Interview with Orlando Weeks (The Maccabees)

Interview With Orlando Weeks from the Maccabees conducted by Dale Driver.

So you’re a few dates into your tour, how do you think it’s going? What’s the feedback so far?

Yeah it’s going alright I think, everybody seems to be going away happy at the gigs so yeah, must be going alright.

What songs from your new material do you feel are going down the best?

Erm, ’Love You Better’ is going down great, ’Can you Give It’ is going down well, the song ’Wall of Arms’ is going down pretty good I mean, the album’s only been out a week now so it’s pretty amazing already that people seem to be responding to them.

After the success of your first album what did you do differently for Wall of Arms, how was your approach?

We wrote this one to be a record, we wrote it knowing it was gonna be made into a record, that was kinda of our mission, to write a record as opposed to writing songs for an album or to play live to people. That’s kinda what happened with the first one, they were the songs we’d been playing and we had to kind of set them in stone in some respect and that’s why we made the record I suppose. This one we knew we were going to get to record it and we were going to figure out afterwards how to turn that into a set.

Toothpaste Kisses was quite exposed when it was featured on the Samsung advert, did you ever feel the pressure to match or repeat that success?

Not really I mean, did you ever see the Samsung advert?

Yes, that was one of the first times I heard it.

Really? I never ever saw it; I kinda just thought they forgot to put it on. The only thing it really did for us was that we got to go on Jonathan Ross’s radio show, beyond that I don’t think it really helped or hindered us particularly except that it meant obviously some people had become aware of us as a result of it so it can only be a good thing.

You recorded your new album in Paris, how did you find that whole experience being out of your comfort zone?

I dunno, we just kinda felt isolated and lucky, that was kind of it. We wanted to not be round friends and family and concentrate and work really hard on writing the songs, being “marooned” felt the best way about it.

Did you purposely choose Paris?

Yeah, we figured it was close enough to home that the record company felt like they could keep an eye on us but far enough away that people could just come and hang out all the time.

Which song from Wall of Arms in your proudest achievement?

I can’t really answer that I’m just proud of us for getting a second record together really; I couldn’t single one out that makes me swell with pride particularly. I just think the whole thing and all of us being happy with it is the biggest achievement.

How much input do you have on your music videos?

Just, everything really. We decide who makes it, ones like ’No Kind Words’ we had such a little budget it’s easier for me to art direct it, find the people to shoot it, find the cameras, find the space, find the actors and figure out the story line and the concept. But with ’Love You Better’ we had a budget so we could find a director and sit down with him and see how we find a middle ground between his vision and what we want.

You Worked with Markus Dravs on Wall of Arms who has worked with Bands such as Arcade Fire and Coldplay in the past, did you find that his influence rubbed off onto the album?

Well Arcade Fire is pretty much my favourite band in the world. But I think we reigned in ourselves a huge amount though because we wanted to have choirs and all that and I think Markus more than anything said look, you can’t lose the point of what made you as a band. He’s all for taking steps forward but there is steps forward and there are steps to the side.

So he kept you focused?

Yeah, yeah he’s very good at that, very good at keeping the momentum going without losing hindsight.

Thanks very much for your time Orlando, good luck with the tour and the album.

Your very welcome, thanks very much.