Interview with Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (https://petesrocknewsandviews.com)
PD: What type of artist are you?
M: We are a four piece indie band from Sheffield. Our songs can vary between fast and slow with our original sound that we bring. We have a soft sound at times in songs but also can play heavier also adding to the versatility of the band.
PD: Tell us the brief history of yourself
M: Marples formed on 9th August 2021 with members Joseph Neville (Lead Vocal and rhythm guitarist), Thomas Martin (Lead guitarist) and Joseph Kneale (Bass guitarist). We just needed a drummer and soon brought in Jaidyn MacDonald on the drums. We progressed from playing covers to writing our own songs and going on to play live at open mics. We then moved forward to playing our own gigs and to support other bands at their gigs in different venues across our city. We had a change in drummer as Jaidyn MacDonald decided to leave the band as he realised it wasn’t his thing so we looked for a new drummer and we were very impressed when we invited Luke Fieldsend to practice with us. He picked up our songs nearly straight away and it seemed like a perfect fit so we invited Luke to join the band and he was delighted to join.
PD: Who are your musical and non-musical influences?
M: Our musical influences are very different between the members which makes our sound unique. For example, Nev (Joseph Neville) is influenced by The Beatles and Blossoms, Tom (Thomas Martin) is influenced by Queen and The Smiths whereas Luke and Kneale (Joe Kneale) are influenced by Arctic Monkeys, who are local to us obviously being from Sheffield. Luke is heavily influenced by Catfish And The Bottlemen and Kneale is heavily influenced by the Killers as well, proving our different dynamics in the band.
PD: What are your dreams and goals?
M: As a band, we look to play bigger shows to more people across the UK and hopefully branch out playing different sort of gigs across the country to new audiences. We hope to release new and successful music and for us to hopefully play some summer festivals in the future! Glastonbury, we’re on our way…👀. We’ve had our music played on a few radio stations, but we’d love to get on the radio more to build our exposure!
PD: Who writes your songs, what are they about?
M: We started off with individuals in the band writing songs and it still is a little like that. What happens is one of us comes up with something and then we bring it to the practice studio and it all stems from there! Sometimes though when we are in the studio and someone comes up with something on the spot, we work on that in the moment. That’s how a few of our songs have been written to be honest.
PD: How do you promote your band and shows?
M: We promote the band and our different shows through social media. We have promoted some shows in our local area by putting posters up, but only did that a couple of times. With promoting the band itself, we do whatever we can to get ourselves out there with trying to get as many gigs as we can and playing live at near enough every opportunity that comes our way. You can find our socials on our linktree: https://linktr.ee/Marples21
PD: What do you think about downloading music online?
M: We like a good vinyl and CD, but downloading music online is the way forward to listening to music now and reaching new upcoming artists like ourselves! To think you can stream a song with the click of a button helps artists put themselves about on different platforms online. It’s so easy to listen to whatever music you want to nowadays thanks to downloading music online.
PD: What song do you wish you’d written and why?
M: “Bohemian Rhapsody for obvious reasons” – Luke
“The Headmaster Ritual by The Smiths. Fantastically composed and lyrically superb” – Tom
“Your Song by Elton John because it’s a tune and reminds me of when I was a kid” – Nev
“Jenny was a friend of mine by The Killers because it’s arguably my favourite song off my favourite ever album and one of my favourite basslines.” – Kneale
PD: What are some of your pet peeves?
M: Bands stealing guitar capos from other bands and then criticising them unfairly after a show😂.
PD: What is your proudest moment in music?
M: The proudest moment we have had in music was playing our first headline show. It was a really special night with 
people we knew coming to see us and giving us lots of positive feedback afterwards.
PD: So, what are you working on at the moment?
M: We are working on our stuff currently that we already have and we are always working on new stuff. In the near future, we will be recording so keep an eye out for that…
PD: What music have you available online and where can we buy it from?
M: Earlier this year, we released our debut EP called ‘In The Attic’. It consists of the first four tracks we wrote together. I would expect someone to see from our works our original sound which sparks from the different influences we all have combining and the hard work we put into writing our music. You can listen to our debut EP in the links below:
Marples links:
Band/Artist location – Sheffield, England
Facebook – You Tube – Twitter – Instagram –
Apple – Spotify – Amazon – Deezer – LinkTree –
Check out our page for Marples
