Marsicans are a local Leeds band that have definitely outgrown the term Local. They were exclusively chosen as our Track Of The Week with infectious track ‘Swimming’. From airplay on BBC Radio 1, to having slots at this years 110 Above Festival, Kendal Calling and even Glastonbury, Marsicans have definitely got a bright future! We have had Marsicans in or sights for ages, and finally we managed to get an exclusive chat with the band ahead of their support set for Coasts at The Brudenell Social Club in Leeds.
Stephen McMahon: Are you expecting a good turn out tonight, not for coasts, but for you guys since it is your hometown?
Marsicans: Yeah! We have a list allowed for people here just for us, and we’ve filled our list completely. We know it’ll be full of Marsicans fans. Nice to see familiar faces. It’s a last minute gig for us, only a week and a half ago we we’re told about it so we’ve only pushed it a little bit but we know we’ll have our diehards in. It’s the first time we have played the main room at brudenell as well and were looking forward to that.
Stephen: Is there more pressure being a support band as oppose to your own headline gig?
Marsicans: A support band is there to get everyone going. There’s 2 elements, if you’re a support you have to warm the crowd up, and put loads of effort in. But also when you are the headline act, there is a lot riding on it. When you’re a support band, you may only have half the crowd knowing who you are. It’s a great way to get more fans. 
Stephen: What can we look forward to on your set?
Marsicans: Loads of new tunes! New songs that have only had a very small of run outs live so new to us, new to the set, and new to everyone else. We have an EP coming out at the end of the summer and we are playing that in full in this set now. We wrote the songs last year and they kind of take on a bit of extra magic live so they’re really fun playing them live. Were also playing a bit of Whitney in there too. It’s a fast set to be honest, Won’t even be able to breath!
Stephen: Whats the ep called
Marsicans: Its called the ‘Absence EP’. The songs that will be on it have been released this year but we want to make it an official EP. ‘Absence’ is also going to be our last song of the set.
Stephen: What other songs on the EP?
Marsicans: ‘Far Away’ which is our next single, out next month. ‘Swimming’ and ‘Arms of Another’ will also be on the EP as well.
Stephen: You’re set to play Glastonbury this year. How excited are you to be at that festival?
Marsicans: Incredibly excited! We just want to tell everyone. We’ve even just told people in the street. It feels really real. We have other festivals coming up and we could mention those, but we had to keep Glastonbury secret, so it’s a great relief now we can tell people. We’ve wanted to go to the festival as kids and for some of us, our first time will be going to perform! Really exciting.
Stephen: James, you have attended before, so for Cale, Rob and Oli, Individually describe what you are expecting at Glastonbury.
Oli: I’m expecting some crazy experiences along with loads of different types of people. I’ve been to Bestival before so I’m kind of expecting something similar to that. Also I reckon I’ll get lost! Last shadow puppets and Wolf Alice I want to see.
Cale: Fancy dress constantly. Loads of random experiences. Some friends of ours at a festival were dressed as bananas and this person as a tiger started chasing our friends, then some other people as bananas decided to join in and chase the tiger! So bananas and tigers for sure!
Rob: All my favorite bands in one place. People who know about us playing Glastonbury but don’t know music. They always ask “so who will I know that is playing Glastonbury?”. I always say, “well, who isn’t playing Glastonbury?”. Cant wait to see The 1975, the legends slot, Electric Light Orchestra this year! Really looking forward to seeing Adele. It was a huge album and the broke so many records with the money it made, so I know the production of the show will be amazing.
Stephen: There is 8 songs online from you guys, ‘Chivalry’, ‘Terrapin’, ‘M.J.’, ‘Scuba’, ‘Eight Forty’, ‘Gone in a Second’, ‘Arms of Another’, ‘Swimming’ – ‘Swimming’ was one of our Tracks of the Week. Can you pick a favorite song and explain why that one?
James: ‘Throw Ourselves In’. It’s a new song but its just so much fun to play live! I don’t know how to describe it!
Oli: ‘Absence’, it’s the most mature song that we have come up with. I sometimes listen to it now and just think that’s really good. I criticize it as if it was a different bands song. I don’t want to sound big headed, but I think it is the biggest song we have written.
Cale: I’ll match James. ‘Throw Ourselves In’ are quite challenging on drums. And I enjoy a challenge whilst playing! The drop down and bridge, is also constant. A very sweaty song for me.
Rob: for me it’s a song called too good. We wrote it a while a go, but for me its very interesting sonically. We use quite a few electronic sounds on it, similar to arms of another. For us they were our most successful explorations sound wise.
Stephen: Now I’m sure you’ve got more songs under your belt, so when will we see an album?
Marsicans: Well we have material for an album, but we always say, you only get one debut album, so were just waiting for the right time. Also we are constantly writing, if you had asked us this question a year ago, we would have said we have enough songs, but 6 months on and we’ve written better songs. We are one of those bands with new-song-itis. It would be interesting what the answer would be in another 6 months.
When we do release one, it’ll be good!
Stephen: What would be the ultimate goal in all your music careers?
James: Just to be able to sustainably be in a band and for it be my job.
Rob: To have people care about what we do and care about our music. We will keep making records as long as people keep liking our music.
Cale: I want to just be in a band until I’m 70 years old! We need a Marsicans come back tour!
Oli: As long as we are still releasing music and for people to like what we make.
Stephen: You’re quite a newish band, so casting back to the start, did you have an action plan when starting your band?
Marsicans: We kind of did but it wasn’t when we started. We were playing as a band and when it was going well, that’s when we did our action plan. To be a successful band you have to have an action plan. But if you start the band because you have an action plan then it can be quite contrived. It needs to be friendship and passion. You can’t have a business plan about it. We were playing as a band and as friends, then we realised that we need to think about it more and just make wise decisions. It always helps us to have an outside perspective. For example, our manager Rob, deals with the bigger picture but we just focus on the music and passion behind our band.
Stephen: To what extent is money an issue when starting a band?
Marsicans: Massive! To be taken seriously, you need promo budgets and pr. Even just instruments to begin with, guitars, drum kits, amplifiers all cost loads. Even recording the songs cost money as well. Its hard when you are a 16-17-year-old wanting to start a band, it is really hard! Record deals are the way of getting a huge investment in your band, but they want to make a return. So you need great material to be successful. So you have to find the happy medium between product and push.
Check out Marsicans latest single Far Away!
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