Marmozets have announced details of their long-awaited new album ‘CO.WAR.DICE’. Check out new single ‘New York’ below, along with our interview with the band telling us about their eight years away from the limelight.
The Bingley alt-rockers were on something of a roll in 2018 when they released their second universally acclaimed album ‘Knowing What You Know Now’ off the back of their fiery 2014 debut, ‘The Weird And Wonderful Marmozets’. Then, COVID, parenthood and real life took hold and sent the genre-defying Yorkshire band into a long hibernation.
Singer Becca Bottomley (née Macintyre) married guitarist Jack and started a family, with day jobs and reality keeping the band apart until later reuniting with siblings and bandmates, Sam (guitarist) and Josh (drummer) Macintyre alongside the amicable exit of original member Will Bottomley.
While fans have already heard gothic comeback track ‘Kiss From A Mother‘ and the punchy punk of ‘You Want The Truth’, it was the new wave-driven ‘New York’ that first truly kicked off this latest chapter.
“Becca and I had been writing a bunch, and this was the first one that felt like it was at the level it should be, it was the first one we were really confident in,” Jack told NME. “It just caught everyone’s ears and it was a no-brainer,” Becca agreed. “We wrote it very quickly off-the-cuff, and those are always the songs that you end up loving. I needed to get it out there. These were memories that I kept going over in my head, and to actually put it into a song was the best way.”
The song revisits a “surreal” journey the band made over a decade ago, from Bingley to the Big Apple, on a whirlwind trip to sign their first US record deal – complete with limo rides, playing a surprise gig, meeting the legendary music mogul Seymour Stein, and feeling like Blondie
“New York was mad from the get-go,” recalled Becca. “The first person we met was a police officer when we went outside for ciggies. He came over to us and we thought we were going to get told off for smoking, but he just sparks up this cigar and starts chatting to us! It was all really surreal.
Jack added: “A couple of days before we were in Bingley, and this was the first time that Sam and Josh had left the country. It was really big for us as people and as a band. “We were trying to encapsulate that city visually, but also with the sound of it. We wanted it to be CBGB’s punk vibe.”
It kickstarted a purple patch of creativity for Marmozets, and represents the diverse and technicolour essence of ‘CO.WAR.DICE’ – produced by Andy Hawkins and Jonathan Gilmore (Biffy Clyro, The 1975, Nothing But Thieves) and due for release on Friday May 22 (pre-order it here).
“We feel like this is a bit of a stepping stone record with where we can see things going,” said Jack of the sonic palette of their third album. ” Our influences have changed. As we get older, we go further back in terms of what music we listen to. Without sounding pretentious, we pretty much only listen to old vinyl. A lot of it is more obscure stuff. We’re massively into The Cramps and DEVO at the moment.”
Lyrically, Becca said that the album was “a book, with has a beginning, a middle and an end”.
“It has a happy ending, which is what I’m all about!” she continued. “I’m not going too far for the Disney classic. It’s just representing personal stories and togetherness, and every song is diverse. It’s not just an album about breakups or hating the world, it’s an album about everything. I’ve dived deep. There’s poetry and words that I’ve never spoken before. I’ve worked really hard to make sense of my mind.”
Check out the rest of our interview with Becca and Jack below, where they tell us about becoming parents, returning to their fans, and what the future holds.
NME: Hello Marmozets. Becca – the last time we spoke was 2017, when you said that in the making of ‘Knowing What You Know Now’, the death of your grandmother, some serious knee injuries and a knock in confidence led you to nearly call it a day. How was it to work through all that and then slam the brakes on again?
Becca: “I think I’ve always been living in this state of fight or flight. My life has always been quite chaotic. Things have happened, it’s never been easy, and it still isn’t. I’ve just got this fight in me and I keep going. It’s not like one of those things where I think, ‘Maybe I should just quit, maybe we’re not good enough’ – I really do know that we are good enough. We’ve got a lot of people behind us, we’ve been able to get a record deal again and now I’m in that zone where I’m actually going to be quite positive about this.
“Before I was just turning up, doing it, and not really being present. I was just rolling with the punches and getting back up. Now I’m weaving a way. I see something and I go for it. I get this gut feeling that things are going to go well. Life always throws things at you, but it’s just about how you deal with it.”
In the years since then, was there ever a sense that Marmozets were done?
Becca: “Jack was always writing, and I’d find myself coming into the room and naturally starting to write with him. It’s something that pulls you in and gets you. As a creative, I never stopped writing lyrics. I just always felt this need. I’d die if I didn’t do it. You look at the intensity of the industry and touring; you can look at that and go, ‘No, I’m alright, I don’t need this’, but I’m over that now.”
How did you all survive during that time?
Becca: “We got work, and Jack and I had a little baby to look after, which was epic. COVID happened, and that made us grateful for what we have. We don’t have much, but we have each other, our guitars and we can write. Jack was doing Zoom guitar lessons and we survived. We had a gateway. With all the time we had, it was like therapy to be writing all these songs and clearing up all your past stuff and things to get off our chest.”
