If you’ve recently been checking out the UK’s buzziest bands across London and Oxford, it’s quite likely that you’ll have met Haze. The four piece, originally from oxford, have been warming up the crowd for the likes of Shame, Rat Boy, The Districts and Starcrawler in the last twelve months and it looks as though its now their time to step up. Hometown headline sell outs have proved the last five years worth the slog, but now its time to reach out to the world and they’re doing that today with new one ‘Piochitas’. Sonically it toes a darker line than their previous output, leaning towards post Fat Whites contemporaries, Lice but with a bit more hook! Listen to ‘Piochitas’ below and keep scrolling as we speak to the band to find out a bit more.
What’s ‘Piochitas’ all about?
Piochitas is a cocktail of historical inaccuracy and poor pronunciation. It loosely translates to ‘little goat’, a nickname apparently given to Trotsky by Frida Kahlo during their affair, referring to his beard. The song laments Trotsky’s murder, wishing for a reversal of his and Stalin’s fates, yet also questions whether the affair shows a betrayal of Trotsky’s supposed fraternal values to an immoral individualism. The song is ultimately a bit daft. The chorus has a pattern of affectionately mocking Trotsky’s facial fair, followed by outlandish claims of the historical significance of the affair upon global communism. I guess don’t take it too seriously.
its been a while, whats been happening behind the scenes? Has the sound changed since then?
Two of us have been at uni in Bristol, one in Nottingham and one back at home in Oxford working. 2017 was a pretty quiet year for new songs until this summer. We went on a little tour and a collection of songs just came together. The new songs seem to be more dissonant musically and less melodic vocally, shifting away from our last EP which was predominantly up-tempo and up-beat. Musically I’d also say there’s a bit more space and more dynamic shifts, rather than just everyone playing flat out all the way through each song.
You’ve presented the track with a live video at ‘Le Club’, is this a place prominent in the haze story?
This video shoot was the first time we had seen the place actually – our mate Harvey Frost, who did the video, found it. It’s actually a Legion club in a town near Oxford with proper 70s décor and really cheap pints. We had to keep the amps quite quiet during filming to avoid distracting the bingo night happening in the next room. Harvey’s now starting to use the venue to host events for local bands to play, under the name ‘Le Club’.
Who is haze’s pool champion?
Whilst the video displays a lack of any real pool talent (the first shot I believe shows someone potting the white) our drummer Dan outshines the rest of us in darts, largely due to his daily attendance in the Red Lion.
What can we expect from you going into 2018?
We plan on recording 4 or 5 tracks and a video over Christmas, with the aim of gradually releasing them early next year. We’ll probably do another small Christmas show in Oxford, which is a chance to get horrifically drunk on stage and not be held account for it. It may also involve us butchering a cheesy Christmas song in an ill-rehearsed but high-spirited cover.