Weekly > Interviews
The Maccabees
When The Maccabees came around the first time I enjoyed something of a mixed relationship with their music, while I loved some tracks, others just didn’t really do much for me and the album Coulour It In while getting a three star rating out of five on this site, hasn’t really found it’s way back to my stereo since then.
Recently though they released a new track as a free download and No Kind Words absolutely blew me away, it’s head and shoulders above anything the band have recorded before and looks to be setting a maker down for the new album Wall Of Arms when it’s released on 4th May. The band are also heading out on tour shortly and if the rest of the tracks are as good as NKW, then they could be unmissable.
I caught up with Felix White recently to find out how the band felt things had developed between the two albums and what to expect from them on their forthcoming tour.
You received quite a bit of critical acclaim when you released your first album, how did you find the attention you received, were you prepared for it?
From our perspective, the growth of our band has always been quite an organic one. We still think we’re the kind of band that have survived through word of mouth rather than anything else so I don’t think we really felt that kind of pressure.
I saw you live a couple of times in support slots, how did you find playing with more established bands and what do you feel you learnt from those gigs?
When you start playing those kind of gigs it’s all quite a steep learning curve. I suppose the thing we learnt most of all is that we’d like to be headlining those venues ourselves!
Talking of live dates, you’ve got your own headline tour coming up shortly, are there any particular dates you are looking forward to more than any of the others?
We’ll play to anyone who wants to come and see us! And we give it everything every time. We’re definitely not a half-hearted live group and we can’t wait to start the adventure again and see all the people we’ve missed for the last year and a half.
Do you feel more under pressure as the headline band and do you feel the need to do anything ‘extra’ to how you would approach a support slot?
Obviously people have paid to see you. You can’t take that lightly and you’ve got to make sure it feels worth it to everyone. We definitely don’t take it for granted that people pay to come and see us play and are so enthusiastic.
Weblinks
Add to favouritesYou recently made available a new track for download, the universal opinion seems to be that it’s your best work to date, were you aware of how good No Kind Words was when you recorded it?
It was one of the first songs we wrote for the new record and it set a benchmark. It made sense to put it out first. We wouldn’t have recorded this album if we didn’t feel it was a huge step on. That was a must. I think it is the most ambitious song we’ve put out and definitely one of my favourite Maccabees songs.
How does that track compare to the rest of the new tracks for your second album?
It’s the darkest, sparsest thing on the album. In it’s approach though it is similar in that all the songs feel much more three dimensional on this record. The record sounds a lot more considered ‘sonically’ I think than the last one, the songs were written for the purpose of being on a record first and foremost.
Being on your second album and having proved yourself once has it given you more freedom recording wise?
We felt like there was still a point to prove. Which I think was important. So we didn’t feel like we had more freedom but that we had to make the best record we possibly could.
What’s the plan around release dates and promoting the new album do you have anything special in mind?
For the album cover we got the artist Boo Ritson to paint us which is pretty exciting. Other than that, there will be plenty of things to keep us busy over the next year I am sure!
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