Marmozets [Interview]
The age of the rock star asshole is over. Today, personality traits like approachability, professionalism, and the ability to kick a listener’s ears in and make them like it will take a band a long way. For proof, consider what Marmozets have on their plate right now (a hotly-anticipated album set to drop next month via the legendary Roadrunner Records), and keep reading. Marmozets are so switched-on they probably glow in the dark – and for such young contenders they’ve already amassed a wealth of wisdom, some of which was shared with TMMP in the run-up to Marmozets’ show at The Boileroom this past Tuesday…
What makes you happy?
Becca: Doing what we do. Right now, I am on top of the world just being on the road with these knobheads…
Sam: Yeah. We’re not really trying to get that happiness, but every now and then you find something that makes you happy.
Becca: We found it in school, in the band, and we’re still here today after so many years just doing it, and we’re still fucking happy.
You sound is, to say the least, extremely diverse. What can we expect to hear from your upcoming album (The Weird And Wonderful Marmozets) that we haven’t heard already through the singles?
Becca: Every song is really different.
Sam: It’s all different vibes.
Becca: But it’s Marmozets. It’s like our loves and our own language, put into music.
Sam: It’s really hard to explain it. The writing was influenced by whatever vibe we were in at the time.
Becca: We wouldn’t be able to pick and say “Oh, we got inspired by this,” – we don’t work that way. We work from the heart, and we play from there too.
You’ve worked your asses off to get where you are, and you’ve crammed a lot of experience into a very short space of time. What advice would you offer to those bands who’re still struggling to get where they want to go?
Sam & Becca (simultaneously): Just keep practicing!
Sam: In terms of practicing, I don’t mean just practice your instrument. Obviously it’s good to know your instrument, but you need to make sure your band’s together all the fucking time. I mean together in the sense of a connection where you can write together. Writing songs takes practice; it’s hard to nail it first time. You have to know what sounds good and…
Becca: And just don’t give up! Keep going. And always be touring.
Sam: If you keep on progressing and you have that drive, and you know what you’re heading towards, then you have to believe in yourself and keep believing in yourself and your band. A band is like a relationship, you know?
Becca: You have to work at it. Like any relationship.
Sam: If a band is what you wanna do, then do it! If you want to be a chef then go do that; if you wanna be a banker then do that; if you want to be a teacher or you want to be in sports or whatever, it still applies the same way.
Sometimes you have to make sacrifices, like you do with anything. If you want to do something that badly, then you will give up a full-time job to do it. We have. We’ve all given up jobs to do it. We were in the shit for months because of that, making no money.
Becca: We did whatever we could just so we could keep doing this.
Sam: We’ve always been focussed on doing this, and that’s what you need. You need to be focussed on doing what you want to do. And that’s how you get somewhere, how you become a lawyer or a doctor or whatever. It’s because you’re focussed on it.
How do you feel about the state of the UK’s live scene at the moment, with so many venues experiencing difficulties? The Blind Tiger in Brighton was shut down recently, and The Boileroom is under threat of closure at the moment…
Becca: We’ve literally just come off doing big festivals and the Warped Tour to come back to this [gestures at The Boileroom]. It’s fucking beautiful. I love how there’s someone here to tell us to shut up and keep it down to respect the neighbours; getting ready for a show can be pretty chaotic at the best of times, but they make a real effort to keep it in order here.
I’ve heard that The Boileroom is having problems with its neighbours, and I really felt like walking next door and saying “I know you’re having problems with this venue, but I’d love for you just to come over and check out our band. We’ll put you on the guestlist, just come over and join us!” I want to try and get them involved in our world a little bit.
Sam: The staff here are obviously really aware of their responsibilities given the location of the venue. I guess some people approach this kind of place negatively, and it’s a shame but it’s the way it is sometimes.
Becca: I was looking at the ceiling inside with all the old tour posters and the ones on the wall for upcoming shows. So many rad bands have played The Boileroom, and they’ve got some great shows coming up too.
Sam: When we got here, we were told “Okay, you have to keep the volume at this level,” and we were like “Sweet, we’ll do it then.” You do have to respect people’s space and opinions; you can’t be that dickhead who goes “Fuck that! I’ll play as loud as I want!” – you do actually have to respect it. Simple as that.
If the local community want us as a band to keep things at a certain level so they can enjoy their TV shows without being interrupted or whatever, then cool. It’s possible to work in a way that means everyone’s happy.
Becca: Just so future bands know, this is a really, really cool venue. A lot of cool bands play here; just don’t try to piss anyone off on purpose. Respect the community and the venue itself, because it’s a cool place to go for shows. I imagine any band who comes to play here ends up having a really good time.
If you had to pick one moment as a highlight of your journey so far, which would it be?
Sam: It just keeps getting better and better. Europe was awesome.
Becca: We played on the main stage at a festival in Germany. We were the first band on, and it was incredible. We were like “We get to run around like idiots on a stage this big with that powerful a sound system?!” People ended up running in to watch us and everyone had a really good day.
You have to be positive when doing opening slots though – no matter what, or whichever slot you’re playing as a band. It works for us whichever way, since we approach it all positively; we’re all really positive people. Our job is pretty easy at times, because we keep it positive and we all love each other.
Beyond your album launch, what does the future hold for Marmozets?
Becca and Sam (simultaneously): Touring! Just touring and touring and releasing another album and then touring and writing another album and touring again.
Becca: That’s what we want to do.
Sam: We just want to keep on doing what we want to do. We don’t like to plan things out so much and say “Oh, we have to have a structure,” – we just go with the vibe.
Becca: Yeah. It’s all about going with the vibe.
Links
Read TMMP’s review of Marmozets’ show at The Boileroom here.
Check out a preview of Marmozets’ upcoming album The Weird And Wonderful Marmozets here.
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