Thom And Joe caught up with Felix White and Robert Dylan Thomas from The Maccabees at The Old Fire Station in Bournemouth for the bands second interview of the year for Alternative Vision.

What have you been up to today?
(Felix) Just turning up, and yeah, eating, pistachio nuts. Nothing of much interest at all.
Had a wander about Bournemouth, or not?
(Felix) No, haven't managed to, yet.
(Rob) I heard there's a cool beach here.
Yeah, the weather's not really for it today though. But it's about five minutes walk, ) But the weather's meant to be nice tomorrow, if you're still down?
(Felix) Oh we've got the London Astoria tomorrow night, so.
Yeah, you're near the end of your tour now?
(Felix) Yeah.
How's it gone?
(Felix) Oh it's been amazing. Definitely the best Maccabees tour ever, like, it's been erm, some of them have just been a bit overwhelming, almost a thousand people everywhere, so, you know what I mean, all the iconic places we've wanted to headline one day, like the Leadmill...
(Rob) Manchester Academy 2.
(Felix) Yeah Manchester Academy 2, and all places like that, we've supported big bands before... And it will be an amazing atmosphere, so we're well happy with how it's gone. But the big one's tomorrow.
What's it looking like, is it sold out?
(Felix) Yeah sold out a month ago.
Your album's finally out, were you nervous about it coming out?
(Felix) Relieved to get it out there, more than anything.
(Rob) Quite nerve-racking, wondering how it's going to do, and the chart positions and everything.
(Felix) It's nice to know that you've got a record out and in twenty years time you'll still be able to find it, do you know what I mean? Like, whatever we get up to now, that's out, we've done it, we're pretty proud of it.
(Rob) It's nice to go to HMV and have your own section as well. We're in between two shit people, like McFly and someone else.
You've made it, Are you pleased with how it's done so far?
(Felix) I think it's doing alright, we don't know where it's going to end up, it hasn't even been out for a week yet.
There's been quite a lot of hype about it, I've read some reviews...
(Felix) Yeah the reviews have been really good.
(Rob) But we try not to think about that sort of thing.
(Felix) It's not our job, we can't do anything about how may records it sells. So yeah we'll see what happens.
The album release came quite late in the tour, whereas maybe most bands would release, and then tour to promote it, is there a reason for that?
(Felix) No, it's just classic Maccabees of being quite backwards and not very organised, and fucking things up quite often.
(Rob) But the download had come out before.
(Felix) Most people seem to have heard the album who have been to the gigs. I think that's another reason why it's been such a good tour, because people know a few songs or whatever.
(Rob) Yeah it's good having people knowing the songs.

When we first interviewed you it was the first day you had your tour bus, is it still in one piece?
(Rob) We've got a different one now.
Already?!
(Rob) Yeah after a week the novelty goes, and you can't go to the toilet, and quite a few of us have had bad stomachs.
(Felix) "Dave, I need to stop now, need to stop now, stop the bus!"
(Rob) It's not as luxurious as it seems.
(Felix) The toilet wreaks. Like, you cannot believe how bad, just a puddle of piss travelling around with you, can end up smelling like.
(Rob) If you're really desperate and need a shit you've gotta stick a black bag down there and just go for it.
(Felix) And store it somewhere.
Launch it out the window on the M25.
(Rob) It aint all glamour basically.
What's the new one like?
(Rob) I dunno, I suppose the old one was cooler. Not as in "oh that's cool," just as in, not as hot. Do you know what I mean. But I'll be relieved to be back home again, to be honest.

When this all finishes, there's not much of a break between this and going off to America with Bloc Party is there?
(Rob) That's all up in the air at the moment.
(Felix) Something about our VISAs. So we don't know if we're going or not but I desperately want to go to America.
Not been there?
(Felix) No I haven't.
Not been out to South by South-west?
(Felix) Nah, Hugo the other guitar player had to have his tonsils out at the time, so we missed out on that. But we sold out a show in New York already with the Noisettes so we need to get to that one.
Would be good to go to Orlando as well, for obvious reasons.
(Felix) Lots of photo opportunities, yeah.

