Biography

Introduction

Maybeshewill is an instrumental rock band from Leicester, United Kingdom whose music is characterised by the use of programmed electronic elements alongside more traditional 'rock' instrumentation. From their inception the band have been recognised for their use of monologues and film samples as well as references to popular culture in their song titles.

The musicians which make up Maybeshewill have changed a number of times, with only guitarists Robin Southby and John Helps appearing on every release. However, current drummer James Collins has been with the band since their first tour. This revolving door of musicians was the inspiration behind the title of their debut LP Not For Want Of Trying.

According to press releases, the name Maybeshewill is simply a string of pleasant sounding syllables which have no intrinsic meaning - hence it's being spelt as a single word without spaces.

History

Maybeshewill was formed by guitarists Robin Southby and John Helps whilst the pair were studying together at university in 2005. They released their first record Japanese Spy Transcript on the band's own label, Robot Needs Home Records in 2006 with Tanya Byrne on bass guitar and Lawrie Malen on drums. The 4 track EP was well received by the press and attracted the attention of Nottingham's Field Records (also home to Public Relations Exercise) who released "The Paris Hilton Sex Tape" (taken from the record) as part of a split 7" single with Ann Arbor later that year.

In August 2006 a re-mastered version of Japanese Spy Transcript was released in Japan on the XTAL label (also home to Yndi halda) which was set up specifically for the release by The Media Factory Group. In October the band were joined by Kris Tearse on drums and guitarist Scott West (formerly of TEAM), but the pair left in January to begin work on deATH of LONdon. At this point the band also parted company with Tanya Byrne.

In May 2007, John and Robin began working with drummer James Collins (formerly a member of Fight Fire With Water) and bassist Andrew Jackson, along with a number of guest vocalists and musicians on an album entitled Not for Want of Trying. The record was released on Monday 12 May 2008 through Field Records, and was chosen by BBC Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens as his album of the week in its release week. 'The Paris Hilton Sex Tape' also featured on the cover CD of June's edition of Rock Sound magazine.

Thirteen months later on 7 June 2009 the band released their second LP Sing The Word Hope In Four-Part Harmony through Field Records, with Victoria Sztuka taking Andrew Jacksons place on bass guitar. This was a much shorter, heavier record which saw them continue to try to break away from the post-rock tag with which they are often labelled. The record was received well by both press and fans alike, but did recieve some criticism for failing to depart from the bands established sound substantially enough.

After the release of Sing The Word Hope, The band returned to the three-piece line-up of James Collins, John Helps and Robin Southby. Since then a number of friends of the band have filled in on live bass guitar duties, including Matt Daly from Leicester based post-hardcore band Buenos Aires.

As of August 2009 the band are known to be working on an album or mini-album for release in early 2010. The band have joked about a number of ideas for dramatic direction changes through their twitter feed (claiming that they will be emulating Dimmu Borgir For example), but have yet to reveal anything about the actual form the record will take.

Performing their material live is important for Maybeshewill, and consequently the band tour the UK regularly. This has seen them pair up with Fight Fire With Water, worriedaboutsatan, And So I Watch You From Afar, Death Of London and Cats & Cats & Cats on their many excursions. They also toured Japan in 2009 with Ovum. Although the band have yet to appear at many mainstream festivals, 2008 and 2009 saw them play The Summer Sundae Weekender twice, Truck Festival, Brainwash Festival and Dot To Dot in various cities around the UK.

Ethics and Ethos

The band have stated in a number of interviews that they are concerned about the state of the mainstream music industry and as such continue to work with 'DIY' label Field Records and release a lot of their music themselves through Robot Needs Home, and are learning to do the jobs that would normally be performed by managers and booking agents themselves.

All of Maybeshewill's musical output so far has been recorded by the band themselves at no cost. The band have claimed in interviews that they wanted to prove that it's possible to make music without spending any money. In the liner notes of Sing The Word Hope In Four-Part Harmony they published a brief guide to the approach that they take, as well as information on how they go about recording everything themselves.