Maccabees Interview
 | | ©Photo by Oliver King |
Our fearless reporter Nigel Trimmington caught up with the band backstage at the Old Market in Brighton. All the band were present, apart from the drummer who had gone missing! Here's what ensued:
Orlando Weeks– Vocals
Hugo Harry William White– Guitar
Felix White– Guitar and Vocals
Rupert Jarvis– Bass
Robert Dylan Thomas– Drums
Fender: Can you remember the first time you ever picked up a stringed instrument?
Hugo: Rupert was playing guitar for a while and then Felix learnt a lick from him.
Felix: Well, I learnt to play from Oasis.
(A friendly dispute about who taught who how to play what ensues…)
Rupert: I taught Felix how to play a bit of Jimi Hendrix.
Hugo: Oh Yeah. “Purple Haze” might have been the first thing I ever learnt. It’s still probably the most complicated riff I know!
Fender: Was Hendrix the one that inspired you to take it to the next level?
Hugo: No, not at all. We were always interested in bands that weren’t necessarily incredible musicians. We just found our own way of doing it. That’s how we learnt, really – just playing together and not really knowing what we were doing.
 | | Rupert's First Record |
Fender: What were the first records you ever bought?
Rupert: The Smurfs. My sister bought at for me in Asda for 30p.
Felix: The first single I ever bought was “Power Of A Woman” by Eternal. On tape.
Hugo: I can’t remember the first record I bought, but Felix bought me was “Hey, Macarena”. (Band falls about laughing).
Orlando: The first record I actually bought was The Score by The Fugees.
Felix: Rob’s (the drummer’s) was “Kriss Kross Don’t Stop”. He used to wear his trousers back to front and his cap the wrong way round!
Fender: What music reminds you of the worst of times?
Orlando: “Lilac Wine” (by Jeff Buckley) I couldn’t listen to for about two years. It just made me really sad.
Rupert: ‘Talk Tonight’ by Oasis made me really sad.
Orlando: And Nick Drake.
Fender: Can you remember the first gig you ever went to?
Orlando: Lauren Hill. It was just after the Fugees had split up.
Hugo: I went to see Limp Bizkit on ‘E’. I was about fifteen.
Felix: He came back the next day trying to persuade me that it was really good. (Band laughs).
Hugo: I did have a really good time. I was really into it at the time.
Fender: What would you regard as some of your favourite albums?
Hugo: London Calling by The Clash. The White Album by The Beatles.
Felix: Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan.
Orlando: At the moment, The Best of Randy Newman.
Felix: And The Band by The Band. The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths.
Fender: What are you listening to at the moment?
Hugo: The Neon Bible by Arcade Fire.
Orlando: Kings Of Leon.
Hugo: The Jamie.T album (Panic Prevention).
Felix: Having just said we don’t listen to anything modern, they all seem to be quite modern things!
Rupert: We always have The Last Waltz on the tour bus.
Felix: And The Old Grey Whistle Test.
Fender: If push comes to shove, Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin?
Rupert: Led Zeppelin
Felix: I’d say Led Zeppelin
Orlando: I’ll go Pink Floyd.
Hugo: I’ll say Pink Floyd.
 | | "Manhole" - an early painting by Orlando Weeks. |
Fender: A question for Orlando: I've been snooping around on Google™ and noticed that an art student with your name once sent one of his paintings - called "Manhole" - to the children’s’ author Eleanor Updale. Was that you and if so, are you a fan of the Blue Peter Award-winning writer?
Orlando: That was me. I wanted to be an illustrator, so I sent one of my pictures in. She wrote a book called Montmorency. It’s this story about this robber in the Victorian era that found the map of the sewers, so he used to go and steal stuff and escape via the sewers. It’s pretty dark stuff.
Felix: How old were you?
Orlando: I was about seventeen.
Fender: Songwriters have traditionally found their muse in love, loss, death and the forces of nature. What is it that you find so inspirational about the wave machine at the Latchmere Leisure Centre?
Rupert: We all learnt to swim there.
Orlando: There’s a collective nostalgia. But also, I think it’s important sometimes to remember the little things. That pool was one of those things that we used to do as a birthday party treat. That was special to go and do that; just before the age where you wanted to go and do bowling and Quasar and things like that at Streatham.
Hugo: Everyone of our age that lives anywhere near that area knows that wave machine.
Fender: I’ve been doing some research and it’s still there in case you were wondering.
Orlando: Yeah yeah, I know. We went and recorded down there - just the sounds from inside.
Fender: What gear do you use for touring, recording and rehearsing?
Felix: We have always used Fender® stuff
Rupert: (To Felix): You’ve always used Tele® guitars.
Felix: Teles have always been the best guitars to play, especially for our sound.
Hugo: That’s kind of how our sound came about.
Felix: You have to work for it. Someone handed me (a rival manufacturer’s guitar) and it didn’t feel like it was worth anything. Yep – Teles are part of our sound. We use a massive amount of Tele. Deville™ amps as well. They’ve helped our sound. It would be so easy to put pedals over the top of it and have this beautiful clean sound. It just sounds so bold.
Hugo: We used Teles on our album (Colour It In)
Rupert: I couldn’t afford Fender basses and then I got my first P-Bass® – that’s what we used on the album. I’ve not got a Jazz Bass® as well.
Felix: Everything we recorded on the album is with a Fender Musical Instruments Europe Hugo: We even used one of those little Fender Amps (Mini Twin™). If you listen to the last song on the record, the guitars are being played through one of those.
Fender: What advice would you give to anyone starting a band up?
Felix: You have to work hard. It’s easy to create the illusion - when bands get big - that they haven’t worked for it and it’s something that just happened, but it f-----g definitely doesn’t. I can guarantee it. For every single band that’s successful, they’ve sacrificed everything they’ve got. That’s what we did anyway. Even for this tour, we still rehearse every single day – the same songs we’ve been playing for three f-----g years!
Fender: It’s still fresh though, right?
Felix: Yeah, it’s everything. You’ve got to love it. If you’re not passionate about it, that’s going to show up
Fender: I’m offering you unlimited resources and raw materials and the chance to have Fender guild you the guitar of your dreams. Describe this instrument.
Hugo: I had a Telecaster® that got nicked at a gig once. I’d got a seventies Strat ®and took the neck off it and put it on this Telecaster-copy body that was really thin and had (body contours) like a Strat and it was really light – but it got nicked.
Fender: If you could construct a fantasy band made up of members living or dead, with you as the audience, what would the line-up be?
Hugo: Bob Dylan and Joe Strummer as frontmen.
Felix: Joe Strummer would be playing rhythm guitar, definitely. Robbie Robertson’s got to be playing guitar.
Orlando: Viv Stanshall from the Bonzo Dog Band.
Hugo: Who would play drums?
Felix: Robert Dylan Thomas (Maccabees drummer) on drums! (Enthusiastic agreement from the rest of the band)
Rupert: It doesn’t necessarily have to be a drummer. I’d like to see Jimi Hendrix play some drums!
Fender: Imagine if you will, that somewhere out there is an alternative universe where the Maccabees never got together – what would they be doing now?
Rupert: I went to university to do automated engineering, so I’d probably be doing something to do with cars.
Hugo: I think I’d probably be a letting agent (The rest of the band laughs).
Felix: I’d be trying to blag it as a cricketer.
Orlando: I probably would have focused more on the cage fighting.
Hugo: He’s an avid cage fighter.
Felix: You can tell by his physique...
Find out more about the band here.
http://www.themaccabees.co.uk/
Join the band on MySpace®
|
|
|
