Stone Cold Publishing Artists - Maggie8
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- Maggie8
1 albums, 9 tracks by Maggie8
About Maggie8
Maggie8 are a six-piece outfit comprising vocalist and bassist Nivedita Pisharoty, banjo and vocalist Mark Wright, trumpet/melodica player Dominic Hand, James Mann on guitar, Peter Mottram on keyboards and Edward Ruttley on Drums.
I'd been invited round to their house to have a chat and watch band practice. When I arrived at 'Maggie8 mansions', I was surprised to find an incredibly warm and inviting family home, very tidy with the faint smell of incense and home cooking. I was ushered into the living room and given the best seat in the house. I nestled into the very comfy sofa with my cup of tea ready to find out more about this unusual outfit.
Their style of music is difficult to summarise. On first listen they have definite folk tendencies. After one or two listens there are clearly so many different influences in there. Niv (Nivedita) describes them as 'a little bit pop, a little bit folk, Hindustani classical with some old Bollywood tinges.' The band, in its current incarnation, formed roughly two years ago. Niv had come from Madras to study in England and had been here for three years when she decided she wanted to learn to play guitar. After buying a cheap guitar on the internet, she advertised for a guitar teacher. Mark Wright replied to her advert and they soon discovered they both had a mutual love of similar music and so formed a band. Dominic, James, Ed and Pete joined shortly afterwards.
Collectively Maggie8 grew up listening to a wide variety of music - John Coltrane, Led Zeppelin, Aphex Twin, The Housemartins and a mix of bollywood and classical Indian ragas courtesy of Niv's dad. They create beautiful, ethereal music that is both calming and stirring at the same time. I asked them how they manage to create such an interesting sound, We're all really temperamental people, sometimes we feel like creating music to dance to, other times we are more reflective. We believe that music should be diverse and free, without constraints. A lot of music is lacking in that, and is bound by rules. Our songs happen quite organically, mostly we will start by jamming on bongos and see where it takes us. We record all of our jam sessions, listen back to them and pick out the best bits. They have a small but dedicated following, and although they play fairly regularly, they feel that they do not fit anywhere in the Leeds scene.