Almost fifteen years after their original releases, we are making our first two albums – Not For Want of Trying and Sing the Word Hope in Four-Part Harmony – available for pre-order on vinyl for the first time.
Looking back from a decade and a half later they feel like the product of a different band and a different time. In many ways they are. Both were recorded in rehearsal rooms, spare bedrooms and borrowed spaces around our city with equipment we cobbled together and with a lot of help and contributions from friends and Leicester’s wider music community. We never imagined they would be heard by as many people as they have been and it is incredibly flattering and constantly surprising to us that they have been taken to heart as enthusiastically as they have been. That so many of you have asked us whether there will ever be a vinyl release of either album is genuinely incredible to us.
IMPORTANT: We’re releasing the two albums as pre-order items, primarily because we have no idea how many of you might want one or both of them. The manufacture of vinyl is a protracted process at the moment and we expect them to take a minimum of six months to be produced – perhaps a while longer. As they progress through the manufacturing process we will be in touch to confirm your delivery address to ensure they reach you wherever you end up after this time.
Maybeshewill stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, and are sickened by the actions of the Russian government.
We are releasing a limited edition cassette version of our album No Feeling is Final with 100% of profits going to The National Bank of Ukraine’s humanitarian aid account.
It feels like a pitifully small gesture but we want it to be a token, tangible physical object that exists exclusively to help facilitate raising money in this desperate time for the Ukrainian people.
We’ve made it pay what you want and encourage you to give as much as you can over the minimum price. We’ll make sure it’s passed directly on.
The video premieres over on our YouTube channel tonight at 6pm BST / 1pm ET.
The concept of ‘Refuturing’ describes the imagining of new futures, completely removed from any previously held notion of what lies ahead. With the climate destruction we are currently seeing across the globe, providing an alternative to the doomed planet scenario that is pervasive in the discourse surrounding climate change is a totally necessary action if we are to move forward with renewed optimism.
Taking its sonic cues from contemporary film scores and sound design, the track is an auditory vision of a future where we strive to change our relationship with the natural world and with one another in order to avert the worst effects of the climate crisis. The outro features a heartfelt improvised solo by saxophonist Marcus Joseph, ending the track on a tender, intimate note.
Tickets for our Islington Assembly Hall album release show on 11th December 2021 and our 2022 European tour are onsale now. We can’t wait to play this album live for you.
We’re pleased to finally be able to announce that Maybeshewill will play our first London headline show since 2016 at Islington Assembly Hall on Wednesday 15th December.
Tickets are on sale from Wednesday 16th June via Gigantic and Dice.
This month, our third record, I Was Here For A Moment, Then I Was Gone turns ten years old. All our releases have an important place in our hearts, but I Was Here For A Moment marked an important inflection point for Maybeshewill. We began the album tour playing to empty rooms in midlands towns, and ended it two years later supporting Dillinger Escape Plan at Nottingham’s Rock City. We were a changed band – not least because this was the first record with Jamie as a band member and taking the lead on production duties, but also because by the end of the tour Matt had joined us full time too. In many ways it’s the tenth anniversary of Maybeshewill as we exist today.
To mark the anniversary, we’re reissuing the album as a double LP through our own Robot Needs Home record label on heavy-weight black vinyl. The second LP includes b-sides and remixes from the original release, plus live versions of many of the tracks specifically mixed for this release. The whole record has been carefully re-mastered by Tom Woodhead, with some slight alterations to the original vinyl release to maximise sound quality. Importantly, with the release coming out on our own label it also allows us to reinvest as much as possible in working on a new record, which we hope to have news about soon.
When we approached Hannah Mosley, who illustrated the original album’s artwork, about re-working it for the reissue, she came up with the idea of completely re-drawing it to reflect the changes in her, and all of us, as artists during the intervening decade. She has lovingly reimagined the whole sleeve as a beautiful reflection on the original artwork.