Jack: “Later, it was just about getting normal jobs and realising what everything was. There was always a hope that we’d do the band again. We kept pushing but we were prepared for it not to happen. ‘Whatever, it was fun, that was that, but we’ll keep writing even if it’s just for us’. When we started sending songs to our managers, it felt like we could do this again and we started having open discussions about whether we could do this again.”
Did you consider any other musical projects?
Becca: “There was a short while where we became a two-piece called The Peace Pills, for like two weeks! We were talking to Colin [Jones] from Circa Waves about if he could help us out and come do some drums or something. We didn’t know what was going to happen, but we were just going for it, left, right and centre.”
Jack: “This was before we’d written any of the songs that ended up on this record in a weird interim, but it got to the point where we started chatting to the lads again. Will said that he wasn’t too bothered about doing it again, but Sam and Josh wanted to have a go. Everything started flowing and we found a way somehow. We sent stuff to management, they got excited and we signed a record deal off the back of 15 demos that we had. It felt strange not to be playing shows and trying to get to the industry that way, it felt like it came to us.”
Was it difficult for the band to reconnect as a unit after so long apart?
Becca: “At first it was. Suddenly you’re climbing on top of each other and living together again. We’d all been living our own lives. We went to record last December and there were some real moments. You forget how one another are, but we always come together and put family first to sort stuff out. We’re so good.
“It has fixed a lot and our bond is stronger than ever. The beautiful thing about Marmozets is that I’m the oldest of seven, and with the huge family we have of the Bottomleys and the Macintyres, we wouldn’t be as close if it weren’t for the band. We used to think the band dragged us apart and that we weren’t communicating, but it’s actually the opposite. We’ve found a lot of freedom and love for one another through this process. Getting the band back together has been really healing, and I never thought I’d say that.”
How has parenthood affected the way you think about why you do what you do?
Becca: “You get this superpower of confidence for yourself and your wellbeing. Nothing else matters. You almost go to cavemen times where it’s all about protecting the family. It’s not about what other people think anymore. The little things are important and make you feel blessed.”
Jack: “It changes everything in that sense. You start to eliminate what’s not worth caring about.”
And how about the way you look at the world and work that into the songs?
Becca: “It’s more creative. There’s so much more life and realness. That’s what we hold onto: the genuine nature of the world we live in. We’re all being pulled apart via online content and the news sending us other ways, but we’ve had time and space. Sometimes you need that fresh air and time to think. We had that ahead of this album to be able to sit and think and let it fall together, while also having the freedom to be chaotic and messy. It’s been beautiful.”
You mentioned this record being a “stepping stone”. Does that mean more new music is coming soon?
Jack: “We don’t have a time frame in mind, but we’ve got loads of songs. We’ve got a lot of songs that could have made it onto this album but we felt didn’t fit, it’s like a taste thing. We’ve got reels of Dropboxes with cool demos, half-finished songs and ideas that we’ll work on. We’re still writing new stuff and we’re on the path to make something and release something in our own time. It won’t be seven years again though.”
Becca: “There was no plan as to why this one took seven years. Everything just happened because it happened.”
You’ve been back on stage again, too. Has it been a return to the old fans or is there a new audience for Marmozets?
Becca: “It’s mainly new fans, which is mental.”
Jack: “Josh was saying that he had a bit of imposter syndrome. We played a gig where we’d just come from work and picked our daughter up from school. It felt really weird to be recognised in a music venue and be playing again.”
Becca: “It took a while to figure it out. Now we’re immersed in it and this is us. I had fans on the front row shouting, ‘Believe in yourself!’ We need to be telling each other that more! The fans have been amazing and so sweet.”
It’s harder than ever to be in a band and survive. What would your advice be to artists in fear of burnout?
Jack: “Have a reset if you need it, and don’t lie to yourself. If you don’t feel like you can’t give 110 per cent then there’s no point in doing it. You have to be so focused and clear to enjoy it.”
Becca: “It’s about where your heart’s at and where your mind’s at. If you’re going around trying to be the next superstar and not able to feed yourself, then you can have nothing and have a blessed life because you’re grateful for what you’ve got. You just keep pedalling on. We’ve often had nothing but sat there, we’ve got a record to listen to, something to eat and we’re blessed.
“There are people with absolutely nothing. Some are made to be millionaires and some are not. Some of us are good at roughing it out and rock n’ rolling it. We’re not about the glitz, the glam and the money, we never have been. We’ve never made money from this and I don’t know if we will, but if we get to connect with them fans and our music has done something for them, then it works vice versa.”
Marmozets release ‘CO.WAR.DICE.’ on Friday May 22. Check out their upcoming tour dates below, and visit here for tickets and more information.
JANUARY
29 – Bristol, Thekla
30 – Southampton, Papillon
31 – London, Dingwalls
JULY
03 – London, Finsbury Park (with Biffy Clyro)