You're playing the festivals as well, quite a lot of them.
(Felix) Yeah we have. Had an amazing time at the festivals last year.
(Rob) Saw the Strokes yeah.
(Felix) Yeah Reading was the first time that we thought, we realised, fucking hell, people like us.
(Rob) We stepped out at Reading not really expecting much.
[a sound check starts, it's bloody noisy.]
(Felix) We can go through that door if you want, sit on the steps over there do you reckon...
[so we relocated to an excitingly less comfortable stairwell.]
Where were we, oh yeah, festivals, Reading, yeah.
(Rob) Yeah when we stepped out on stage at Reading, we were like, just had no expectations of it being as good as it was. So when people embraced us it was like, wow, what's going on.
(Felix) It's always good for your ego to see your name on the posters.
(Rob) Back of the t-shirt as well.
(Felix) I remember, like, when you're fifteen you get the Reading poster and looking at all the bands.
What one are you looking forward to the most?
(Felix) Glastonbury.
(Rob) Glastonbury, yeah. Looking forward to one we're doing in Sweden(?) as well.
Couple of Spanish ones too? Benicassim?
(Felix) No, not that one.
(Rob) I can't remember what it's called.

So you've got Jack Penate supporting you tonight? Old friend I hear.
(Felix) Yeah, I went to school with Jack, and we've known him for a very long time, so this has just been, well, we've always played together, we helped out Jack for a year and a half, putting him on when no-one knew who he was so it's nice to have that final tour where both of us are doing really well, and yeah, I think Jack's going to be a massive pop-star, so we're just happy to spend some time with him now before it all proper blows off for him. Blows off? Blows up, for him.
He's got quite a lot of hype around him at the moment.
(Rob) Yeah, he has.
It's quite a massive gig for here, you know, Maccabees and Jack Penate.
(Felix) We went with Jamie T and it felt like a real, you know what I mean, everyone was there to see both people, it was quite a big deal, we just wanted to see the same thing again, proper good nights of music. There were loads of bands we could have brought, but it's not about choosing someone you think you can play better than, we just wanted to put on some great nights of music. So hopefully that's what we'll do.

What do you think to Six Nation State?
(Rob) They're great. We've known them quite a while now, maybe a couple of years.
(Felix) They're just a really fun band.

So what's the wildest story from the tour thus far?
(Felix) Rob got someone climbing on the drum kit in Leeds.
(Rob) Oh yeah, yeah. He got through and like, knocked a tom over.
(Felix) And bouncers love that kind of stuff because they can really get involved when someone does that.
(Rob) They can exercise their frustration.

Especially up north.
(Felix) Yeah.
(Rob) I dunno, every night's just been fun, because the gigs have been so good.
Have you had many days off this tour?
(Felix) Not really. A few.?
(Rob) Three days off in thirty days.
Would you rather carry on every day or days off or...?
(Rob) I think when you're touring it's good to only have a day off...
(Felix) You wanna keep going.
(Rob) But at the same time it'd be nice to get home and see your friends, and chill out a bit for a few days.
What's been your favourite date on the tour? Favourite city?
(Felix) Islington maybe.
(Rob) Sheffield was good.
(Felix) Sheffield was amazing. Manchester was amazing. Like for us, going up north, because we've been going alright down south for quite a while, and so to go up north and to have people going as if it was home town, that's been the most rewarding thing.
(Rob) Leeds was particularly good as well.
I read on your blog that you saw the Klaxons while you were up in Newcastle, any good?
(Felix) We did see the Klaxons yeah.
Are you fans of theirs?
(Felix) We think the albums is really good, but they were, well, there was a lot of people on pills.
(Rob) Yeaaah.
(Felix) And there was a lot of glow sticks, so it made for quite a spectacle.
(Rob) Yeah it looked really cool, and obviously they've got some great songs. So yeah we enjoyed it.
Did you see many other bands while on tour? Or is that a rarity?
(Rob) Very rare yeah, so busy. Saw Chas n Dave.
(Felix) Oh, got to see Interpol last night actually. Which was fucking unbelievable.

