TAS Interview: The Maccabees' Orlando Weeks
The release of the Maccabees' third album, Given to the Wild, just over a year ago heralded a new chapter for the enterprising UK quintet.
The confident, expansive nature of the record, flush with powerful tracks like "Child" or "Feel To Follow," earned the Maccabees a 2012 Mercury Prize nomination, a slew of nominations for the upcoming NME Awards (a "Best Live Band" nomination places them in the same category as the Rolling Stones and Blur) and notable tours with Florence and the Machine and the Black Keys.
The Maccabees embark on their very first headlining North American tour tomorrow, February 8, in Minneapolis — a big deal for the hard-working band. They've got two stops in New York — Bowery Ballroom on February 14 and Music Hall of Williamsburg on February 16 — and they'll be playing "The Late Show with David Letterman" on February 15.
TAS chatted with the Maccabees' frontman Orlando Weeks on the phone from their London studio in Elephant and Castle earlier this week where the band was writing and rehearsing new songs ... and considering a fourth album:
TAS: Are you working on new material?
Orlando Weeks: Yes, we’ve been here since the new year pretty much and just getting on with it.
TAS: So you’re aiming to get a fourth album out quite quickly, then?
Orlando: Well, it always takes two times longer than you think, so we figured we’d get along with it.
TAS: So where are you with it? Just cobbling ideas together?
Orlando: Yes, I think that’s fair to say. We’ve got lots of bits and pieces and three or four songs. It’s good and we’re enjoying it.
TAS: Are you thinking of working with [Given to the Wild producers] Tim [Goldsworthy] and Bruno [Ellingham] again or do you think you might do this yourselves?
Orlando: I think we’re hoping we can do it ourselves. We’ve learned so much in the process, over the last few records. It just feels like a natural thing, rather than try and explain what we’re thinking ourselves [or] through someone else.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkcnPnY_2Mk]
TAS: Wasn’t that the threshold you crossed with this album? That you were the best interpreters of what you wanted to do with your music?
Orlando: Yes, I think now that we’ve got the tools and the know-how, we can do that. It took this record to give us the self-assuredness that we could do it. I think that’s the big thing that changed with this record: the confidence.
TAS: Do you think Given to the Wild reinvented what the band could be for all of you?
Orlando: I don’t know if we’d put it that way, but it’s given us more opportunities than other records and probably taught us more than previous records have, in terms of our approach of being a band and making and recording music. [It's given us] the steepest learning curve.
TAS: It’s just been over a year since the album came out in the UK. What is the thing that surprised you the most in that journey? What shifted, for you, in how you deal with each other as bandmates?
Orlando: We were all very happy with how the record ended up. It took a great deal out of all of us to get it to a place where we thought it was presentable. I think that we went pretty much straight out of that into the most frantic touring we’ve ever had. It was a make or break [situation]. We’ve enjoyed this year — and touring — more and that could have easily not been the case?
TAS: Did you think this album could have been difficult to translate live?
Orlando: It’s not even that. It could have easily been too much. It could have made us not enjoy it, and by not enjoying it, not make the most of the hard work that we put into making the record. But we did manage to do it and it’s been such a nice year.
TAS: You’re on the brink of touring North America. What are you looking forward to the most?
Orlando: Teetering on the precipice! We’ve never done our own tour in the States. We opened for Bloc Party for about two weeks a while ago. We’ve done a little bit on the coasts. This is our first headlining tour. We went out with Florence and the Machine for four or five weeks and then whether it cost us an arm or a leg, we were going to make sure we went back and saw the people who said that they wanted to see us for a long time. It was decided then, really, that we were going to make it happen and I’m really pleased we are.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HaW5alLnC0]
TAS: Is there anywhere you’re looking forward to going in particular?
Orlando: I think the whole thing is going to feel brand new. It’s our first headline [North American] tour, we’ve never been to Canada, we’ve never been to quite a lot of these cities. It’s all going to feel fresh and we get to do it with a couple of our friends in America, [bands] we’ve known for a long time. It’s going to be a real touring party. We’re bringing a guy called Gambles, a friend of ours named Matthew [Siskin] who was with Levy. And then, Reputante — a New York band and the singer James Levy [Ed. Note: and Tim Wheeler of Ash]. James has released five or six records and Matthew’s just about to release his first solo record, which is beautiful. It’s a good night out! I’d go and see those two play.
TAS: You’ll be playing New York on Valentine's Day. Are you romantics? Do you have anything special planned?
Orlando: I don’t know! We’re still struggling to make some new songs, I think if we bust out “Nothing Compares 2U” I don’t think that will make the night. We’ve been talking about it.
TAS: Are you hoping to have several new songs?
Orlando: Today we’ve been trying to bully a couple of songs into presentable shape.
TAS: Any titles yet?
Orlando: No! We haven’t even got an ending for two of them, so for the moment, I think a title would be a little bit cart before the horse.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rcp8SE_FxBg]
TAS: You have supported so many bands, like Florence and the Machine and the Black Keys. What have you learned from other headliners to be a great headliners yourselves? What will you try to avoid?
Orlando: I went on tour with a band for five weeks and I think I got eye contact from one of them, once. So I think eye contact is a big thing. I’ve learned that eye contact is underrated. The Florence tours — we’d never experienced generosity like that. She had 30-something people with her on that tour and would happily go with every single one of them for a drink and I think that’s testament to her, her band and her crew. That’s the thing; it’s got to feel like family, especially when it’s so far from home. And it did. Eye contact and make it feel like family.
TAS: Is there anything that you request on a rider?
Orlando: No, but we did go into a venue once and Mötley Crüe had been there the day before us. Their list was there and it included an AK-47 and a boa constrictor. No trace of the snake. Or the AK-47. We think the snake took it.
The Maccabees North American Tour:
02/08 -- Varsity Theater - Minneapolis, MN*
02/09 -- Lincoln Hall - Chicago, IL*
02/11 -- Mod Club - Toronto*
02/12 -- Cabaret Mile End - Montreal*
02/14 -- Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY
02/15 -- The Sinclair - Boston, MA*
02/16 -- Music Hall of Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY
02/17 -- Black Cat - Washington, DC*
02/19 -- Masquerade - Atlanta, GA
02/21 -- Trees - Dallas, TX*
02/22 -- Fitzgerald's - Houston, TX
02/23 -- The Parish - Austin, TX*
02/25 -- El Plaza - Mexico City
*
*w/ Reputante
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_pnPJbPBfI]
