Sienna Bentley
Fresh off the back of their UK run supporting Franz Ferdinand, British indie/dance punk outfit Home Counties will be back on home turf next month, headlining East London’s CloseUp Festival on Friday 22 May.
CloseUp Festival continues to spotlight the best new and emerging artists while giving audiences the chance to see headliners in a rare, personal setting. Set across three eclectic days in Shoreditch, it’s a festival built around discovery. As you can imagine, it’s right up our street.
We’ve asked Home Counties a couple of burning questions on creative processes, audience reactions and pre-gig rituals before we head to Colours Hoxton and watch them take the stage.
What does your creative process look like?
Everyone in the band writes, so usually it’s a case of someone bringing a demo to the studio and working on it collectively. We’re not really a band that jams out a song in the practice room – our approach is more like dance music creation, sat around a laptop. With six of us in the band, it can be quite an intense atmosphere, but we get there in the end.
Every festival has its own micro‑culture. What behaviour or energy do you hope CloseUp brings out in your audience?
We always love playing day festivals, although usually when we play other cities it’s a case of playing and then immediately shooting off for the long drive back to London. It will be the first time in a while gigging so close to home on a weekend, so we hope to soak up and enjoy some East London on a Friday night energy. The last gig I went to at Colours was my mate’s Dad’s band, which, like us, formed at school and are miraculously still going. If we can replicate their energy, we’re going to be onto a winner.
Do you have any pre‑gig rituals, and if so, what are they?
We never did really until the last tour with Franz Ferdinand. We got into a regimented groove of finishing soundcheck, having a pint or two at a local boozer, warming up in the dressing room and finally taking a shot of Fireball just before we went on. It’s a tricky balance, and it is easy to overdo it on the Fireball, but when it works it really works.
What’s the best and worst crowd you’ve performed for and why?
The best crowd we’ve had was probably at Trans Musicales Festival last year. We didn’t arrive in Rennes until 1am (due to having to detour via Brighton to collect our tour manager’s forgotten passport), and weren’t on until 3am, so were all feeling pretty weird before the show. But when we walked on stage, the 3,000 ferociously drunk French people there just went crazy. It felt more like a DJ set in a warehouse than an indie gig, which really brought the songs alive in a new way.
It’s hard to say the worst, because there is always some redeeming thing about bad shows that makes them worthwhile. Saying that, when we were really young (I’m talking 11 years old) we played a village fete and we got shutdown by an elderly woman whose jam-selling we had disrupted with our shit Two Door Cinema Club covers. We luckily haven’t sunk quite that low since.
How has being in a band changed your relationship with creativity?
It’s hard to say; we don’t really remember a time where we weren’t in a band, having played together for so many years. I guess our creativity came from the band itself, and has grown up and developed collectively. I can’t imagine making music and it not being Home Counties.
Rapid fire questions
Dream collaborator (alive or dead)
William Enyeabor
A lyric you wish you’d written
“It smells like poo in here. Everyone’s dressеd like Doctor fucking Who in here”
‘Crisps’ – Getdown Services
The last thing that inspired you
A.G. Cook’s Tape Notes with John Kennedy.
CloseUp Festival is taking place at Colours Hoxton from Friday 22 May to Sunday 24 May 2026. You can get tickets here. We’ll be there, come and say hi!
