Wir treffen Maribou State‘s Liam Ivory und Chris Davids nach ihrem Konzert in Berlin im Backstage. Die beiden Briten sind sichtlich müde von der Show aber glücklich. Bereits im Juli ist ihr erster Longplayer “Portraits” erschienen, dessen elektronischer Pop von Hip Hop und Funk Einflüssen durchwachsen ist und mit Holly Walken und Pedestrian als Gastvokalisten glänzen kann. Im Oktober geht es jetzt auf Europatour und das zum ersten mal als Band. Gut, dass wir die beiden vorher nochmal zum Gespräch getroffen haben.
How was the whole process to make your music work in a live environment?
It was fun and a lot of hard work.
When we started writing the album, we always blocked out the fact that we would have to play it live. We wanted to put that off our minds cause we didn’t want to be restricted while writing. So, when we finished it and we started to play as a band, it was a really long process translating everything to the live instruments. I feel like the songs have taken their own shape.
But where do you start?
It’s a different approach from track to track. If you played it like it was made in the studio, it wouldn’t have that feel to it. We stripped it down to nothing and then rebuild it till it worked.
It’s cool to have a live drummer on stage.
For us that was key! Before we even knew what we were doing we wanted to have a live drummer.
Did you find it important to be a band for the live shows?
It was super important. Our friend is on the drums and we brought Holly, who is our singer. She is touring everywhere with us. She sings on a lot of our old tracks and on the new album so it is very important for us to have the same vocalist in every of our shows. At the moment, she also sings the songs that she didn’t write. The idea is to eventually bring Jack (Pedestrian) out as well, and have him sing the songs that he wrote, but he is busy with his own stuff at the moment.
Did you ever find it difficult to have other people write the lyrics for your music. Give the song a topic?
No. For me they take over a part that we aren’t really good at. We first worked with Jack and now also with Holly years ago.
When did you make the decision to finally make a full album?
We made an EP called ‘Truth’ and we felt like it was quite cohesive and were happy with the sound.
It was the first time that we listened to it and were like “This is really cool!“. We never felt like we changed the way that we worked. We didn’t have the intention of making the album it just kind of slowly came around.
We tried to keep it really chill and have fun and then it started to gain some identity in the sound.
When I listened to the album for the first time, names like Caribou, Bonobo and even Four Tet came to my mind. Is that good or bad?
That is a really good thing! That is music we listen to so that is a very good thing. If you hear us DJ, our Sets are filled with their music so that is perfect.
How important is Berlin as a city for you when it comes to music?
Very important. We actually moved here for a month to work. We tried to write to some music and we didn’t write any music we just partied the whole month. It’s pretty nostalgic coming back here. We got really inspired here and we love the city.
You both still live in Hartfordshire where your hometown is, which is a really small town though? How did you get involved with the industry whilst living there?
Well, we started making music together when we were still in school and it started up from there. We went to University in Leeds and that was when we started to get into electronic music. At was at the end of that, four years ago when we started what we are doing now. It was a really natural progress.
Is it important to you to see the audience from stage?
The front row is really visible and that’s where the people are who really want to see the show. It is nice to see them dancing and singing along.
When you first go on stage you’re in your own space and don’t really know what’s going on but as the show goes on you start to pay more attention.
It might sound lame, but because we DJ’d so much you have to watch the crowd and see if this is working and if people are enjoying themselves.
Whats coming up next?
We are going on tour in Europe, so now we are working on the live side of the show. We are still new to playing as a band it is so weird. It still feels like we are just dipping our toes in. It’s nice to know though, that our music is reaching people and it is genuinely shocking when we come to Berlin and see how many people are standing there to watch us play.
We are so far from home and when we are in London or England in general there are friends and family and friends of friends. If it grows that would be nice but if it stays like it is at the moment we are happy.
