Gillingham band Maker, fresh from releasing their album, DEA, at the legendary Rockfield Studios, head to Margate this weekend for the Margate Mod & Sixties Festival. We caught up with frontman Alessandro Marinelli.

You're a Gillingham band - do you all still live in Medway? What's your favourite haunt?

Yes we all still live in Medway, although we’re spread out between Rainham and Gillingham. We did get to play with some really cool acts at Tap 'N' Tin in the past, including Pete Doherty, The Bees and Reef.

You recorded DEA at Rockfield Studios where some huge bands have recorded, including Oasis, The Stone Roses, Queen, Black Sabbath and Kasabian. If you could record with any of them (when they were recording there), who would it be and why?

Ha, that’s a toughie.. We’d probably go with Queen or The Stone Roses, mainly because they’d be a bit more along the lines of how we play. Although it would have been fun (but probably a bit disturbing) to have been at Rockfield when Noel and Liam Gallagher had their infamous fight with a cricket bat!

Your album was recorded over 14 days - how mad were those 14 days?

Those 14 days, looking back, kind of blend seamlessly into one now. It’s one of those things where everything seems to all take a while at the time, but also goes really quickly at the same time! We did get some sleep (just a little), but we were lucky enough to also have the complete free run of both the studio and equipment at Rockfield, so if (after a few beers, wines or whiskeys) we felt like trying to capture something - mainly the start of something new - we would go and do it right that minute - even if it was 4am!!

Has this year been your biggest year to date? How does it feel to be where you are right now as a band?

I think we’d all agree that this has been a pretty big twelve months for us - we've had national press with a 4-star album review in the Daily Express, became pretty much studio regulars on Talksport Radio, and even had one of our musical heroes support us when we managed to get Chris Helme (formerly of 90s Britpop legends The Seahorses) to play at our album launch in Manchester last month! We're aiming to keep on riding this high and hopefully we can have an even better next few years. It’s all about keeping the momentum going at the moment - we already have songs lined up for our next album, and plans to tour further overseas soon too.

You play Margate Mod & Sixties Festival this weekend - what will you be playing?

No, we always tend to stick to our own material really. It’s not completely unheard of for us to throw a cover or two in the set on the odd occasion, but they would tend to be not so well known songs by the likes of Ike and Tina Turner, The Faces, Humble Pie, Velvet Underground. They would be songs that we all love as a band, chosen from one of our record collections.

DETAILS

Maker play Margate Mod & Sixties Festival on Sunday, May 27. The festival runs from Friday, May 25 to Bank Holiday Monday at Olby’s Soul Cafe in King Street, Margate CT9 1DD.
For tickets visit olbyssoulcafe.co.uk