Marmozets: "I almost felt like my life had been taken away"

Marmozets are excited. You can hear it across comeback juggernaut ‘Play', you can see it as the band thundered back into the live arena a few weeks ago...

Marmozets are excited. You can hear it across comeback juggernaut ‘Play', you can see it as the band thundered back into the live arena a few weeks ago and, well, Becca keeps telling us. She's waiting for the boys to pick her up on the way to band practice and despite the tour being less than a week away, if she had her own way, they'd play a show right now. "I'm just impatient," she shrugs. It's been two years since the band played a show. Following triumphant sets at Reading & Leeds 2015, the band cancelled a series of US dates due to an injury Becca picked up and despite the band promising that "a new album will be recorded very, very soon," that's all we heard for a long while. In that time, there was a moment where Becca thought maybe they'd never return. "When I had my knee operation, I had one done straight after the other, and I was bed bound. As someone who is just go, go, go all the time, to be literally sat on the sofa for a few months, I almost felt like my life had been taken away. I had to learn to walk again. It was pretty insane, and it was shit, but I'm a trooper. I'm a fighter," she promises. "There was a lot to cope with, but you've just to get on with it." And so they did. The album is completely done, and now Marmozets are back, they're not going away anytime soon. "Have you heard it?" Becca asks a few days before ‘Play' drops. "You like it?" she asks, genuinely curious but it feels like she already knows we do. "Good," she grins. "We're all in a really good place, so we're ready to get back on the road. A lot has happened, but we're good now. We're all ready to rock and roll and excited for people to see what we've been working on. We've all had to deal with our own shit," but there's no time to dwell. "We wrote an amazing album. We already had shit loads of material; it was just getting all our shit together and getting the best out of everyone. We actually wrote three albums' worth but kept pressing because we knew we weren't getting what we wanted out into the songs." ‘Play' doesn't sound like the Marmozets of old, all sugar coated smiles and hyperactive dance, but there's a familiar snarl to the attack. A bratty need for more that's driven them this far. A month before the band released their debut ‘The Weird & Wonderful Marmozets', they played two sets at Reading & Leeds. One in the vast expanse of the NME / BBC Radio 1 Stage, one in the sweatbox confines of The Pit. ‘Play' takes those two sides of Marmozets' game and hits the button. "That's why we keep writing. All our songs always sound like us, but we just want the best ones. If you're not going to give people the best songs, what's the point? I always figure a way to get everything out, especially in our music.

"It was shit, but I'm a trooper."

"'Play' comes from being on the road and in relationships. I'm not saying it's the best one on the album or anything like that, but it's one we're really happy with." That said, "We're happy with all of them. We want to display this album properly, like a photo album almost and ‘Play' is the first one because it's the energetic, in your face song. That's what we're notoriously known for so we're just keeping that vibe going." Carefree and joyous, Marmozets' comeback track sees the band excited, hungry and ready for more. "We are free, we're in an amazing position, and that doesn't happen to everyone. When you're in a happy place, your music is going to be joyful, but it's still raw. It's not like I'm singing about rainbows and shit like that," she laughs. "I'm not that happy." There were pressure and expectations all around the gang. "You have everyone telling you it's the difficult second album, that that's where all the bands fuck up, but nah." Not Marmozets. "We were all confident from the start with each other. We've been together 11 years now; we don't give up." Their debut album was recorded in different studios, at different times and in different moods. This time around, the gang went to Monmouth in Wales and got it all down in one. "It was just so beautiful; it was like living on a farm. Everything was just so fresh, our vibes were fresh, and our bonds were fresh. We said let's just absolutely enjoy this, and we did. We had the best time. That's probably why the album's portrayed the way it is; it's all of our lives all out in a play. It was amazing to be in such a chill vibe and get all the shit that we've gone through, all the good times and the bad all out into our recordings." No matter how big or how far they went, Marmozets never looked out of their depth. That command is the same on ‘Play'. It's the same on the new record. But that control isn't always easy to find because, "the more real you are, the more serious you are," and things will always try and escape you. "Touring and being in a band, obviously shit always comes your way, but you just have to laugh. You can't take it too seriously. As long as you have time to play and have fun and keep it real with everyone, it's all going to work out. There's always a way to deal with a situation." And for Marmozets, that's together.

"It's not like I'm singing about rainbows and shit."

The group write everything as one and follow their heart over their head. When asked if ‘Play' felt vocally different to what she's done before, Becca doesn't know. "You made me think about it just then, ‘cos I just do what I do. I do exactly what I'm feeling then and there." There's no route the band take to get from spark of an idea to multi-layered chaotic storm. "We end up writing our songs in the weirdest ways, which is cool ‘cos it keeps it spicy and organic. Everyone is involved. It's family. It is what it is. Everything's flowing quite nicely, and everyone's found themselves creatively. Everything has our print on, and that's the way we like it. We're in control of what's going on." Despite being in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by countryside and long since removed from the stage, the band thought about their audience when crafting their new record. "It's important to me, I've got to connect to the people that drive us," starts Becca. "I don't think fans realise how important they actually are just ‘cos half the time they're fed with some bullshit about buying a bands merch, but you have to be so real with the fans for something to last forever. And I like things to last. I don't mind change, change is cool but I like things to last for a long time, so my heart is going to go into everything we do." "[There's] a lot of fun and a lot of feeling free," on Marmozets new album. "It's about being born young and free which reflects a lot about our band. It's about being who you want to be and doing exactly what you want to do for the right reasons. It's completely done, it's been done for ages, and it's just sitting there, waiting. We're doing it the way we want to do it because it is our album. But it's going to be everyone's soon. We're just holding onto it for as long as we can. Everyone's going to have their say on this record," starts Becca, excited at the idea of a reaction. "It's our second album, and there are many more to come. That's the way it's going to be. When Marmozets start, there's no stopping us," she laughs, poised to hit play. "That's just the way we go."Taken from the October issue of Upset, out now. Marmozets are currently touring the UK.