“The chemistry between us is better than ever”

John Helps, Maybeshewill

Maybeshewill are no strangers to Ech(((o)))es and Dust. We reviewed their third album ‘I Was Here For A Moment Then I Was Gone’ back in May 2011 and they've been on the road to promote it for 18 months. April 22nd will see a release of a film documenting that tour. Before they kick off their festival season on the 20th of April in Bristol and London, Magda Wrzeszcz chatted to John Helps, the guitarist, about the film, the upcoming summer and Maybeshewill’s future plans.

(((o))): You’re just about to release ‘Maybeshewill: Live at The Y Theatre’, documenting your final show of ‘I Was Here For A Moment Then I Was Gone’ tour. Can you tell us a little bit more about the release?

John: We’ve tried a couple of times to capture our live shows to release for people who for whatever reason can’t make it to see us in the flesh, but we finally got what we were aiming for with this film. It was recorded at the last show of the last tour for our most recent album so we’ve tried to focus on that record and make it a document of the time we spent on the road touring that. We’ve seen our friends pour a great deal of time and love in to it, and it feels like a real collaborative effort - so we’re incredibly proud to be finally releasing it. It was filmed with five or six cameras and totally multi-tracked and mixed by Jamie, who produced ‘I Was Here For A Moment’, so it sounds really great (I personally think some bits sound better than the earlier albums to be honest). He has a real care and attention to detail and it’s benefited from it.

(((o))): The film was recorded by your long-time friends WeTheConspirators - how did that relationship start and how have you been conspiring since?

John: Fraser and Ross West, the two brothers who make up WeTheConspirators, have been close friends of ours for almost as long as we’ve been a band and they’ve made virtually every bit of video we’ve ever released (with the notable exception of Critical Distance). The two videos for To The Skies and Red Paper Lanterns are the most obvious bits of work, but they’re always there in the background working alongside us. They’ve made videos for Matt and Jamie’s bands (Buenos Aires and Dark Dark Horse respectively) so the connection extends beyond just Maybeshewill. Literally everything they touch turns to gold, which I think is even a bit of an understatement. Fraser in particular has been working his editing fingers to the bone going through the hours of footage and audio we’ve dumped in his lap. We genuinely couldn’t be more grateful to them.





Maybeshewill - Co-Conspirators // Live at The Y Theatre Trailer from Robot Needs Home on Vimeo.

(((o))): The film comes out exactly 5 months after the show it documents - how do you remember the tour and what made the Y Theatre performance extra special?

John: Yeah, it’s been a long road getting this far with it! We’ve actually been enjoying the time since that last show spending a bit of time in our home town, back at work earning some money for a change, so it’s taken a little while to come around. The tours for that record were amazing - on a personal level having the five of us out together for a year has been surprisingly easy. The chemistry between us is better than ever, and I miss travelling with the boys when we’re not touring. That show felt like an achievement - to have been out on various stints for so long and to get to come back to our home town and show people what we’d become over that time felt rewarding. There was a bit of a celebratory vibe to it - once we’d loaded all our gear back to our lockup, we cracked open a bottle of £3 Russian champagne from the news agents next to the venue and had a little private toast. I think that was a fitting Maybeshewill celebration. Understated and ridiculous.

(((o))): Now the tour promoting the album is over it certainly looks like you’re about to have quite a busy festival schedule! Which festivals are you most looking forward to play, what do you expect to be your highlight?

John: There’s a little list of dates on our website which will remain more up to date than this interview, so pop over there and check. We’ve got Hit The Deck and Denovali SwingFest in Bristol, London and Nottingham this weekend, followed closely by Live at Leeds later in the month. It’s pretty wicked to be able to play such a diverse range of festivals: from punk and hardcore to experimental to prog and super indie shows. You’re never bored of bands, for sure. You should never choose favourites, but I’m particularly looking forward to ArcTanGent at the back end of the summer - partly because we’ll have done so much between now and then, but also because it’s run by some incredible people. Dour, which we’re playing in Belgium has an incredible line-up, and at Greenville in Germany we get to play on the same day as the Wu Tang Clan, so virtually every festival has its positives to look forward to. I think it’s going to be a good summer.

(((o))): One of the festivals is Handmade in your hometown Leicester, and you’re the curator yourself - how did that happen? What’s the festival about?

John: Well, I’ve always been heavily involved in our city’s music scene (as have the rest of the guys as well), and Handmade is the culmination of ten years of learning how to put on shows. Picking the line-up and choosing the weird venues to put people in was really fun, but now it’s down to the nitty gritty of festival organisation and I’m going to start losing my hair I think. The basic idea is: awesome bands playing shows across the city centre in venues and ‘reclaimed’ spaces that wouldn’t normally be home to live music - including Leicester’s historic Guildhall, literally feet from where they found Richard III, and where they’re currently hosting an exhibition on him. We’re using a library and a church and various other spaces. The headliners are Rolo Tomassi, Dutch Uncles, The Twilight Sad, Nine Black Alps, Sam Duckworth, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Johnny Foreigner, Arcane Roots and loads of brilliant, brilliant Leicester bands. We’ve got Robin Ince, Rob Deering and James Acaster doing comedy and photographers and artists exhibiting their work in unusual ways as well... Pretty much trying to challenge people’s expectations of what a festival is. I talk too much about it because I’m really proud of it, but we’ll see if anyone else shows up on the weekend, hey? Ha ha!

(((o))): Ech(((o)))es and Dust team is gearing up for ArcTanGent, looking at it as a great display of everything that’s good on the current post-rock/prog scene - what are your thoughts about it? Why did you favour it over your almost ritual 2000 Trees?

John: Believe me, it wasn't a case of favouring it! 2000 Trees has blown my mind for three years running - the audience there is beyond incredible, and it’s one of our favourite festivals by far. This year James and the guys from Trees came to us and said they were working on a new project and asked if we’d play that instead. We trust them to create something great and the line up so far is frankly unbelievable so we’re very glad we did. I’m sure we’ll be back at Trees again soon, but to have two festivals with the quality of acts and all round ethos that they do is amazing. We’re proud to have been asked to be part of the first one.

(((o))): Last but not least - you've been slowly introducing new songs during your recent gigs. How is the fourth album looking up and what can we expect from the musical side?

John: It’s a slow process but we’re starting to get there. We took a bit of time apart from each other (I say that in the loosest sense of the word as I live with Robin and see Matt, Jim and Jamie on a near weekly basis anyway) to get out of tour mode, recover, earn some money and do all the ‘real life’ stuff we have to squeeze in somewhere, but we’re back to living in each other’s pockets down at our lockup, working on the ideas that people are bringing to the practices. Hopefully we’ll be able to start recording those ideas soon.