The Maccabees
From battle of the bands losers to the best new band in Britain. When guitarist Felix White mentioned that front man Orlando Weeks was having love trouble, White’s father told him to let him deal with it – it will provide good song material. That might very well describe the foundation for The Maccabees’ music, which the band says just pours out of them. Despite having to do with relationships and life, the music on debut album Colour It In hardly feels like a traditional pop or rock. Overall their sound could be described as energetic and electrifying, at times even aggressive for indie pop, occasionally mellow but always filled with emotion.
Gaining popular attention in Britain only within the last year or two, the bands story began around 2003 when vocalist Orlando Weeks and drummer Robert Dylan Thomas started writing songs in Orlando’s bedroom. Joined by guitarist Hugo White and Bassist Rupert Jarvis, the band was ready when Hugo’s brother Felix, a former bandmate of Jack Peñate, joined in. Despite being named after a Jewish liberation movement, the band has said to have no religious agenda – the name was randomly picked by flipping through a bible.
Their career did not start with a blast as they lost a battle of bands competition to a girl band playing covers in miniskirts. Regardless of their loss, the band soon released their first single X-Ray in November 2005 on Promise Records. Even currently one of their best tracks, fast paced X-Ray didn’t receive much attention apart from evening plays on London’s XFM and Fierce Panda; another indie label which released their second single, Latchmere. The song, about a leisure centre where the members learned to swim as kids, got more attention and a lot of press for the band. NME hailed them as the best new band in Britain, and after successful touring they signed to Fiction Records to release ‘Colour It In’ in mid 2007. “We’re kind of a word of mouth band..” Weeks said in an interview last year. “We’ve never had a big song on the radio so the people who come, come because they’re making the effort. it’s not being forced on them.. makes it feel really special”.
Toothpaste Kisses, the last song recorded for the album and intended only as a closing track, ended up being one of the most played ones. The acoustic track varies quite a bit from many others with a very laid back vibe and slender vocals, which apparently Weeks recorded in a cupboard. The second version of the Toothpaste Kisses video has gotten a lot of airplay on MTV. The video was directed by Felix’s and Hugo’s aunt Leigh Anderson, a choreographer by profession. This also gives some insight into the way The Maccabees like to work; they prefer being around people they know and doing things themselves. Orlando draws their artwork, and their friends have produced many of their videos.
Carrying on their somewhat organic process of making music, the band is currently working on their next album set to be released sometime this year.
visit themaccabees.co.uk