I wanted to write briefly to thank everyone for the overwhelming amount of messages we have all had over the last week, even the handful of people I’ve bumped into since the announcement. So many stories about little events and crossovers of significance our band has had, accidentally or otherwise, with you in the last ten years or so. It’s all truly appreciated and really re-affirmed what an amazing time it has been. So, thank you.
On a personal note, The Maccabees always meant the absolute world to me. It has given me incredible purpose and been the place where I have lived out what were childhood dreams. I am very grateful for that. We were what I considered to be as authentic a band as you could get, from putting a band together in a bedroom as teenagers and learning between ourselves, literally starting being totally unable to play, to making four albums, writing and recording everything ourselves from the beginning to the end, touring the world and making the band our lives into our thirties. Part of being in a group that works is just the coincidence of the right collection of people meeting each other at the right time. It’s that little thing that just makes a band it’s own and inimitable. I believe we had that.
It was far from unblemished and, as tends to happen when you are learning in public, there were a lot of calamities, which though at the time were mortifying, with hindsight, are just really funny. Personally, given the chance I probably would take back shouting ‘FELIX!” down the microphone to a very silent but very full Birmingham NIA (supporting Ben Folds, ten years ago) when asked by someone in the front row, ‘What’s your name?”, him just trying to point out we hadn’t told the crowd what the band were called yet. It’s one of many.
Amongst those though, we made some huge strides, laughed a lot and were part of some really special shows. In the early days they were chaotic, drunk and frenetic, and in the latter they felt fully attentive, impassioned and multi-dimensional. Though the nature of the shows changed quite dramatically across the years I, almost always, felt borderline euphoric on stage with the band, looking across and seeing my brother, for a while both brothers even, and friends I had grown up with playing this music we had made and that I loved. Of course, there were more than a handful of really average gigs, some of which I’m sure you witnessed yourselves, but there were also no doubt some really magical ones too. When you have been part of something like that it is an absolute buzz, a really unexplainable thing. I used to walk around still fuelled by them, on top of the world, for weeks after they happened. Just as valuable to me as those over time were the never-ending hours travelling on buses, sleeping on airport floors, generally waiting around and turning killing time into an art form on tour between all of us, road crew and whoever else happened to be there. I wouldn’t be surprised if the waiting around, having moaned about it pretty much for the duration, is the thing I miss the most once we have had distance.
There were long spells too when making a record felt so impossible that we were never going to get out of it sane. We poured so much detail into the writing and the making that over the 14 years we probably made less music than we could have done. Sometimes we just felt like we were going backwards for months. But we always got there, always finished with evolved music, something different from the last and a progression of where we had been, and those records always took us to new places too. It wasn’t for everyone. But I loved it all. I really, honestly did. It’s where I learnt to play guitar, write music and have lived out my entire adult life until now. I’d recommend being in a band to anyone. I feel like we did it on our own terms and always immersed ourselves really passionately into what our group stood for. It was a magical time.
I’m looking forward to what is next. We’ll wait and see exactly what that is whilst the dust settles. The future is a bit unknown, but then again, it kind of always is. Thank you again to all those that shared in any of the good times over the years!!! The farewell shows should be great I hope.
See you soon and lots of love,
discoholicmusic
jacobvanloon
dededos
