Once a month, All Things Loud will be bringing you an up-and-coming act who we think are on the verge of becoming really big. As part of this monthly feature, known as Rising Stars, we give you a brief background to their history as well as a Q&A with one of the band members. In August, Canadian quintet Alvvays was the first band to be featured, with September being dedicated to Bingley’s very own Marmozets.
Marmozets, who hail from Bingley in West Yorkshire, were formed back in 2008 by two sets of siblings, the MacIntyre’s (with vocalist Becca, guitarist Sam and drummer Josh) and the Bottomley’s (with guitarist Jack and bassist Will). Having been too young to play most venues, they didn’t properly get going until 2011, when they started to get more recognition for their alternative math energy. Vocalist Becca’s combination of raw screams and clean vocals, paired with jangly guitars and sprawling rhythms in varying time signatures make for interesting listening, with their live show completely out of this world. Onstage as well as on record the energy Marmozets have is quite something, with their live show definitely something you can’t pass on. This summer alone they played a long stint on the Vans Warped Tour, with European festivals such as Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds and Lowlands on either side of that.
Later this month, they will release their debut album, The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets, through Roadrunner Records. This is followed by UK and US tours with the likes of Lonely the Brave, Issues and Taking Back Sunday.
As a part of this feature, we also spoke to Jack from Marmozets. Read on to see what he had to say.
First and foremost, your debut album The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets is coming out next month. Could you tell us a bit more about the process that went into recording the album?
We did a couple of weeks of pre-production at a small rehearsal space/studio in Bradford, and tried to get all the songs nailed. We wrote a couple more songs and scrapped a couple. It was a strange process, as we ended up writing [title track] Weird and Wonderful after we’d finished recording all of the instruments, which was before the vocals as Becca had come down with flu. It ended up becoming the title track! As you can tell, we just go with it.
Your live show is known for being quite hectic and chaotic, often being compared to the likes of Enter Shikari & letlive. How do you manage to maintain such a high amount of energy for these high-octane live shows you put on?
We just get into ‘the zone’ and put everything we can into it. It’s our favourite part of being in a band, and the most important one for us. It’s all about playing live and attempting to leave people feeling inspired or weirded out by what they’ve seen.
And how important do you think the live aspect of things has been in shaping the Marmozets of today, as opposed to the band who formed in 2011?
We actually formed in 2008, and we did shows maybe every couple of weekends when we could. It was hard finding venues that would let a band with the average age of 13 or 14 do a show, as you can imagine. 2011 is the year it sort of got a bit of press attention, and we played our first festival. Over time, you’re naturally going to get more confident and believe in what you do, even more so if you continue to do it – that’s the case for us. We just love touring and doing shows.
You played some big shows this summer such as Reading & Leeds, Lowlands, Glastonbury & the Vans Warped Tour. Looking back on the summer, what would you say was your standout moment, and why?
We did a lovely run of festivals around Europe after Glastonbury, which was amazing. We find that the festivals we did, such as Pukkelpop and Lowlands etc., treat you so well, which makes it so enjoyable. The Warped Tour was an amazing experience. We met friends for life, but it was tough. We did shows every day for 4 weeks, with 1 day off as a 22 hour driving day in a sprinter van, which can be gruelling. For me, my favourite besides Reading was a festival in the North East of France we did called Cabaret Vért. It was completely unexpected, but we ended up on French TV and played in front of about 15,000 people. Kind of surreal.
From a musical perspective, who were your main influences when it came to making music?
Lyrically I’d say life in general, and musically, old and new heroes. A lot of the time we feed off of eachother’s riffs or melodies, and get inspired by that alone.
And finally, what would be the 3 most important tips for any young musicians to keep in mind when starting a band?
Keep writing, keep doing shows and enjoy yourself!
The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets is released on 29 September. Watch the video for Born, Young and Free below.