Speaking about her role in the record, then and now, Hannah says;
“Every year since I created the artwork for I Was Here For A Moment, I’ve received lovely, heartfelt emails from Maybeshewill fans, reaching out to let me know how much they enjoyed my illustrations. In 18 years of putting out artwork, nothing else I’ve made has had people getting in touch a decade after its release. I think that speaks hugely to both the emotional place this album has occupied for a lot of fans, and to the fact that this was a really well matched collaboration.
“It feels pretty groovy to have drawn a small part of something that has woven into peoples’ lives and memories, and it feels even groovier to revisit it ten years on. Some things have changed; the lines a bit softer, the characters a little older, and the bicycle actually bicycle shaped. But the feeling remains the same.“
You can order the 10th anniversary version of the record now from our store, limited to 500 copies. Orders will also receive a digital version of the release in WAV and MP3 format with an additional live track.
Hannah has also kindly let us use her artwork on a pair of t-shirts and a print – something we’ve been asked for for a really long time. These will only be available while stocks last.
Due to the current delays with vinyl pressing, there will be a little time between your order and the physical items shipping out. The digital version will be available to download immediately.
The full track listing is as follows:
Side A 1. Opening 2. Take This to Heart 3. Red Paper Lanterns 4. Critical Distance 5. Accolades 6. An End To Camaraderie
Side B 1. Words for Arabella 2. Farewell, Sarajevo 3. Relative Minors 4. To The Skies, From A Hillside
Side C 1. Спутник-2 2. Rain 3. I’m in Awe Amadeus (Acoustic version) 4. To The Skies, From A Hillside (The Party Mushroom Remix) 5. Critical Distance (Dark Dark Horse Remix)
Side D Live in London 1. Opening 2. Take This To Heart 3. Red Paper Lanterns 4. Accolades 5. To The Skies From A Hillside
We are pleased to announce that we will be playing a special, one off show in the Queen Elizabeth Hall at London’s Southbank Centre as part of Robert Smith’s Meltdown on the 24th June.
We were incredibly flattered that Robert asked us to join the line-up and once the shock wore off we decided that, honestly, It’s not the sort of invitation you turn down.
As rehearsals get underway we’ll be able to tell you a bit more about what we have planned, but we’re delighted to be joined for the show by our friends iLiKETRAiNS.
When we announced the last tour we knew we wanted to document the final show at Koko. Partly that was for us – to have something to look back at in ten or twenty years and remember that moment – but we were also humbled by how many people wanted to see us one last time, and we know there are many who couldn’t. We’re incredibly lucky to be in that position.
We’ve worked on this with our long time collaborators WeTheConspirators, who have put so many hours in to getting it just right, and we can’t thank them enough for that. Our very own Jamie Ward has slaved over the audio to make sure the mix is as good as it can possibly be, and we think it sounds amazing. We never imagined we could produce something this ambitious on a shoestring budget, keeping everything within the small team we built up over the last decade. We hope it’s an adequate substitute for the real thing if you weren’t there, and an accurate document of that evening if you were.
We’re streaming the whole thing for free, but should you wish to download and keep a copy in HD, with uncompressed audio – that looks and sounds amazing – you can do just that. In return all we ask is a small voluntary charity donation, 100% of which will be sent to Friends of the Earth.
At this particular point in time more than ever we think it’s important to acknowledge the impact that we as humans are having on our planet and it’s climate. As a band our carbon footprint is embarrassingly large – predominantly through more air travel than we care to remember and thousands of miles in vans between shows – and If we can go some small way to offsetting that, we believe we should.
With this being our last chance to head out on the road we’ve thought long and hard about who we take with us, and we’re unbelievably excited to tell you who it will be.
It’s been really important to us that we have bands we love both musically and as people on all of these shows so for all the UK Shows, we will be joined by the the mighty YOU SLUT!who are reforming especially for this tour. They’ve been an influence on us as from very early on, and we’re so pleased that they’ve been able to make this work. We’ll also be joined by our Fair Youth touring brothers FLOOD OF RED in Glasgow, one of our earliest touring partners WORRIEDABOUTSATAN in Leeds and our home-town brothers and sister HER NAME IS CALLA for the Leicester show.
