Take the influence of Britpop, British indie, Stiff Records and good old classic rock, cross it with a hint of concise and unpretentious prog, and you have The Home Guard's debut album - A Head of Steam.

10 MP3 Songs
POP: Britpop, ROCK: Progressive Rock

Show all album songs: A Head of Steam Songs


Details:
We are The Home Guard â a modest little band hailing from the city of Peterborough, England. We make the kind of music that we like, and we make it for fun. We struggle to pigeon-hole our style into a single genre, so perhaps detailing our influences will give you a better idea of what we are about.

Britpop and British indie have played a huge role in our musical 'upbringing', learning to play the guitar as we did at the height of the Blur versus Oasis battles that dominated the industry all those years ago. More recently, the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, Arctic Monkeys and The Killers (American band, but British-made and British-sounding debut album) have earned our listening ear, among other 'New Britpop' bands.

Stiff Records â an independent London label from the late 70s and early 80s with a distinctive style â provide two influences on our music. We respect Elvis Costello as one of the finest songwriters of his generation, while Madness and their ability to reel off toe-tapping hit after toe-tapping hit provide something else to which we aspire. We also take ourselves about as seriously as Madness did at their peak.

If that all smacks rather too much of âpopâ, our heavier side tends toward prog rock. Elements of Jethro Tull, Van Der Graaf Generator and Genesis permeate our material, but we are extremely careful to keep it all as unpretentious as possible. In fact, our musical philosophy dictates that our intros are as short as possible to make sure that we get into the main body of the song as quickly as we can. We then try to get as much as we can into as short a period as possible, before a suitably apt climax. So, although we are influenced by prog, we have done all we can to keep it as concise as possible.

The 70s also produced three further influences: David Bowie, Roxy Music and Sparks. Bowie's early material - particularly his first essential album, the underrated The Man Who Sold the World - was in our minds as we wrote A Head of Steam. The art-rock leanings of both Roxy Music and Sparks should come through in the more quirky moments of our music.

Our other two main influences weâve kept until last, because well over half of all bands would list one or the other: Queen and The Beatles.

Queenâs songwriting, musicianship, production and overall grandness rarely slipped below top class. Their rockier 70s period is loaded with some of the best music ever created, but thatâs not to dismiss the influence of some of their later output. As one of the most complete bands of all time (not to mention one of our favourites), it would be remiss of us not to cite them here.

As for The Beatles, what can we say that hasnât already been said? They revolutionised music with tunes that still stand up to close scrutiny, and in our opinion that renders them untouchable at the top of the musical ladder (even if the production is limited by todayâs standards). Despite being around 40 years old, their albums are still finding new listeners. Their influence on the industry in general cannot be overstated, so it would be dishonest not to include them on our list.

All of this taken into account, thatâs not to say that A Head of Steam actually sounds like any of the artists listed. We just think along the lines that, if we make the sort of music that we enjoy, then people who like the same bands as us may also like The Home Guard.

Whatever you think, if you have the time please take a trip to our official website (www.thehomeguard.info) and tell us your opinions â we crave anything from constructive criticism of the songs to technical analysis from fellow producers.

One fact that we canât stress enough is that we do all of this for fun. We have written, recorded, produced and mastered A Head of Steam with no outside help. As such, weâre sure it has its production faults, but we are confident the songs themselves are good enough to justify its release (even if we say so ourselves).

Weâre not setting up The Home Guard as The New Beatles. We have no label ordering us about; we have no agenda; we have no ulterior motive. We are just friends who make music as a hobby, and we get a great amount of pleasure out of it. We sincerely hope that this comes through in our music. Enjoy!