N
o strangers to these swollen parts on the country’s landscape, The Maccabees make a return east
bound and join an enviable line-up at this year’s Latitude Festival. Ahead of the proceedings, Hugo White from the band took 20 to talk to us yokels…
This year you’re playing the main stages at Latitude and Reading – does that feel like a big step up from last year, or do you feel ready and deserving? Yeah, it does feel like a step up, but we always love playing at festivals, and last year at Reading and Glastonbury was great. We had planned to do nothing this year because we’re writing our new album, but those are slots we couldn’t really turn down.
I’m super excited to hear the new stuff! How is the work on the new album going? Slowly. We are travelling a lot between London and Brighton, but it’s going well. We’re just working on the songs. I don’t know when we’re going into the studio, but hopefully we’ll have the album finished by the end of the year.
My fingers are crossed! There was quite a difference between Colour It In and Wall of Arms – is the next album aiming for the same kind of progression? Well yeah, we always want to be progressing. But for the first two albums, we just kind of got in the practice room and argued things out. This time we are writing the songs individually and in pairs, and then sending them to each other and working on them like that. There’s less arguing!
You were touring pretty constantly last year, and I think you played Norwich UEA twice in the space of about 4 months. Were you worried about returning so soon, and how people would receive you?
22 / JULY 2010 /
outlineonline.co.uk
We always feel nervous about our music getting out there because it’s like our creation, and when you’ve been working on it for months and months, you hold it close to your heart. But when we played the NME tour, we felt more ready than before, because the first time around was the first time we had played venues that big. We were all really excited and nervous, which was fun, but then when we played the NME tour, we felt like we could really put on a good show and know how to handle a crowd that big.
Where are your favourite places to visit when you’re touring? We like Norwich; we’ve played there a lot. We’ve played the UEA, the Waterfront, the Arts Centre, and it’s always really nice. Last time we had a big football match after the gig. There were all these kids who wanted to play football with us, so you know when you pick teams at school and there are two captains who take it in turns to pick…well Felix wanted to do that, so he lined all these kids up against the wall and we soon realised that it wasn’t going to happen because there was so many of us!
How is it being in a band with your brother? Do you argue a lot? No not really, it’s more like having someone on your side to stick up for you. We get on quite well, so it’s quite nice to always have someone there to fight your corner.
Who are you looking forward to seeing this year at the festivals? We’re playing with The Strokes next week, so that will be amazing, I really want to see them. And Arcade Fire obviously. Mainly though, last week we played a festival in Germany with Pixies, which was great and inspiring.
Maxie Gedge
The Maccabees will be playing at Latitude Festival this July from 16th – 18th July. Tickets are sold out, but for more information, go to
www.latitudefestival.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64