Orlando Weeks, lead singer of The Maccabees (themselves on high after scoring a big hit with their third album…Hey, number 4 in the UK charts is big, OK?), has just brought out Young Colossus, an illustrated book with a six-song soundtrack. It tells the story, using only songs and illustrations, of the androgynous Young Colossus, who is chased through a rural landscape by some gnarly creature. I found Orlando’s phone number on a toilet wall, so I called him to ask…WHAZZZZUUUP?!Noisey: Hello, matie. Is Young Colossus meant to be a children’s book?
Orlando: No, the book was meant to help make sense of the music in the way that the music would help make sense of a wordless book. Those books I had when I was younger with tapes, where there’d be a “Beep, turn the page” and you’d follow it through--that made sense to me.So, the music came first?
It became a thing that I started using as a break from writing for The Maccabees. I could do this thing and sing something and pitch it up and down so it didn’t sound like me. The first character was created like that, the story grew around him, and then, when I pitched other bits up or down, other characters emerged.So it’s like a love letter to pitching?
The pitching became…Your obsession…
Haha. Yeah, it just became so nice not to worry about it. When you’re not thinking of how you are going to turn that initial bit into something, you don’t lose that feeling of achievement.You have an idea and you are excited about it, but then you have to knuckle down to the nuts and bolts of it.
Yeah, it was a break from my 9-to-5. And so it was great. It was light relief.That can be the pull quote: “My light relief. Buy it!” At what point did the idea of a book come about?
Nic Nell and I had made a six song EP which wasn’t 100% finished. We hadn’t decided we needed Alessi Laurent-Marke to come and sing the character voice, but we had a thing. The main body of the story--surviving a night in the wilderness and there being a chase-- that was there. I wanted to get some Bruce Parry stuff in there, throw in a little Ray Mears. Then I went into the Nobrow shop and there was a book by Rob Hunter called The New Ghost, which was perfect.So, what’s the main thrust of the story?
Well, like in Neverending Story or Peter Pan, there’s this idea that you survive the night and you wake up on the other side. The music becomes dark and then goes light again. It felt like you could fit a story into that.When you read the book then, you are listening to the music at the same time?
Ideally, although that’s probably a bit naïve…In the same way that everyone has an idea of how they want their music to be listened to…Like, with a glass of red wine and your lady friend…
Exactly! And it’s very presumptuous assume that everyone will have done that. But that felt like a good starting point.What would be the ideal listening situation for the last Maccabees album then? In the club, with the champagne popping?
Well, I’ve only listened to it all the way through once and that was in the back of a car from Woodbridge in Suffolk to London. I really enjoyed that, so it was enough for me. It still felt very much like…Like you were listening to your life ending?
Haha, yeah. I could just about get over the fact that it was the band I’m in. I just wasn’t judging it.But with Young Colossus you still wanted to feel like you’d left it all out on the floor. Given it all you could for the team.
Oh yeah! It’s that first moment when you make something. Coming up with an initial loop and then leaving it for three days because I can pat myself on the back and think, “Well done, me.” And then you never use the loop or you forget it! But for that short second, it’s a really nice thing. The rest of it is, like you said, the nuts and bolts. This was a real collaboration and, you know, a problem shared is a problem halved. We’re killing the clichés at the moment.I like to make sure my interviews are at least 50% clichés. Have you worked this stuff out with The Maccabees as well?
Yeah, I think the experience I’ve got from being in a band has helped in my understanding of how to work with people, even if it just means I’m quicker to notice when I’ve done something totally inappropriate. It just means I know sooner when something’s gone down badly!
If the Noisey Kids™ reviewed “Young Colossus,” what would you hope they’d think about it and what would you tell them if they didn’t like it?
I’d hope that they’d think it was fine…Come on man. Don’t clam up.
I’m not… clamming… up!Say something incendiary.
I hate…“Children!” Tell them that if they don’t like Young Colossus, they probably like Mein Kampf!
Haha!I’ll take that as tacit acceptance. You did this all as well as doing the new Maccabees album. You’re not really a sitting on the beach kind of guy are you?
No, I don’t really like being in the sun. I’d rather it be cold. God, I’m miserable! I’ve definitely had my time when I’ve not done a great deal though. I can dine out on 12 seconds recorded on a phone, then go out for a couple of days and still think, “Yep, yep, I’m the man!”Like, “There’s more in that than most people produce in a lifetime!”
Haha. You do this terrible thing of lying to yourself that you’ve achieved. But you need that on tour. Now, I try and make a little rubber stamp every day that I’m on tour so there’s proof that I’ve done something on that day. That sounds appalling when I say it out loud.Haha. You’re the worst. But you know, that’s why I send emails. To know I’m alive! So, one last word on Young Colossus…
Well, I do just think that I would want it if I hadn’t made it.That and it’s a bloody masterpiece.
