Welcome Back! After finally getting ourselves out of the Christmas holiday habit of doing absolutely nothing, we are back to give you the best interviews and reviews on artists emerging throughout 2016.
To kick us off on this New Year, we have interviewed Jack Peacock the front-man of a fantastic Brighton based band known as ‘Dove House’ that we have left purposely for this special occasion. You’re going to love these guys!
Tell us about when you formed the band…
We formed around June 2015, so we are still pretty new. We all went to college together in Haywards Heath so we knew about each other and the kind of music we all liked ages before we even started! So then we sort of just put our heads together quite recently, had a few jam sessions and I (Jack Peacock) had a few songs and we all just built on it from there.
Where did the name ‘Dove House’ come from?
It was something to do with it being in French first for some reason. “oui mason” which actually means “yes house” (I think), it didn’t really make sense and then we thought that having a French name doesn’t really make any sense for us, so we just used the English language instead and arrived at ‘Dove House’. It’s got sort of a hard sound to it from the “D” and the “H” and the “o’s” vowel sounds. It is quite nice to say so we went with it.
Tell us about, who is in your band?
We’ve got Kieran Philbin on lead guitar, Anthony Barrett on keys, Nick Roberts on drums, Ish Hussein on bass and I (Jack Peacock) on rhythm guitar and lead vocals. Nick and Ish do a lot of BV (Backing Vocal) work as well, they are both good singers so it really helps to have them!
What artists were your main influences when coming to find your own sound as a band?
For us it was interesting because we have quite a mix of influences and so everyone brings a lot to the table when it comes to writing. I’m into anything that sounds good really I like music that is pleasing to the ear. Some of my main influences are ‘We Are Scientists’ and bands like ‘Foals’ they often have really good songs. ‘The Strokes’ are another big influence, and then there’s ‘Radiohead’ ‘Muse’ ‘Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ and ‘Foo Fighters’. So most of the big bands from the past twenty years or so really.
What would you say as a band is your main struggle?
I’d say the hardest thing when you’re starting out is to get people to come and see you play. People can be a bit fussy about spending money to see a band they have never heard before and might not necessarily like! But once you can get a few people coming to your shows it’s really helpful because you can start building on what you’re doing with mailing lists, social media etc. And if people come to your show and they like your music then it’s a success and word can start to spread. It’s perseverance mostly I find.
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What would you say was your main musical accomplishment as a band in 2015?
We played quite a few gigs last year and it was a lot of fun! I guess the best one was either when we played at ‘The Haunt’ in Brighton just because it’s such a great venue. Or when we supported ‘Clay’ and ‘Kassassin Street’ on their joint UK tour at ‘The Green Door Store’ in October. That was a really good gig it sold out in the end! We managed to sell a good amount of tickets for it as well which was great and it was really inspiring to see some up and coming bands such as ‘Kassassin Street’ perform. It gave us a good idea of how we can up our game to try and get to that same level.
What are your goals for 2016?
We have quite a few this year, as we really want to get things moving. We are aiming to play as many gigs as possible in the local area and in other surrounding areas. Kieran and I are playing open mic nights every week just as a little extra promotion for the band. We are also hoping to release our first single around June/July complete with a music video as well, which should be fun! And last of all we want to play at a festival of some sort as they are always fun. Just a lot of gigging really but mainly we just want to have a good time and drink a lot more than we did last year.
What are you working on now?
We are currently working on our first single release and an accompanying music video. It’s a big project for us as we are doing pretty much everything ourselves it’s hopefully going to be funny so it should go down well! We are always writing new material so an E.P is most definitely in the pipeline but it may be a while before that happens, as we don’t want to rush things.
How do you approach songwriting for the band?
So we have had a few songs from just jamming with each other and throwing ideas around. A few have come from myself, I usually write a song and play it to everyone and then everyone chips in with great ideas and the song comes out better than I could have ever made it alone. So it is definitely a group effort. No doubt about it. Ish and Nick are also songwriters so I know they have a few tricks up their sleeves.
What would you say is the most important part to your songwriting?
I find the most important thing is the lyrics and the melody. We try and make our melodies pretty catchy so people can sing along to them. But we are also lovers of great riffs and just big sounds in general, that’s why we have a few instrumental sections in our songs.
What is the most important thing for making music to you as a band?
We just really love music it’s always been a massive part of all of our lives so naturally the next step was to start making our own music. We like to make music just to express ourselves and to try and inspire other people. We also want to make them sing and dance that’s why some of our stuff is quite rhythmic.
Do you have any gigs already booked in for this year?
We are playing a headline slot on the 21st February at The Joiners Arms in Southampton. It’s a going to be a great venue to play, it has so much history as bands like Muse, Oasis and We Are Scientists have played there! We have a few more gigs penciled in for the rest of the year so follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date.
From a live perspective how would you describe Dove House?
I’d say we are pretty exciting live and we love to have a bit of a laugh so we always crack a few jokes. For the faster more upbeat tracks we usually get a bit funky with a few hip shakes and thrusts and then go for a more intimate act when we play the slower tracks. It depends on the song really but we love playing live it is the best feeling in the world but it never lasts long enough. It takes me to another planet when I’m on stage it’s a rush I can’t describe…but it always leaves me wanting more!
Written By: Samantha McQueeney
To Find out more about Dove House and to keep up to date with their gigs and releases then please follow the links below:
Dove House Facebook Dove House SoundCloud Dove House Twitter Dove House YouTube Dove House Instagram