Dissolving the concept of time is something House of Laurence specialise in. Next February, the four-piece will release their debut LP Awake. According to frontman Christopher Laurence, the record’s packed full of convention-thwarting compositions.
“The average track comes in at about six or seven minutes,” he says. “The songs have real narratives, a real sense of journey, and a real start, middle and a finish to them.”
House of Laurence began a little over two years ago, initially as a solo recording outlet for Laurence. After putting together a bunch demos, a few of Laurence’s friends expressed interest in project. It didn’t hurt these friends – guitarist Kristian Laemmle-Ruff, bassist Sam Teskey and drummer Liam Gough – were pretty handy musicians themselves.
“They were like, ‘Shit man we really dig it – let’s start a band,’ and I was like, ‘All right, sure.’ Then I was like, ‘Well these dudes are so fucking talented, they’ve got so much to give.’ We would’ve really been cutting ourselves short by just leaving it up to one person.”
Since evolving into a four-pronged entity, House of Laurence have released a self-titled EP and the standalone singles, Just Don’t Move Me and Let’s Go and Play.None of this material will surface on Awake,as the record was entirely generated during a songwriting and recording getaway the band embarked on through August.
“[We decided to] lock ourselves in a house for four weeks and live there, work there, eat there, play there, record there – at a house out in the Hills,” Laurence explains. “We walked into the process and didn’t have any material. We just plugged everything in, set up, we hit record and just jammed.
“It was such a lovely thing to do,” he continues, “to just go, ‘Yeah let’s all go by feeling and intuition.’ It all just came out – the riffs, the vocals, the melodies, the rhythms – on the spot. Nothing was pre-conceived, which makes it super exciting because you can maintain so much of that glow that you get when you create. We’re very, very proud of where it’s come from, because it’s incredibly honest to who are and how our friendships all relate to each other.”
In addition to representing the musical and personal relationships shared by the four band members, House of Laurence’s forthcoming debut owes a thing or two to some indefatigable artistic forebears.
“It’s fair to say my musical influence is directly correlated to what I was lucky enough to be exposed to as a little fella,” says Laurence. “[My parents’ record collection] had everything from Aretha Franklin to Pink Floyd to Muddy Waters to Glenn Miller big band kind of stuff. Pop sensibilities don’t really have any influence, it’s always just about exploring and creating in the most pure honest place you can. That for us is the biggest influence.”
As it stands, the material from Awake is yet to be played live. The record’s not due until February, but the band will be giving away plenty of spoilers on Sunday afternoon.
“We’re looking forward to setting off on a journey and seeing where it goes on stage,” Laurence says. “We just get lost in it. Once you can break down those conscious barriers and really sink into something wholeheartedly, all of a sudden all these restraints and rules disappear. That’s what we strive for every show that we do.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