Heard a few acoustic songs of yours, thought about releasing them or putting them out as b-sides?
(Felix) We put a few acoustic ones out as b-sides yeah. It's just nice to have another angle on it. When we play acoustic versions we aren't trying to play the same thing, but, because more often than not, that sounds shit, so we just, you know.
Thought about doing them live?
(Felix) We are doing two of the quieter songs from the album tonight.
Toothpaste Kisses? That wasn't on the other tour.
(Felix) Now people have heard it. Before, when we play a quieter song people would go off to the bar or whatever.
Last time we spoke you said it was your favourite song off the album but you didn't play it live because you couldn't recreate it?
(Rob) I didn't think we could but it's going pretty well.
(Felix) Orlando plays guitar, and he didn't think he could play the four chords in time, but he's doing a good job now.
[Just then, Orlando walks through and up the stairs.]
(Felix) Just talking about your wonderful exploits on the guitar.
(Orlando) Yeah I'm sick.
Have you sorted out All In Your Rows? You were having a bit of trouble with that...
(Rob) Oh, for fucks sake. That was horrible last tour, I couldn't get my head around it. Yeah it's fine now. I'll probably fuck it up tonight now.
What's that song in sound-check, someone having a nice face?
(Felix) Oh that's Joel our sound guy.
(Rob) He's got a small face.
(Felix) He's got a really little face. So we like singing it to him in front of thirty people he doesn't know. Just to embarrass him really, more than anything.
(Rob) Orlando was going to get everyone to sing it in Glasgow but we thought better of it and went into the next song.

Do you get annoyed when you get referred to as a Brighton band even though you aren't actually from Brighton? Because it annoys him. [pointing to Joe.]
(Rob) Yeah, I get a bit annoyed. But it doesn't matter really.
(Felix) Most of us are from South London, but we've got nothing against Brighton.
Is that where you're going to go back to after the tour?
(Felix) Yeah.
(Rob) Back for a few days then off to America.
It's been pretty hectic really, touring January and February, then March...
(Felix) Hugo's tonsils.
Then now, America, the festivals, any plans for the end of the year?
(Rob) October there should be more touring. Maybe try and write part of the next album.
(Felix) Quite keen to get the next record out, really quickly. Bands like the Coral are quite good at that. Not plugging stuff to much, we've been playing this for two years now, you know, you wanna keep productive.
You don't want to write new stuff and then still be back touring old stuff.
(Felix) Exactly.
You've written all these new songs but you just can't play them.
(Felix) Yeah yeah exactly. But it's healthy for a band to keep writing, so that's what we'll do.
Do you all give equal contributions to the new songs?
(Felix) It's the same, we always write them together. Sometimes Orlando will have the verse, or some lyrics, two notes on a guitar or a bass-line, or something, and then people have riffs and Rob's got ideas for the beats, and then it ends up being the song somewhere along the line. But we all write them together Or sometimes Orlando has most of the song, we just fill it out a bit.

What's "Good Old Bill" about? Is it about a guy called Bill, or the Police?
(Rob) A guy called Bill, (laughing,) it's not about the Police. It's basically about Orlando's granddad, he owned a traction engine, and on the day he died, was the first day the traction engine broke down. Strange story.

I think that's about it, we're kind of dry on questions as we only met you like, a month ago, We'll ask the classic though. Do you like lemon meringue?
(Rob) Do I like lemon meringue? I don't think I've ever had it.
I think we asked you last time.
(Felix) I always think I don't like it at all. The texture is all, you know what I mean, and it looks like polystyrene, but actually it's well nice.
(Rob) I've never tried it, probably never will.
Stick it on the rider, the next place you go, and indulge.
(Felix) Dabble in the lemony goodness.
You guys heading into Bournemouth after the show?
(Rob) Might go watch some Curb Your Enthusiasm on the bus.
(Felix) Is there a Nandos around here?
Erm, KFC, Subway, Kebab place. That's about it.
(Felix) Wonderful.
Anything else you'd like to say to my Dictaphone?
(Rob) That is a great Dictaphone.
It does the job.

Interview by Thom and Joe