That goes without saying. I want to thank everyone as well. Particularly God. And the guy upstairs. And our Good Lord. And God.Always remember the big guy, from whence we came. Thanks Orlando!
Thanks buddy!@oscarrickettnow
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Orlando: No, the book was meant to help make sense of the music in the way that the music would help make sense of a wordless book. Those books I had when I was younger with tapes, where there’d be a “Beep, turn the page” and you’d follow it through--that made sense to me.So, the music came first?
It became a thing that I started using as a break from writing for The Maccabees. I could do this thing and sing something and pitch it up and down so it didn’t sound like me. The first character was created like that, the story grew around him, and then, when I pitched other bits up or down, other characters emerged.So it’s like a love letter to pitching?
The pitching became…Your obsession…
Haha. Yeah, it just became so nice not to worry about it. When you’re not thinking of how you are going to turn that initial bit into something, you don’t lose that feeling of achievement.You have an idea and you are excited about it, but then you have to knuckle down to the nuts and bolts of it.
Yeah, it was a break from my 9-to-5. And so it was great. It was light relief.That can be the pull quote: “My light relief. Buy it!” At what point did the idea of a book come about?
Nic Nell and I had made a six song EP which wasn’t 100% finished. We hadn’t decided we needed Alessi Laurent-Marke to come and sing the character voice, but we had a thing. The main body of the story--surviving a night in the wilderness and there being a chase-- that was there. I wanted to get some Bruce Parry stuff in there, throw in a little Ray Mears. Then I went into the Nobrow shop and there was a book by Rob Hunter called The New Ghost, which was perfect.
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Well, like in Neverending Story or Peter Pan, there’s this idea that you survive the night and you wake up on the other side. The music becomes dark and then goes light again. It felt like you could fit a story into that.When you read the book then, you are listening to the music at the same time?
Ideally, although that’s probably a bit naïve…In the same way that everyone has an idea of how they want their music to be listened to…Like, with a glass of red wine and your lady friend…
Exactly! And it’s very presumptuous assume that everyone will have done that. But that felt like a good starting point.What would be the ideal listening situation for the last Maccabees album then? In the club, with the champagne popping?
Well, I’ve only listened to it all the way through once and that was in the back of a car from Woodbridge in Suffolk to London. I really enjoyed that, so it was enough for me. It still felt very much like…Like you were listening to your life ending?
Haha, yeah. I could just about get over the fact that it was the band I’m in. I just wasn’t judging it.But with Young Colossus you still wanted to feel like you’d left it all out on the floor. Given it all you could for the team.
Oh yeah! It’s that first moment when you make something. Coming up with an initial loop and then leaving it for three days because I can pat myself on the back and think, “Well done, me.” And then you never use the loop or you forget it! But for that short second, it’s a really nice thing. The rest of it is, like you said, the nuts and bolts. This was a real collaboration and, you know, a problem shared is a problem halved. We’re killing the clichés at the moment.
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Yeah, I think the experience I’ve got from being in a band has helped in my understanding of how to work with people, even if it just means I’m quicker to notice when I’ve done something totally inappropriate. It just means I know sooner when something’s gone down badly!
I’d hope that they’d think it was fine…Come on man. Don’t clam up.
I’m not… clamming… up!Say something incendiary.
I hate…“Children!” Tell them that if they don’t like Young Colossus, they probably like Mein Kampf!
Haha!I’ll take that as tacit acceptance. You did this all as well as doing the new Maccabees album. You’re not really a sitting on the beach kind of guy are you?
No, I don’t really like being in the sun. I’d rather it be cold. God, I’m miserable! I’ve definitely had my time when I’ve not done a great deal though. I can dine out on 12 seconds recorded on a phone, then go out for a couple of days and still think, “Yep, yep, I’m the man!”Like, “There’s more in that than most people produce in a lifetime!”
Haha. You do this terrible thing of lying to yourself that you’ve achieved. But you need that on tour. Now, I try and make a little rubber stamp every day that I’m on tour so there’s proof that I’ve done something on that day. That sounds appalling when I say it out loud.Haha. You’re the worst. But you know, that’s why I send emails. To know I’m alive! So, one last word on Young Colossus…
Well, I do just think that I would want it if I hadn’t made it.That and it’s a bloody masterpiece.
That goes without saying. I want to thank everyone as well. Particularly God. And the guy upstairs. And our Good Lord. And God.Always remember the big guy, from whence we came. Thanks Orlando!
Thanks buddy!@oscarrickettnow