Marmozets' Becca Bottomley talks balancing music with motherhood ahead of new album 'CO.WAR.DICE' • Interview • DIY Magazine

Family ties have always been strong for Marmozets. When the Yorkshire band first burst onto the rock scene well over 15 years ago now - with their frenzied blend of post-hardcore and math rock, and their unhinged live reputation - they were two sets of siblings barely out of school, making for a fiercely formidable unit. Now, fast forward to the present day, and their journey as a band has continued to be defined by family life, but in a way that none of them likely expected.

For those among us who might recognise the name but feel somewhat out of the loop, never fear; all will become clear. The last time Marmozets ripped up stages was all the way back in late 2018, when the quintet headed out on the road with You Me At Six. It was also around that same set of shows that frontwoman Becca Bottomley - then Macintyre, having since married bandmate and partner, Jack - discovered she was pregnant, and the life of the band was forced to take a different turn.

“I didn’t think for two seconds that anything would be an issue moving forward with the band,” Becca explains today, over seven years on, as she chats from her home in Bingley, where the band are still based. “I just knew it would look slightly different. We’d just gotten off a big tour, so it felt like the perfect time to do a next album.” In reality, however, things would never be the same.

“If it wasn’t for me getting pregnant, god knows what kind of state we would’ve been in,” she reflects now, thinking back to a group who had already been through so much; even their second album ‘Knowing What You Know Now’ was initially delayed after a serious knee injury prompted a string of operations for the frontwoman. “We were on the road all the time, we were young and we partied hard, so I think it eventually took its toll on us. We got to the point where we were so burned out, this was our normality.”

For a band who had spent the better part of their teens and early 20s criss-crossing the globe to play shows and cause havoc, having to put the brakes on didn’t necessarily come naturally, but it would serve as a blessing in disguise. “The downtime was very, very wise for us just to get grounded and have some normality in our lives. We were so far from it,” Becca nods. In hindsight, too, the timing feels almost kismet, with the COVID-19 pandemic unfurling just a year later and leaving artists everywhere with a huge void in both their calendars and identities.

“If it wasn’t for me getting pregnant, god knows what kind of state we would’ve been in.”

— Becca Bottomley

As many parents can attest, the arrival of a child is something that completely transforms your world regardless, but for both Becca and Jack, they were faced with a new vision of the future; trying to somehow rediscover themselves outside of the band, as well as taking on their new role. Alongside an array of the usual hurdles that pregnancy throws at you - “there was a big chunk where our friends weren’t really talking to us when we became pregnant,” she notes at one point - for Becca specifically, the process was equally connected to her sense of femininity - or lack thereof - and rediscovering elements of herself that had subconsciously been placed on the back burner during the band.

“I think I always had a sense of who I was as ‘Becca from Marmozets’ and that’s not to say that was a character or anything; it wasn’t, it was me through and through,” she confirms. “It’s all I had known since the age of 14 when school wasn’t going so well for me. Then the band came along and we just connected; it was the best thing that happened to me and I just kept riding with it. But then I was ‘one of the lads’, and that’s the way I got treated as well. I was never looked at as ‘the girl in the band’. I was always one of the lads, and I think I believed at one point that I was.

“So, to come out of that in a really beautiful, humbling relationship with Jack, my best friend, who absolutely loves me and to have a baby - I [just thought]: ‘Ohhhh, I’m a woman’.” She laughs at the scale of that realisation. “I felt like a superhero! Once that milk came in and everything, I [thought]: ‘I am a superhero, this is insane that we can do this’. [I realised] that this was what I was born to do, and it’s been the most profound thing, definitely, in my life.”

It’s an admission that shouldn’t come as surprising at all, but for a woman in the music industry, it’s refreshing to hear there’s another side to the coin, especially when the subject of motherhood still feels somewhat taboo. Take recent existentially-leaning tracks from the likes of Charli xcx (‘I think about it all the time’) and our cover stars Wolf Alice (‘Play It Out’) by example, with both narrators pondering what their futures could look like as different versions of themselves.

“I’m fine talking about family life and stuff, I think it’s so important and I love talking about it,” she nods. “I guess I just want to be a voice for people that are going through this because for me and Jack, there was no one in the same situation, where the lead singer is having a baby. Normally, the reason you don’t hear about it is because it’s the guy who’s had the baby - and the mum stays at home - and they go off and do the shows. I’m not saying that’s easy, because I know that will still be difficult, and touring is a difficult way of living, especially if you’ve family at home, but I think a lot of women in the industry are too scared to have kids in case it’s going to ruin their career.”

“I think a lot of women in the industry are too scared to have kids in case it’s going to ruin their career.”

— Becca Bottomley

Despite their much-needed break, Becca assures us that her and Jack “never stopped writing”, initially tinkering away in what was later to become their daughter’s nursery. But it was only after the pair recently penned new album cut ‘New York’ - a track that revisited their sense of displacement and exhaustion from their years within the band - that the start of their next chapter felt to officially begin.

Since then, the pair have reunited with Becca’s brothers Sam and Josh Macintyre - former bassist, and Jack’s brother, Will is sitting this round out due to other commitments - to produce long-awaited third album ‘CO.WAR.DICE’, a record that takes the unbridled energy of their early live shows and explores it in a fuller, more expansive manner. Equally, they ushered in their return late last year with the album’s ferocious lead single - the aptly-titled ‘A Kiss From A Mother’ - and a series of explosive live shows across intimate UK venues that helped re-establish the quartet as a force to be reckoned with.

“There was a bit of imposter syndrome because it was [a case of saying], ‘oh, how do I go from being ‘Becca the mum’, to… Do I even have that thing that was there before?” she ponders rhetorically, while reflecting on those first performances back. “But oh my gosh, it came straight back! I felt it in band practice, and it just felt good singing again. I had forgotten how much of a good outlet it is for me, and I felt so happy after singing. Every show was amazing, and I loved the humanness of it. I had just seen so much stuff online where everything [is] almost pop perfect and nothing goes wrong, so it was nice to see and be part of things going wrong. It’s just fun to be part of that again, and the best part is doing it sober and being present through the whole thing.”

After over seven years away and their plans finally very much in place for the coming months, what the band perhaps weren’t expecting was another surprise turn; Becca is pregnant again. “A newborn and a new era for the Marmozets!” she enthuses. “[But] doing a tour in your first trimester? I do not recommend that! Been there, done that, first tour back after eight years and it was nasty!”

Admitting that while the band was back on, their original plans for a second child were set to be put off for “a couple more albums”, they’re now instead focused on embracing the chaos and taking it one day at a time. “We’re kind of just rocking and rolling it all together,” Becca says. “That’s the thing, sometimes that is just life and everything happens at the same time. I was putting these things out there - ‘I want a baby, I want the band to get back together and write an album’ - and then it all happens at the same time.

“Some people might think I’m absolutely nuts having a kid and doing this, you know what I mean? But each to their own! I’ve thought about it a lot and I’m always up for a challenge.” A full circle moment for a band who have always had family at their heart, it’s impossible not to feel that - after such a long journey getting here - this is exactly where they’re meant to be.

‘CO.WAR.DICE’ is out now via Nettwerk.

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