Interview: Maupa

1:24pm Friday 8th August 2008

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By Martin Cooper »

DESCRIBING Maupa in their own words: “There’s loads of them and they’re from Accrington.”

When it sounds as good as this, the more the merrier I say.

Following on from their support of Echo and the Bunnymen at King Georges Hall, Blackburn, last Saturday I thought it best to give you the “what’s what” on Maupa.

It seems like everyone you speak to around the local scene knows the lads in some way, whether they’ve played alongside them, played with them or simply want to be near them.

I caught the band backstage at Darwen Live 2008 and was delighted to find they were as professional and well-oiled during interviews as they are on stage, a sign of a band who know exactly what they are aiming for and what they have to say.

When listening to their studio work, it’s clear there is a definite pathway through their tracks. It’s as if they’ve let the music discover itself through a natural selection process.

It’s an intricate tableau of carefully selected instrumentation, frank and untainted lyrical passages and a generally calming pace. It brings back the same thoughts and feelings I felt when I first heard The Verve’s Urban Hymns or This is My Truth Tell Me Yours by the Manic Street Preachers.

The vocal performances are as delicately decorative and as melodic as they can be without detracting from the main drive of the piece, which is the expert arrangement. It is important as a writer and musician to have a good arranger, or at least someone with an imaginative and intuitive ear. It can make or break a record.

Maupa have been clever enough to let the vocal act as part of the arrangement, almost as an accompanying instrument, and not to let it overpower the clever guitar riffs or off-beat drum segments that so delightfully construct the piece.

This isn’t to say the boys can’t create a great live gig. Don’t be under the impression that they are a doom and gloom outfit. Far from it, as the crowds who experienced Saturday’s gig would tell you.

They have as much ability and “va-va-voom” as any of their fellow scene dwellers.

With a real understanding of their niche, you can be assured that Maupa will continue to write and record great records and blast out live performances like they have in the past.

They are lined up to play the Nine Standards Festival, in Cumbria, in September, proving they are good enough to pack out the venues and impress the crowds.

If you’re a fan of soft-rock indie music then you’ll undoubtedly love Maupa.