Music > Interviews

Marmozets

17/09/14

Marmozets are a young band consisting of two sets of siblings who are making great waves on the metal/rock scene. They played Glastonbury this year, and have just released their debut album, The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets. But ARE they weird and wonderful? I spoke to Jack, the band's guitarist, to find out. You can catch Marmozets playing live and direct at Open on October 16th. Expect a wild night! How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard you before?    I say, listen to it, see what you think. It's pretty different but there's a lot of stuff in that will still make sense. How did you all meet? And how did you start making music?  We're two sets of siblings which makes it easy. We just started jamming when we were in school. Haven't stopped since!How do you all get on? It’s not easy being siblings, you maybe bring a lot of old issues along with you?  Not at all, we don't have negative vibes and if we did we'd forget it and put it in the past within the same minute.Who inspires you musically? We listen to lots of music. Sometimes when we're writing a riff or a melody it may remind us of a band we haven't listened to in years and we end up going through a phase of listening to what ever band that may be for weeks! Why are you called Marmozets? I know there’s an American band called Marmoset… We just thought it sounded and looked a bit unusual as a word. It's kind of eye catching so we rolled with it. Picking a band name can sometimes be such an impossible task. We came up with that and stuck with it haha! Too late to change it now anyway... How did you all learn how to play so confidently and proficiently? What’s your songwriting process? We've all been playing years. Like I've been playing guitar longer than I haven't been playing guitar. Confidence come with playing loads of shows consistently, I find. We all used to get so nervous and anxious before we did a show, now it just sort of feels second nature. Songs usually start with either a drum beat, (or drum riff as we like to call it) or a guitar part that either my self or Sam have come up with, then we take it from there and see where it goes. Every song we've ever finished or recorded rarely sounds how it did when we first wrote it. Do you think metal and rock are the hardest styles to play? It depends with what your actually playing I guess. As a guitarist I play a lot of jazz, and I find that to be way way way more complex than any other genre really but saying that, a lot of the time it sounds way harder that it actually is to pull off!Has your style changed since you started recording music? Yeah for sure. You start hearing every section, every note and you often find yourself working out melodies, riffs etc over the top of stuff you initially record that you can then either layer over or even re write a part completely. When we rehearse it's VERY loud so we can't always hear what's going on so recording definitely helps that!You’ve already supported some really major bands,eg Gallows and Funeral for a Friend. What’s been your best experience playing alongside these major artists? Have they given you any words of wisdom? Yeah they're all lovely guys. They'll give you words of wisdom for sure but never in a "I know better than you" type of way always in a way just to help you progress which is always appreciated. You have played at Download and Reading Festivals amongst others; how was the response there? Yeah fantastic! Download was surreal, Reading maybe even more surreal. To get the opportunity and the privilege to play twice in the same day is pretty nuts. It was so, so much fun to do. The crowd in the NME/Radio 1 tent was just ridiculous. It was the most humbling feeling to see people of all ages singing and going nuts along to our songs we wrote in a warehouse back in Keighley. Mind blowing.You’ve had some great early support from HuwStephens and Zane Lowe amongst others and were nominated for Best British Newcomer at Kerrangaward and voted best new band by Big Cheese magazine.…has that helped to open doors for you? Yes most definitely. We wouldn't be in the position were in without the help of all of these amazing people and the magazines that have been so supportive of us. We're so grateful for that.How do you handle mosh pits/stage divers? We do what any person should do... Join them.  You’re going to be on Live Lounge with FearneCotton soon – what cover will you do? You’ve done a cover of Morrissey’s Irish Blood, English Heart…why that track? We're gonna keep quiet about that cover for now, we want that to be a surprise! But we often struggle with covers, putting our own stamp on another bands track can often be a problem for us. But we knew with that Morrissey song we can put our own vibe on it and make it something different from the original...You played Norwich Waterfront Studio last year in April, on the first night of your tour. How was it? Norwich is always great for us. It's where the Macintyres grew up before moving to Bingley ten years ago so it has a major place in their hearts.What can we expect from your show at Open in October?Pure adrenaline and chaos is what we're aiming for... It should be a great tour. We're so excited!