We are so thrilled that The Manatees are hitting up The Bodega on the 8th October. They are gonna bring us bags of funky, rocky, fun rock bangers so we thought it’d only be sensible to meet ’em…
Hey Manatees! What a 2024 you had! You really thrusted yourselves further into the live music scene with a killer EP, you had massive shows and support slots, and plenty of festival appearances. I’m gonna have to ask you to pick a highlight though?
Ah thank you, 2024 was honestly crazy!! One of the best years we’ve had so far and so many highlights to pick from. Playing in a packed out Big Top at Truck Festival was massive for us. We’ve all grown up going to Truck. For guitar music, it’s one of the best festivals in the calendar, so to finally get to play it, with an audience that was spilling out of the tent, was incredible.
So you’re hitting the road in October with a stop off at our place on the way. You’re also got some dates spread out elsewhere across the year. Any new places you’re excited to visit? Anywhere you’re looking forward to returning to?
We’re playing Dublin for the first time, which we can’t wait for. It’s actually the first time in Ireland for a few of us. We’re looking forward to playing Nottingham again. We’ve only been there once before so it’ll be amazing to re-connect with fans there. London and Southampton are going to be huge too!
Set the scene. You’ve been asked to headline Wembley for three hot June evenings. You, and you alone, can pick a different dream support act for each of the nights. Who you picking and why?
Oh wow, that’s tough!! If this is sort of like our dream line up, then I’m going to pick artists that are many steps ahead of us. Wolf Alice would have to take night one. They’re one of those bands that seem to transcend everything else, you just know they’re going to be around for as long as they want to be. They’ve been a huge inspiration on us, particularly their album ‘Visions Of A Life’. I’m obsessed with Role Model at the moment, so he can take night two. He’s in a completely different world to us but his music is so happy. That track ‘Sally, When The Wine Runs Out’ is ridiculously good. Divorce can take night three, simply because I’d love to watch them. I have their album on every day at the moment. Crazy talented people!!
You’ve just released a new single, Without You, a couple of months ago. Congratulations! Tell us a bit about the tune. How do you want listeners to feel when spinning it?
Yeah!! Thank you! I wrote ‘Without You’ after watching ‘Submarine’, which is this coming-of-age, cult-classic indie movie for anyone who doesn’t know. One of the lines in the film was “none of this will matter when I’m 38”, which sparked the inspiration for ‘Without You’. I adore Submarine. It perfectly captures that melancholic, awkward, first encounter of love. A love you can become so carried away with, to the point that you would bleed, even die for someone. That’s the exact feeling I wanted ‘Without You’ to have. It’s intense, it’s obsessive, it’s vulnerable, but then it comes back to the idea that none of this will matter down the line, it’s just a fleeting moment. I find the idea quite comforting actually – if something’s not going to bother you in 15 years, or even next week, then it’s probably not worth worrying about now. I love taking inspiration from books, movies and other bits of art. I find the intertextuality between different formats super interesting.
We’ve still got a bit of a wait until you rock our place. A whole summer! You must have plans. Tell all! Anything with a tracklist on its way perhaps?
We’ve got a load of gigs and definitely lots of music to come well in time for the tour. We’re playing Victorious Festival which we can’t wait for. The line-up this year is mad and it’s only down the road from where we grew up, so that’s going to be a really special one.
From city to city, what will you be doing to entertain yourself? Got any games on your phone?
Between the 5 of us, we can chat a lot of nonsense, so we usually just occupy our time doing that. Listening to music of course. We like to ask Chat GPT some absurd questions, like “how much time would it take a snail to travel from London to Guildford?” (the answer is 2-3 months with breaks, by the way). Joe always brings his Nintendo Switch as well, a lot of Mario Kart and FIFA gets played on that thing.
Sounds like quite a tour bus! Thanks for chatting to us, guys.
The Manatees are playing at The Bodega on Wednesday 8th October and tickets are available here.
