. “I wanted to release an album when I was 21,” he says. “And I’ve already done that.”

So what would this guitarist and singer be doing if not this? “I have literally no idea,” he says. “What else is there? I don’t have any other options. We just thought we would get out what we put in,” he says. “And so far we have done. It’s a weird world,” he says. “But we are having good, clean honest fun!”

• Peace
• O2 Academy
• Friday, April 26
• Tickets have sold out