INTERVIEW – Marmozets

One of the most exciting bands this year, Marmozets, came to the Baltimore Soundstage on November 2nd opening the Noise Tour headlined by ISSUES. We had the opportunity to sit down and chat with vocalist Becca MacIntyre and guitarist Jack Bottomley after their performance to chat about their experience so far touring in North America, their debut album “The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets”, and more. Be sure to check out our review of “The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets”, the group will continue supporting ISSUES this month as part of the “Journey’s Noise Tour”.

RT: So to start things off, you’re two shows in on this current tour and you did a few weeks this past summer on Warped Tour; how has it all been so far?

Becca: Well this is our first tour, doing it in venues, which is awesome because you get to see a lot of America which is very exciting. and we’re touring with an awesome band called Issues who are incredible people and we met them at Warped Tour and this is what we’re doing now.

Jack: It’s kind of our second tour, but we’ve done another show previously in New York, like last year. So it’s like our first proper tour, cause Warped Tour is like a festival in a way.

RT: How would you say touring on the Warped Tour was compared the European Festival circuit?

Jack: Very different

Becca: I kinda call it as a Christian Band Camp, that’s kind of how I see it, it’s something that really either you get it or don’t. If you don’t get it, you’re an arrogant prick that really just doesn’t get what Warped Tour is about. If you do get it, you realize that you let it change you as a person, as an individual, and as a band, it sets you up. I just want to say a big thanks to Kevin for doing something so rad that even still, nothing we can do as artists and as people that run the whole production of that kinda thing, nothing can be absolutely perfect, it’s about whats doing whats right and just keeping it real, and that’s what we’re about, 2 sets of siblings in a band we keep it real as shit!

RT: So “The Weird & The Wonderful Marmozets” came out this past September, how’s the reception been so far compared to your previous releases?

Jack: It’s been next level, it’s been really really crazy, like-

Becca: It always will be, when you’re on a label and

Jack: we always sort of felt like it would take it to a new level and people would get into it, but not to the degree they have done, like we did a tour in England like 6 months ago, just before we did Warped, that was cool, the venues were kind of small, they didn’t sell out, but we really enjoyed it and that was just off the singles. Then we did one just before this tour, and like every venue sold out, 1000 in London, it was just like wow, people screaming our songs, we’ve never had that before, we’ve been on tours with bands that have had that, and think “ahh that looks really cool, I wonder how that feels” type thing. When you have it, it’s weird, we did that the first night of the tour, and we were like this is surreal, then every night was like that, and Josh, our videographer was just like “this is a Marmozets show, it’s gonna be like that every time you play”. It’s hard to get your head around it, it’s cool, it’s gone really well. Really happy with how it’s gone down

RT: You guys had Larry Hibbit to produce the album, how do you feel like he pushed you in the studio to make the best record you could?

Becca: Basically, he’s a guy that, we, we’re kind of a band that believes you meet people and fate for a reason, we believe in that kinda thing and people come along, and you have a connection with certain people that you just know things are gonna work, so with Larry, it was just like to have someone so passionate about what you do, means they’re gonna bring out the best. We live in a world where you can throw whatever money to the most amazing producer and you’re not gonna get what you want. And it’s just like Larry was just down to fucking bring out the best in all of us individually and from Day 1 of going into the studio, everyone freaked out about like how amazing the gear was and the way we’re gonna do stuff and we just got so creative and it was just like a massive love fight type thing, like let’s do this!

Jack: He’s full of like amazing ideas, he looks at things as an outsider while he’s in it, if you get me.

RT: Was there any songs on the album you were probably stuck in or maybe just couldn’t find the right guitar riff or lyric and then ya know he came in and said “hey you should do this”?

Jack: A lot of them was, when we’d do a pre-production thing sort of, we just demoed everything in the studio in Bradford. It was a case of not being too precious about stuff, he’d come up with ideas and sort of recommend stuff. He was never like “you’re gonna do this, I’m gonna write this part for you and this”, he was just like “try something like this, what about this, or this, try this sound” and it really opened our eyes to know when we’ve sort of written, styled a couple new ones from the album and we’ve looked at it from that perspective already. So like we’ve had a song we sort of just chalked it up, it’s like cutting the fat off, sections that don’t need to be there and making it sort of punchy as possible. Make sure the tempos right, ya know?

RT: You guys recently released the “Born Young & Free” music video, can you tell me a little bit of how that came together, and the concept?

Becca: The concept is basically in this run down, it was kind of haunted place, it was like a maze, it was an old prison, and we basically, the whole concept was, just being locked up into a situation where you just don’t feel comfortable, and it’s almost like that feeling where you wanna break free from whatever emotion, whatever shit you’re going through in life, it’s like that thing where you’re like literally screaming up the walls where you live, you know what I mean? It’s something that a lot of kids can relate to and you know what, we’re still young, so we’re gonna relate our music in a way that we feel is about us. We want to keep it real, we’re not ashamed of anything, our opinions and our thoughts and our emotions, we like to share them with people, that’s what Born Young and Free is literally all about.

RT: How would you compare the run of Warped Tour you did, and the few shows you’ve done so far with Issues, to the music scene back home?

Jack: It’s very different. The people are so different as well, you don’t realize it till you’re actually out here. Let’s say if this tour was in England and we were in the position we are here, if it was reversed, you get the cheer when you come out, in England, they’ll just kind of stand back, a lot of them are just there to see the headliners.

Becca: They don’t give a shit about anyone else.

Jack: So that’s different, the headline band, they’ll go absolutely mad for you.

Becca: But every day is so different but at the same time it’s just like-

Jack: That’s the thing with England, it’s the odd place you know the show might be a different vibe, but it’s a small country compared to here. The state we’re in is probably bigger than England. So everywhere is kinda similar, whereas here, it’s completely different, we’re driving it’s like up and down England in length to the next venue.

Becca: and England is so small, you have so many different eyes to the vans coming through and kids just want to be a part of the new next thing.

RT: What do you have next after this tour?

Becca: We go back home, but we don’t go right home, we go straight go Germany. We do a European tour with Taking Back Sunday. It’s gonna be amazing.

Jack: We’re looking forward to that one. Then we got like 2 days off after that, then we got a show with (??? Royal Blood), they went straight to number 1. So we got a show with them and then we’re home the 21st of December for Christmas, and we’re back on tour in January at some point. So yeah, it’s kind of busy.

RT: Can we expect to see the Marmozets back in the States anytime soon?

Becca: March, I think there’s a possibility that we’re gonna do a tour in March. We want to be back as soon as possible.

RT: To wrap things up, if you could see any band on the current tour you’re on now cover one of your songs, what band would you want to see cover you, and what song?

Becca: Issues by far. I’d love them to probably do, just think of a song where they can incorporate the DJ in and stuff like that. What about Particle? Maybe Particle. We have other songs on the album I could probably think of, Weird and Wonderful would be a great one. Weird and Wonderful, we’re not playing that at the moment, cause only have a 25 minute set, so, I think I’d like to see Issues do Weird & Wonderful but add their own spunk into it.