Marmozets | Full Interview

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We’ve been looking forward to this from the second we saw the dates…

Marmozets are kickstarting the year with a big step up on the live circuit, but at the heart of the band’s success lie just two sets of unassuming siblings taking it all in their stride. I caught up with guitarist Jack Bottomley to discuss it all and the prospect of some new material.

So this will be your biggest headline tour to date, seems like a good way to kick off the year?

Yeah for sure, we’ve been looking forward to this from the second we saw the dates. We were initially looking at the size of the venues and thinking ‘are we actually capable of doing shows this size?’, because six months ago they were all a third of that size. The tickets have been going surprising well, so we’re all over the moon with the response — it’ll be so sweet.

Touring seems to be very much at the heart of the band…

Definitely. It’s how we feel all bands should do it. It doesn’t matter much to a lot of bands, not as much as it should anyway. All we want to do is play shows in front of a crowd. We don’t want to be seen as a band with huge online status, but no fans who actually want to come to the shows. That’s how it should be. It makes you stronger as a band and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

You were last here in Bristol opening for Taking Back Sunday, how does it feel to be returning on your own merits?

Nothing compares to headlining a show. You get way more excited for it and it feels like we put even more effort into everything on headline runs. We’ve done a couple of headline shows in Bristol before and they’ve always been great for us. We can’t wait to play The Fleece.

You packed so much in around the release of the debut album, how d’you remember the time?

A lot of the time we don’t. We find tours mush into one show almost. It’s hard to keep track and remember individual shows, for me anyway.

Did the album response exceed your expectations?

Yes of course, things always do. We’re just two families from Bingley, so every time we get a response to something we do we’re humbled by it. The album’s something we’re very proud of and the fact that other people dig it too can never not be a cool thing.

I guess you’ll want to keep the momentum going in terms of writing, is there any new material bubbling away?

Yeah we’ve started writing. We’ve got ideas for almost a full album already and are doing demos sooner rather than later. So expect new music soon. We’re always wanting to write new songs and get them out there.

We’re just two families from Bingley… every time we get a response to something we do, we’re humbled by it.

You’re often perceived as a more hard-hitting heavy band, other times as quite pop, how do you guys see yourselves?

We sort of see ourselves in some kind of middle ground. We’re a much more of a full-on outfit live than we are on record, and also still feel like we’re finding our feet with our sound. We want to constantly mix it up and see where we can go with it.

Getting signed to Roadrunner must have been a big turning point for you, how’s the relationship been so far?

It’s been amazing. They’re a great set of people. They’ve really got our backs so it’s a tight unit; they listen to where we want to be and what shows we want and make it happen.

Was it at all daunting being signed to a label with such a rich history?

It was almost like a weird dream when we signed to them. It’s like, this doesn’t happen that often to bands — we sort of couldn’t believe it was happening to us. Even though a lot of the bands on the roster are much heavier-sounding than we are, we’ve fit in really well and have had some incredible opportunities from it.

All this has set a high bar for 2015, d’you have any aspirations for this year?

Yeah, we’d be happy with doing the same thing again, really! But we’re constantly aiming big. I’ve always wanted to be on Jools Holland… That’d be cool. I guess just bigger and better slots at festivals — and hoping for more people to get to hear our music and come down to shows.

Marmozets play The Fleece on 20th, with their debut album out now on Roadrunner Records.

Check out ‘Move, Shake, Hide’ right here:

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