Surrey based Laulia are a new band. If you’re into bands like Turnover, Wolf Alice or Slowdive then they could be a band for you. They have recently signed to Rose Coloured Records and have just released a double A side single titled ‘13/7’ and ‘Outcast Kids.’ Here, the band’s guitarist, Ollie Brooks, discusses his love of the band PEACE.

I love the band Peace because they are an unashamed, genuine indie pop band that utilise sounds and textures so well in their work; especially their early work. I also admire that later in their career they have always worked to use their success for good and help raise awareness for things they believe in. 

I first heard them at Reading Festival 2013 – they opened with their cover of Binary Finary’s dance tune 1998, and I was just blown away. This was indie music that was energetic and huge sounding in such an unapologetic way, indie rock had threatened to do this a few years prior with bands like Foals and Two Door Cinema Club, but hearing Peace blast this out to a packed festival tent stage is one of those gigs that I will never forget. 

By song 2 of that set: Follow Baby, it had all clicked for me. It’s all well and good making a cross genre cover work well for you, but they followed with a very hard hitting and contrasting tune in Follow Baby. There was droney overdrive and an almost industrial riff. The verse is very sparse and dystopian, just for the chorus to flip the emotions becoming dreamy and optimistic. Again, like 1998 the soundscape was massive and as a guitarist you had to fall in love with how those two guitars just dance their way through the sonic spectrum of every song so well, always complimenting each other and never getting in the way. By the end of this set, I knew I needed to give more of a shit about guitar music again.

Their influence on me can be put down to one effect; delay. Using those echos to syncopate the timing of your playing changed the focus of my approach as a guitar player. I went from thinking a ‘big sound’ was one full of distortion, to thinking a ‘big sound’ was one that echoed through space, and conveying emotion was more about when you play the notes you choose to play rather than how loud you can play them. 

They have also had a lasting influence in that they were never afraid to leave a big riff for the end of a song, or they were never afraid to let energy dissipate throughout a song if it’s what the song required. 

A few of my favourite songs include Imaginary, Drain, California Daze, World Pleasure, Happy People & 1998 (obviously, you never forget your first kiss).

It might be a bit premature to talk of an artist’s legacy by the time they are on album three, however I think the influence of how they played as a band, the level of groove and the quality of hooks is huge. I think that they were certainly one of the first bands post Landfill that I found to show that its OK to do that stuff, just as long as it’s kept interesting – a strong riff isn’t enough to make a strong song. 

Their album cover for Delicious is one of my favourites – if you don’t like watermelon, I don’t trust you!

Many thanks to Laulia and Ollie for their words on Peace. You can listen to Laulia’s latest single here:

Laulia: Official Website / Facebook / Twitter