Music > Interviews

Joe from Marigolds

09/12/18

Where does the name Marigolds comes from?

I wish I had some profound answer, but honestly, it isn’t that interesting of a background it was just one of those ones you get all those band names in a list and pick one. Although, people always think it was this guy who ‘guided’ traffic in Norwich. Although truthfully, I think it was Tom who thought of Marigolds, and I think it was because of a song by The Appleseed Cast.

What’s your favourite venue?

Um, I think Arts Centre is just incredible. Sound wise on stage it’s amazing. Even from an audience perspective it’s great. The fact you’re playing in a church is just incredible. I also liked playing in the Owl Sanctuary. Not when it was on timber hill, but before that. It was a nice little DIY space and it kinda felt like you were playing in a basement. Although, saying that our last gig was at the Mash Tun. When we first started playing music we played there, it was the Hog in Armour. It was alright, it was just like a little dingy attic, but they’ve redone it and it looks so cool, they have fairy lights everywhere.

That was with Saintsenaca? How did that go?

It went so good, it felt like the best show we’ve played with the new lineup so far. Firstly, I just love Saintsenaca so much, I was speaking to them and they were the nicest people. I was talking to them about (Wether)Spoons, teaching them about British culture you know. They’re from all over in the US. They were really nice, and our set went well, it went better than I thought that it would.

Another recent one was Oxjam?

We played in the Oxfam shop, we were headlining it so we were the last on. But yeah, it was super cool, just to play in a charity shop is not something that I’ll ever probably SAY AGAIN. Also, they kept all the tills open so you could make some purchases before you played- so, we all made a purchase and wore our purchase. They had some weird stuff in there.

You talked about Oxjam, do you think that Norwich’s venues and musical institutions helps or hinders bands in their creativity and commercial success?

I think it is getting better, a few years ago it was really dry- especially with the Owl Sanctuary closing down. It’s starting to have more of a resurgence now. All these places are reopening, there’s plenty of local promoters going around now. You’ve got Oddbox doing good things and Poorboy. I think it’s definitely helping it thrive. It’s tricky with Norwich because obviously compared with other cities, there’s just one way in and one way out.  So, you need to create an environment where bands want to come there and where bands will turn out. I think in some of the scenes, like emo, or whatever you want to class it as. I think a lot of people aren’t coming out to the shows where they’re not put on by a company, but they’re put on by people who just wanna see their favourite bands. Which means firstly, it’s tough on the promoters to break even and itt creates this anxiety about whether I’m gonna break even or if I’m able to play good bands. I think to have a thriving music scene you need people to turnout.

Does Norwich tend towards a certain type of music, then?

Yeah definitely, I think indie, I mean every indie show at the Waterfront will get a pretty good turnout. I went to see kississippi at the Waterfront. I mean they’re a pretty well-established band coming from overseas, must have been about ten people there. If a band of that stature – there’s plenty of people I know in Norwich who would wanna come to that sorta gig, it’s just people turning up. It’s not just that show but lots of other acts in that sorta scene. Indie gigs in Norwich tend to get a real good turnout.

I think it’s getting better, people need to just keep going to shows

Do you have a favourite spot in Norwich, then?

In terms of bars, I really like Franks Bar- it’s proper nice. Mischief as well, there’s so many memories in there. I do really love the lanes, they’re pretty. I also always go to Alchemista- that coffee place. I haven’t been to the city to chill since summer.

Where do you find yourself now?

I’ll tell you what, I do like Eaton Park. Eaton park is well nice, especially in the mornings. I sometimes go there with a coffee and honestly the architecture there is great.

You were talking a lot about the emo scene, what do you think shapes your music tastes, what do you listen to or what have you listened to.

I think I’ve gone through every single phase. I think the main shaping of my music taste was my sister with goth music – Escape the Fate and all that kinda stuff. Then I moved a bit more towards pop punk, then kinda indie I guess like Circa Waves and all that. Whereas now it’s just music that’s authentic, or real- I mean everyone would say that about their music taste. I suppose I also listen to a lot of hip-hop now.

Do you think hip-hop has a lot of influence on your writing now?

I think artists like Frank Ocean really inspire me, like the detail that goes into what he produces and the concepts behind what he does and the way he distributes his art, is really inspiring. I think hip-hop is kinda shaping that. Obviously, there’s gonna be a lot of trash in every genre, and I think hip-hop does get a bad rap (haha). Overall, I think hip-hop is breaking a lot of boundaries, which a lot of rock bands aren’t.

People always throw around that guitar music is dead. But maybe sometimes guitar music needs to die in order for it to be reborn into something more beautiful. I hate putting all those soundbites out, but there’s some bands coming through, like IDLES and Shame that are all doing something new. Like I think that IDLES are one of the most important British punk bands to ever happen.

How would you describe what your sound is, and how is the new lineup going?

I guess the sound at the moment has that melancholic veneer around it, but overall it seems quite uplifting. Especially with the stuff we have written recently. It’s homing in a lot on that- lyrically still sad I guess, I dunno. It still has a motivating theme around it.

