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Free champagne and bonkers fans - Marmozets discuss supporting Muse on tour
A last-minute offer led Marmozets to cancelling SXSW appearances, but “we’d rather play with Muse, to be quite honest,” says Becca Macintyre.
“We were scared as soon as we walked in the building, because we always feel like we’re going to get in trouble,” admits Becca Macintyre from Marmozets as she recounts her first of supporting Muse at Belfast’s Ulster Hall. It’s a experience she, along with the rest of Marmozets, are set to repeat for an entire week as they tour the UK as main support to the stadium botherers’ comeback.
“It’s very surreal,” starts Becca. “We’ve just come off our headline tour where our fans mosh with us, have a laugh and a good time. We’re very open, free and while we do give a shit about what we do, we’re very careless. Then we walk into this bloody beautiful building. Ulster Hall is this big posh building that doesn’t even feel like a venue and there’s a massive gold organ in the back, behind the backdrop, so we’re just trying to be nice and not get in anyone’s way really. It was just really strange but the show went down well, the fans loved us and we got a really good response, then we went on the balcony and watched Muse for an hour and a half so we can’t really complain. It was pretty special.”
Needless to say, Muse are big fans. Dominic Howard and Chris Wolstenholme watched their set from the side of stage and gave them two really nice bottles of champagne (still unopened) as way of thank you for joining the tour.
“It wasn’t daunting,” explains Becca, on confronting a new crowd of bonkers Muse fans. “It was just like starting from the beginning again. You’re going out there and giving that 10% more than you would because you know, potentially, you could win some fans here. The whole point of our music is to share what we do and what we have to say as a band. It’s very emotional and I really love to connect with the crowd, it doesn’t matter if it’s two people or five thousand. We got a really good reaction. It was just a room full of people bashing their heads back and forth and everyone had a smile on their face, we pretty much got the same reaction as Muse so it was really, really good.”
Aside from picking up new fans, touring with “one of the world’s biggest rock bands,” offers the chance for Marmozets to learn a thing or two. “We get to watch Muse every night and it’s pretty inspiring seeing how solid they are and watching Matt play,” Becca says. “Their sound is ridiculous. They probably have the best sound I’ve ever heard in my entire life. I know they’ve been in LA for weeks doing production for this tour and it’s totally paid off. Their sound is impeccable. They’re definitely a live band; it’s just all riffs, all the time.”
This opportunity hasn’t come without sacrifice though, as Marmozets have had to cancel appearances at this year’s SXSW festival to do the tour. “We might never get the opportunity to do this,” Becca exclaims. “We got offered the tour and then we had to wait for ages but when we found out, ‘Shit, this is awesome.’ We work hard and we know we wanted to do this Muse tour because it needs to be done. Our fans have said about it being disappointing but you have to pay a shitload of money to be able to come to SXSW, it’s not like a gig. We’re going straight back to America after this tour and we’re going to the same place as SXSW so people can come see us then. The thing about SXSW is that playing it doesn’t make much sense to me. Basically it’s a set up by people who are obsessed with the music industry and that side of it. It’s a showcase that basically shows us off as a piece of meat. You get a load of free shit but we’d rather play with Muse, to be quite honest.”
Photo: Sarah-Louise Bennett / DIY.
Marmozets are supporting Muse for the entire run of UK shows - dates:
19 Newport, Centre
20 Exeter, Great Hall
22 Manchester, Academy
23 Brighton, Home
Muse will play Bilbao BBK Live (9th-11th July), where DIY is an official media partner. Tickets are on sale now. Visit diymag.com/presents for more information.
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