If you live in Leicester and haven’t been to see Maybeshewill, you may want to. The band seem to be rewriting the rule book in more ways than one. Inspired by the DIY attitude of musicians in recent years, Maybeshewill have taken it to the next level, doing everything from recording and mastering their own tracks to starting their own label. They seem to be a driving force of music in the area, putting some great bands into the spotlight and helping to transform the music scene into something foxes can be proud of. Here at Monotowers we like their ethos so much that we have made Robot Needs Home our label of the month, the Monograph caught up with John from the band to find out more…

How did Maybeshewill first come about?
“About seven years ago now I guess – Robin (guitarist) and I were at DeMontfort University studying music tech, and we ended up in the same flat writing electronic music and adding guitars and stuff to it… It was never meant to be played live… Then we got some friends involved and it became more of a band type set-up. The first demos we did sounded a bit like ‘Funeral for a Friend-meets-Aphex Twin’, but stuff evolved to be a bit better thought out quite quickly, thank god.”

To someone with no ears, how would you describe your sound?
“Have they ever had ears? I mean – do they know what sound is? This is the sort of philosophical question I can get on board with. I guess there are two guitarists, a bassist and a drummer. Then there are some keyboards and a laptop which sort of do things. Oh, and we don’t have a singer.”

You have played shows with some great bands like Foals and This Will Destroy You, has there been any band you have played with that really blew you away?
“Yeah, we’ve toured with a band called And So I Watch You From Afar, who are without doubt the best live band in the world. I urge you to go and see them (or if you’re lazy, have a look on You Tube)”

When you toured Japan, how did you find the Maybeshewill music went down over there?
“It was amazing – We had an incredible reaction. It was generally a pretty surreal experience that it’s sort of impossible to sum up when people ask you about it. Weird. Really weird. But lovely.”

Robot Needs Home has a lot of great Leicester bands, was it always the plan to promote the talent in Leicester?
“Erm, It was just the obvious place to start really. Leicester has a really tight knit community of bands with a similar ethos who are prepared to help each other out and work together. I think the community element of the label was ‘the point’ of Robot Needs Home, before it became a record label ‘proper’. We’re not exclusively a Leicester label, but it’s where we tend to find the bands we love the most. Most of the bands we’ve worked with are getting out and making a name for themselves – Most notably These Furrows and Death Of London have both recently moved on to bigger and better things, and we like to think we helped.”

What do you make of the music scene in Leicestershire?
“I think it’s (sort of) incredible. Every city has it’s good and bad bits and although there are a lot of ridiculously average bands around Leicester, there’s also a crop of genuinely exciting musicians across the whole musical spectrum that I think are as good as anything you’ll hear from the cities that you’d imagine have incredible music scenes – Leeds, Oxford, Liverpool for example. I think when you’re in a city you’re kind of immune to the reputation you have further afield – we’ve been touring all over the place and we’ve met people from Russia and Japan that think the music scene in Leicester is amazing – Her Name Is Calla, Kyte and Maybeshewill are all plowing a similarly leftfield furrow i guess – and they’re all amazingly well respected nationally and internationally. Noone seems to make it massive with major labels, but I think thats to our credit. It’s a grass roots scene, and thats what we have a reputation for.”

Which bands are you watching right now?
“From Leicester? I’ve just been working with These Furrows on their new EP so i’m really excited about that, and Buenos Aires are recording new material as well. Theres an electronic project from Jamie from Maybeshewill and the singer from Kids in Cars called Dark Dark Horse, which sounds absolutely gorgeous. Also, Jack from Gallery 47 from Nottingham has just been over to do a show, and his new stuff has come on leaps and bounds. Like a sort of early era bob dylan, but singing about ducks. It’ll make more sense when you hear it. Kyte and Her Name Is Calla’s new albums are both great, as is Death of London’s EP. It’s sort of an exciting time for bands in Leicester.”

There is a lot of buzz around this years White Noise Festival, what can people expect from it this year?
“White Noise is a *little* bit of a vanity project that we organise with Death Of London – but that’s not to put it down. We basically collect together all the bands from the city that we love (well, as many as possible), and put on gigs over three days. It’s sort of just to bring everyone together for a bit of a party, but as an aside, it raises awareness of some of the awesome talent in the city, and raises money for local charities. We only charge a fiver for a weekend wristband so noone has an excuse not to be there.”

Whats next on the horizon for both the band and the label?
“For Maybeshewill we’re doing a short tour in June, playing White Noise which is our first hometown show for about nine months, then we’re doing some festivals over the summer and finishing off the writing for our third album before we head out for a two month long tour around the UK, Europe and Russia in the autumn. We’re pretty excited to be honest, but consequently theres not a lot going on with Robot Needs Home! I guess i’m waiting for someone to come to me with a really good release that I can get excited about.”

Words by Jon Dodd
Editor of The Monograph, Jon Dodd is a designer by trade but a music lover and writer at heart. Along with Duncan Graham he is one of the founding members of the Monograph.
Read all articles by Jon Dodd