A Very Hungover Peace Get Interviewed

Brummie foursome Peace got together last autumn and swiftly signed to major label music pimps, Columbia, in March. In exchange for their signature, they demanded Columbia rent out a billboard in their hometown, emblazoned with their photo and a tag that read "WHAT THE FUCK BIRMHINGHAM". Dicks or the best label demand from a band ever? I met up with Peace on a sweltering Wednesday afternoon when they were VERY hungover to find out.

So what were you all up to last night considering that you're hanging now?

Harrison: We shot a video yesterday. Then we had some celebratory drinks.

Doug: We had slush puppy margaritas.

Oh yeah?

Harrison: Then two pints of Jaeger bite. Like a snakebite, but in the drink they put in the cider and beer with a shot of Jaegermeister…

Doug: They actually warned us before.

Harrison: I think it's actually illegal to sell them.

It sounds fucking disgusting. Anyway, I was wondering, do you regret picking "Peace" as a band name? It's not very Google friendly.

Doug: I always liked it, in the early stages, I like that someone had to make the effort to find us. They liked our music so much that they've put a bit of their own time and their own day to just try and find out a bit about the band, it's quite nice.

Harrison: It sounds sort of cliché and horrible but it's nice to not have to solely rely on the internet – what the fuck did people do before? You know what I mean? It's kind of cool. It's kind of liberating.

Doug: All of our fan base was brought up from live shows rather than media hype.

Dom: We'll never be hashtagged.

We all miss pre-Twitter world. So your single's called "Bloodshake" but what ingredients would go into a blood shake?

Dom: Goooooood question! I don't know, man.

Harrison: A bit of sass, a little bit of bongos.

Sam: K Cider.

Harrison: A copy of Led Zeppelin IV.

Dom: YES.

Doug: Shaken AND stirred.

Is it better to serve chilled or…?

Harrison: [whispers] HOT.

Dom: Nah, serve that shit warm.

Harrison: Actually I love room temperature, it's one of those things that makes my life interesting.

Doug: Surely different countries have different room temperatures?

Sam: There's a chemical element where it's standard definition of what state it resides in, is dependent on the country, 'cos of the difference in room temperature.

Harrison: You're smart!

Sam: It's a solid, but in some parts of the world it's considered a liquid.

Are you the brains of the band?

Sam: No.

Who's the brains of the band and who's the beauty?

Dom: I'm the beauty and potentially the brains as well, so, yeah…next question! [Laughs] Any objections?

None of you want to make a claim to that?

Harrison: You've got it all.

Dom: And this [circling face]…and a banging hangover.

Speaking of which, I heard you had an altercation with a fan at a gig over a pint of cider?

Sam: Ohhh it's Nick Jarvis, slag him off some more!

Dom: I'm not slagging Nick Jarvis off any more! I've never met the guy and I got myself into a lot of trouble. He stole Harry's cider and I wasn't having it. End of.

Harrison: Dom stands up for me because I can't fight my own battles.

Sam: He's a bit of a hero.

Harrison: Dom helped me out because he stole my pint, got it back and then he stole it again, so I told on him to Doug.

Doug: And I sorted him ou…[trails off]… no I didn't really.

Are you the hard man of the band?

Doug: Of course I am!

Dom: Nah, sorry, that's back on me again.

LULZ. Moving on, now that you're with a major label and stuff, have been been hitting you up for free shit?

Sam: Surprisingly nah, nobody's really asked for anything. Friends and family want to support us, so what's the point of asking us?

Harrison: It's sort of your extended friend group that ask for stuff. I think I've probably lost friends from touring so much because we're away for so long at a time. But I kind of deleted my Facebook.

Sam: The fact that Facebook is there kind of takes the edge off of everything, the whole high school reunion thing should be a big surprise, "Hey I haven't seen you guys in ages, oh no, wait a minute, I've seen pictures of everything you've eaten for the past month online because as soon as I've accepted you as a friend you've fucking Instagram'd me".

Harrison: I'm not a massive fan of the internet, just to put that out there.

Dom: It's good to Skype though, isn't it?

Doug: I like Chat Roulette, man.

Dom: Chat Roulette is nice, yeah… find a few gems.

Harrison: You just like it for the guilt free schlong watching.

Doug: Oh no, I can't close the window! Oh no, I can't find my mouse!

Sam: I bet you have some shifty going-ons in your history.

Dom: Honestly, I've never been on Chat Roulette in my life.

Sam: You're missing out.

Doug: And it's 90% penis.

Sam: I've met some real life cool people on there…

Doug: Fuck off.

Sam: No, I swear to god, it wasn't. It wasn't me, it was my friend and people he met through it…

Harrison: Sam met cool people everyone…

Doug: FUCK OFFFFF!?

Sam: I'll have you know his name is Graham and he's lovely – he's tender and he's sweet and he tells me that I mean something to him. My friends made friends with some girls that live in New York and we happened to be going to New York and he's like "shit, I know some people who live in New York, I met them on Chat Roulette". We met up with them, stayed out there for a few days and they were actually cool. They weren't old creepy men, they were real human women.

Did they not try to skin you and wear your hide?

Sam: No, they were really cool, we stayed in touch.

Don't you find there's a bit of embarrassment admitting to people that you met online?

Harrison: Greg from Master Chef met his wife on Twitter…

Ha! Have you ever used Twitter as a medium to get women?

Sam: We use it as a medium to harass them.

Harrison: I don't need to take anything seriously online. Can you? Yeah you probably can.

Sam: I think some people take them too seriously when you don't intend them to be serious.

Dom: I once got a virus message that said 'hey, this guy has been saying nasty things about you', and it's obviously to get you to click on the link, I kept repeatedly pressing the link – it wouldn't work – and I was really panicking about it. It was Ozzy Austin from Swim Deep.

I thought you meant Osbourne…

Dom: Oh, Ozzy Osbourne? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Birmingham y'know we ALL know each other.

Doug: I'm the Osborne that didn't want to be in the series.

You mean their eldest daughter?

Doug: HA! Yep.

Harrison: Sometimes you look like a chick.

Doug: Thanks, man.

Harrison: A really weird chick…

Would you ever agree to having your own reality TV show like them?

Harrison: Nooooooooo.

Sam: No. But I'd launch a fragrance, maybe.

What would you call it?

Sam: I don't know… what would I smell like?

Dom: Right now?

Sam: Right now, I smell like a toilet. Yeah… urinal puts! Those little discs you get in the urinal that you aim at, basically that.

Harrison: They can smell quite nice.

Sam: It can be called "Integrity".

Thanks, guys! Watch the brand new video for "Bloodshake" below