In Conversation With Maribou State

It’s funny seeing the date, 2015 – ‘Portraits’ was released 5 years ago? I imagine that everything has changed since then. This year (2020), as I’m sure is true for most, has been a period of reflection for me, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the journey we’ve taken over the years. The evolution the project has gone through is enormous but hard to put in words as there are so many sides to it and so many more insights and details to those sides. We feel confident now. More relaxed. Calculated almost.

In all honesty it’s not high on our list right now. We were very fortunate to have stopped touring as scheduled at the back end of 2019. This time we’re living through now for us has served as a decompression for the years of touring prior and the early building blocks of our next album and inevitable touring that will follow. It was devastating to miss out on the DJ gigs we had booked in for summer 2020 but drawing the positives where possible, it has given us some real time to rest and regather our strengths for the next chapter.

It’s such a tricky question to answer. I feel so much for the people who had tours booked this year. Touring crew who lost their livelihoods overnight. Venues with rich histories now closed. It’s devastating. The hard part is that the live music industry is completely defenceless. I know many businesses and individuals have suffered immensely this year but the very manner in which this virus spreads, mixed with the safety measures that governments the world over have installed, is the perfect storm to grind the live music world to a halt. We just have to endure the best we can. The music will prevail, it always does. People want and need to see live music and I just hope that people suffering the loss of that world, from both sides of the stage, can hang on as long as possible, however possible, and make it out the other side.

We do. The last time we were both in the water together was in India in December 2019. We had a week holiday in Kerala with the band after finishing up the whole ‘Kingdoms In Colour’ tour in Rajasthan. I actually manage to surf quite regularly now. I have since relocated from the city out to Margate. Life by the sea has been on my agenda for some time and this break and period of reflection and rest I was talking about gave me the time to make it happen. There’s a couple of local spots that I try and get to a couple of times a week, forecast permitting!

I have always been hugely drawn to it. I can’t really explain why? There’s just a sense of comfort and calmness I find when being by water and total enjoyment when actually in it. Whether I am swimming, surfing, here or abroad, it grounds me and gives me fulfilment. I’m also hugely drawn to power of rough and chaotic seas. A big upside to living on the coast in the UK.

Not so directly in the past but I can see it playing a big part in my life now that I spend so much time with it. The expanse of the ocean, and viewing the horizon from the shores has always given me great headspace and makes me feel very inspired, so I expect and hope that now living right by the beach will play a big part in what I create over the next year or so.