For the European dates we’ll be joined by our Leicester brothers SPEAKING IN ITALICSup to and including Berlin, and our Robot Needs Home Label mates WAKING AIDA from Berlin until the end of the tour. Lucky Berlin gets both bands.
In New York City we’re going to be joined by DRIFTOFF, who we absolutely cannot wait to see.
Just incase all that is incredibly confusing…
20.02.16 BOWERY BALLROOM, NEW YORK w/ Driftoff 25.02.16 FUZZ, ATHENS 26.02.16 THEATRE, MOSCOW 27.02.16 CLUB ZAL, ST PETERSBURG 29.02.16 ATLAS, KIEV 11.03.16 VK, BRUSSELS w/ Speaking In Italics 12.03.16 EXTASE @ 013, TILBURG w/ Speaking In Italics 13.03.16 EKKO, UTRECHT w/ Speaking In Italics 14.03.16 GEBAUDE9, COLOGNE w/ Speaking In Italics 15.03.16 MOLOTOW, HAMBURG w/ Speaking In Italics 16.03.16 CASSIOPEIA, BERLIN w/ Speaking In Italics & Waking Aida 17.03.16 HYDROZAGADKA, WARSAW w/ Waking Aida 18.03.16 KLUB FIRLEJ, WROCLAW w/ Waking Aida 20.03.16 NOD THEATRE, PRAGUE w/ Waking Aida 21.03.16 DURER KERT, BUDAPEST w/ Waking Aida 22.03.16 CHELSEA, VIENNA w/ Waking Aida 23.03.16 ROCKHOUSE, SALZBURG w/ Waking Aida 24.03.16 CIRCOLO MAGNOLIA, MILAN w/ Waking Aida 25.03.16 KIFF, AARAU w/ Waking Aida 26.03.16 BATOFAR, PARIS w/ Waking Aida 12.04.16 STEREO, GLASGOW w/ You Slut! & Flood of Red 13.04.16 THE BRUDENELL, LEEDS w/ You Slut! & Worriedaboutsatan 14.04.16 THE Y THEATRE, LEICESTER w/ You Slut! & Her Name Is Calla 15.04.16 KOKO, LONDON w/ You Slut!
Some shows are getting particularly close to selling out, notably the London final show which is down to well under 200 tickets – we won’t be upgrading this show it a bigger venue, so once they’re gone they’re gone! We’ll post up some videos and tracks by all the supports in the coming weeks. We really hope you can make it out to help us say goodbye in the best way possible.
Making a show in North America happen has been a challenge for Maybeshewill, but something we’ve wanted to do for a very long time. We’ve come so close on so many occasions, and with time finally running out we’ve decided that we have to make that leap, if there is any way we can.
We have announced a show at The Bowery Ballroom in New York City on the 20th February 2016.
Unfortunately we aren’t able to add any more shows whilst we’re over there, but we hope that this will at least allow a few of you to come and meet us in the middle.
TICKETS GO ON SALE WEDNESDAY 16TH DECEMBER AT 12:00 EST.
That said, this is a big leap for us, and we’re going to need your help if we’re going to make it happen – whether or not you’re able to make it to the show we’ve put together some packages of things we think you guys will like, and started a PLEDGE campaign which will help us offset some of the costs of flights and visas and all the stuff that goes along with playing a show on the other side of the world.
We’re not a band who take asking for this sort of thing from our fans lightly, so we’ve tried to put together some things that we think you guys would be genuinely interested in having – especially as we’re increasingly aware that there are people we won’t be able to see on the final tour, and who might never be able to see us live – so whether or not you’re based in North America, hopefully there are some things here that will interest you, and maybe you can help get us that little bit closer to playing for as many people as possible before our time is up.
Amongst other things we’ve got an exclusive t-shirt design which will only be available to pledgers, two huge backdrops from previous Maybeshewill tours, and a whole selection of stuff which you can get signed to whoever you wish, including full final tour posters which will also only be available here.