In terms of the new line-up we are all kinda on the same page. Before we would always be like let’s sound like this band, or lets sound like this band and it kind of kept flip-flopping between. You get to a point where there’s no consistency, and each release is so different from the next. Especially in a live set it just doesn’t make sense. Whereas now with the collection of songs we’ve got, they flow into each other much nicer. They’re also more fun to play, and it feels more right to play them.

Someone from BBC Introducing asked you about breaking through. Do you ever have that in mind, do you ever think it’d be good to break through?

I think we’ve got a few shows that haven’t been announced yet but are outside of Norwich. It’ll be nice to play in some new places. If you mean by breaking through it being your main income, then yeah that’s the dream- but it’s so rare for most bands. Even some of my favourite bands aren’t doing it full-time. It’s disheartening.

I love doing it and it’s quite cathartic and quite nice to have that sort of release. Whether lyrically or just playing guitar to pass the time. If someone says what do you want to do in the future, I don’t say musician. Breaking through kind of suggests you have one agenda. I think what I’d want more than that is to just have a song I’m proud of, which forty years down the line I can say I did that and I’m still proud of it. I think it’s a bit more than this song would be great on the radio, lets write songs!

What bands are you listening to at the moment?

I have been listening to a lot of Saintsenaca recently to be fair. I’ve been listening to Tigers Jaw more, and I’ve been listening to Vince Staples a lot. Um, you know what I’m gonna go through my recent plays. Vulfpeck are such a good band going around right now, also Real Estate. In terms of UK bands, there’s a really good shoegaze band from London called Nightswimming, they’re really good. Super Lemon Days are doing really good stuff. Muskets are killing it as well, I remember I supported their first ever gig in Norwich, and now they’re signed to a proper record label.

You said you supported Muskets, and that feeling of supporting a band who then go on to a big stage must feel really nice and a bit scary. Do you have any bands that you think that supporting them would be a dream?

Probably American Football, that’d be great. Or someone like Alex G or Sunny Day Real Estate. Those are the ones who are ‘in’ the genre. Outside of the genre, Justin Timberlake would be pretty cool. Or Beyonce.

Justin Timberlake? That surprises me, have you got any surprising favourites?

Vein are pretty good to be fair. Code Orange, I’ve been listening to them and they’re really good. Honestly, recently I’ve been listening to the 1975 a lot, which probably does not surprise. There’s also a really good hip-hop trio as well called Injury Reserve, they’re really good.

It seems like you listen to everything. You can hear that in a lot of your music, you have a wide range of taste and sound.

I mean all of us listen to different music. Tom, the bass player loves his pop punk- his bass tones are very pop punky. Davey loves his math rock and taps a lot in some of the songs. We all listen to an eclectic range of stuff. I guess you can hear it coming through. It’s kinda just about creating something that works and feels right.

How did you guys meet?

When the band first started Davey and I went to the same college and I knew he played guitar. So, I was like hey we should jam, and he was like my friend Owen plays drums and in the first practice I just felt really good and it really clicked. Eventually Tom, the drummer from my old band was like ‘Oh I’ll play bass, I can do it’.

Owen moved to Scotland for Uni and we were like we could probably make this work. There was a ten month period where we weren’t really doing anything and we were thinking of calling it a day. Then a month later me and Davey decided to try and make it work one more time. We talked to Owen, and he was fine with calling it a day. We then asked James to join, who was the drummer in Veir and it clicked really well, like it did in the first practice. Meanwhile me Davey and Lydia were starting a little electronic project, which never saw the light of day but it sounded really good. I really hope it comes out one day, it might even come out as a Marigolds thing, I don’t know. So then we were like, yeah lets get Lydia in. She plays piano, she’s never played a keyboard with us live because we don’t have one, I have this really bad midi, though. Lydia has also got an incredible voice, like insane.

I really like the interaction between your two voices, I really like the texture of it.

Yeah, I think has created a nice- yeah I think our voices compliment each other well and has enhanced our sound. It also gives us a chance to experiment with more, I don’t have the best range whereas Lydia can hit them high notes. I think we can do a lot more with our new line-up, like I didn’t know James can play trumpet until the other day, so we’ve got some emo trumpet coming in on a few songs. I also found a saxophone in my attic the other day, so I kinda wanna get some sexy sax in too.

Are you happy with how things are going with Marigolds?

It feels really fresh, like when you just start a band and are getting something really exciting, it feels like that all of the time. Everything just feels nice and its going well. It’s just chill, it doesn’t feel like a chore to meetup and practice, it’s just finding time at the moment because everyone is so busy. Davey does medicine so it’s difficult. If we were all humanities students, it wouldn’t be that bad. But yeah, we work around it.

What have you got lined up?

We’re playing London on the 22nd of December- at the Monarch, in Camden. We’re playing with Death Pony who are really good, you should check out their new song. Then we are playing Cambridge in February, and we’re playing at the Blue Moon- which should be really cool. We’re playing that with History and Law, which are a good band. Recently met Declan and he’s a nice guy. But yeah, I think that’s it in terms of shows. We are going back into the studio around January time. Also, we’ve got a music video coming out.