The Maccabees’ Orlando Weeks has spoken to NME about taking part in War Child’s Secret 7” record auction, playing Harry Styles’ Meltdown festival, new solo material and this summer’s upcoming Maccabees gigs.
This year’s Secret 7” track contributions come from John Lennon, The Last Dinner Party, Gabrielle, Skin, Glass Animals, and Bastille, alongside The Maccabees – with each artist giving one song to be pressed 100 times each on 7-inch vinyl in aid of War Child.
A host of artists, designers and creatives from around the world are invited to create their own artwork for the track of their choice, with the song they accompany kept secret until the record is in the buyer’s hands.
The Maccabees have given their 2009 track ‘No Kind Words’ to the initiative, with Weeks – also an artist and illustrator – saying the song fit with the art he’s been creating. “I’m still really obsessed with making these figures that I’ve been making,” he told us. “I did some stuff with So Young last year, and we made a book of them that we were selling for Doctors Without Borders.
“I’m still very enamoured with these figures, and ‘No Kind Words’ makes sense because, lyrically, it’s about a relationship or friendship falling apart, and with the figures, even if they’re on their own, there is a sense of a relationship or a backstory. So, I felt it made sense with what I wanted to do once we knew what the song was going to be.”
As well as ‘No Kind Words’ being pressed onto vinyl, Weeks is also working on a special print to be sold in aid of War Child that will feature these figures. “I’m trying to figure out how to use colour [in it] because I’m not very good at that,” he shared. “I want it to be eye-catching and attractive, and make people want it. It’s this thing of there being a motivation and reason and a wider cause – how do I make something that I want people to buy because that means the charity gets more money?”
This year’s auction isn’t the first time that Weeks has worked with War Child, having previously contributed artwork in collaboration with friend and graphic designer Matt de Jong.
“I remember one year, we made two record sleeves that were like lenticular prints of each of our eyes, so that when you put them next to each other, they followed you around the space,” Weeks said. “In all honesty, I don’t think it worked that well, but the idea and the intention were good, and they did look odd.”
The musician explained that part of the appeal of the Secret 7” initiative was its emphasis on something one-of-a-kind. “I’ve always found it funny that with music, you write the song, and then you make a definitive recording of that song that gets mass-produced to whatever degree, then a person hears that song and has a unique personal connection with it – a very one-off experience – but then you go to a concert and have a communal collective experience of joint pleasure in this yo-yoing thing,” he said.
“I think sometimes it’s good to celebrate the one-offness. This is an opportunity to make something else that is one-off in the experience of buying and listening to music. As someone who really loves making stuff, that’s the great pleasure of doing the work that I do – giving that sort of reasonable value.”
The Maccabees’ involvement in the Secret 7” project follows a long history of assisting charities through their music, including a long history with MS Society. Of their consistent efforts to help others, Weeks said: “We’re very aware as people that we’re lucky and we recognise the luxury of being people that get to do the job that they love and make and play music.
“Often, you feel very helpless, and so you try to find ways of feeling a bit less helpless. [It’s about] using what you can do to try and find a way of helping people that are better at helping than you.”
The 700 record sleeves from 2026’s Secret 7” will be exhibited at London’s 180 Studios between August 18-30, and will be available to purchase via online auction from August 18-September 2.
Fans can also submit designs for sleeves interpreting the song of their choice at the Secret 7” website before 11.59pm on June 1, 2026. To date, the project has raised over £900,000 for War Child, helping children across the world who have been impacted by conflict and violence.
Elsewhere, Weeks is set to play a special show at London’s Southbank Centre on June 19 as part of Meltdown Festival, which has been curated by Harry Styles this year. When announcing the gig, Weeks said he had previously had “no intention” of revisiting his last three solo albums until the invitation came through.
“I suppose it’s to do with why I would go and tour them again,” he explained to NME. “I felt like I should have just had those first two records [2020’s ‘A Quickening’ and 2022’s ‘Hop Up’] – they really had a point to them in perhaps a way that ‘Loja’ had less of a point to it.” While he acknowledged that ‘Loja’ “still had some really good stuff” on it, he reasoned that the previous two records were anchored by “a very specific story”.
Going back to that old material for the show is something of a necessity, as Weeks doesn’t “have enough new stuff to just do new stuff”. “He wasn’t to know, I just wasn’t ready,” he laughed. “I’ve sung [at the Southbank Centre] as a guest for the London Contemporary Voices Choir, but I’d love to make the most of that [opportunity] to celebrate [those songs] as a kind of send-off. It’s just a very nice invitation and [chance] to be part of a lineup that I think is so good.”
As he hinted, recently, Weeks has been busy working on a new solo project, which will take a similar form to his first post-Maccabees project. “Someone pointed out [to me] that ‘The Gritterman’ [Weeks’ illustrated children’s book and soundtrack album] would be 10 years old next year, and I was thinking why I loved doing that, so I’ve been spending the last six to eight months working on another graphic novel with a soundtrack,” he said.
Asked what fans can expect from the new book and album, the musician shared that it would be “musically very minimalist” and “of its era”, while the story would be set in “late ’50s, early ’60s Soho”.
“It’s been very nice watching loads of movies from that era and reading around that time,” he said. “I reckon I’ll record it at the end of the year and the book, if I had nothing to do for a month, I reckon it’d be done.”
Before Weeks can focus fully on that project, though, he’ll be kept busy by the live return of The Maccabees, following their first reunion shows last summer.
Speaking about last year’s gigs, Weeks reflected: “I loved it, it’s my favourite memories of playing with Maccs. I just thought it was a total pleasure, and I thought the shows were amazing – to see how much it seemed to matter to people.
“Even from a practical point of view, if you take away the emotional, sentimental goodness of it, we all know how to do it and we’ve been away for long enough that to redo it is so nice. It’s a shock at how natural it all feels, having had time away from it.”
When NME spoke to guitarist Felix White as this summer’s shows were announced last November, he suggested these would be the last Maccabees gigs if they didn’t decide to make new music together. Weeks agreed that the band would need something new to keep driving things forward beyond this summer, saying: “That’s the point of what keeps it exciting, right? It’s very nice to do these shows, and it’s a great pleasure to revisit them with a freshness, but that doesn’t last. If you’re in a band, you need to see where you’re at as musicians and the way to do that is by making new stuff.”
So, where are The Maccabees at with new music, then?
“I would say we’re slightly further on than just talking about it, but we’re not a long way on,” Weeks said. “I live in Lisbon, so it’s harder for me to just get in a room, but I think the fact that we’re doing these shows is a good opportunity to put a fire under us. We’ll see.”
Visit here to get involved in War Child’s Secret 7″.
The Maccabees will kick off a new run of dates in Edinburgh on July 6, with dates across England until the final show in Leeds on July 31. Visit here for tickets and more information.