Sheffield’s very own Little Man Tate (LMT) are taking the pop world by storm. Guitarist, Maz took time out from his busy schedule over summer to talk to Cube’s music journalist, Ella Thomas about re-releasing their album, performing on the main stage at Reading and Leeds and doing a benefit gig for the recent Sheffield floods…

So you’ve re-leased your recent album we hear?

We had a single which came out on the 27th August (European Lover) and there was a decision that we should re-release the album because we felt when it was released originally in January, it probably didn’t get the promotion it deserved. There’s not much more to it than that really but there will probably be a couple of extra tracks and we’ll see how it goes from there.

On your album ‘About what you know’ the track, ‘What? What you got?’ is secret. Why did you decide to do this?

Well, the original plan was not to have it on the album at all because we didn’t want loads of singles on the album and if we’d had it on there would be about 5 or 6 singles on it already. We had some new tracks which we wanted to put on so we just had it as a hidden track to see if anyone notices.

What are you working on at the moment?

We’ve been trying to write as many new songs as we can because we know the album is being re-released and so we’ll probably have to do some touring to promote that. But we’ve been trying to keep things fresh and we’ve been stuck in the rehearsal room these past two weeks just trying new stuff, new ideas. It’s been a really good time for us working on new songs.

It’s strange because the majority of songs on our debut were written without knowing they would end up on album that would eventually be released in Japan of all places! This time around we’ve become better at writing and recording because we’ve had experience in the music industry. We know these new songs are going to be on a second album so we’re trying to make sure they’re the best we can possibly make them.

 You played the main stage at Reading and Leeds this year was this your first main stage experience. Did you enjoy it?

Yeah it was our first gig in England on the main stage at a festival but we have done others elsewhere. In June we did Rock AM Ring in Germany which was a great experience and also T in the Park up in Kinross, Scotland. Some of our craziest fans are up in Scotland so they made the atmosphere special. As for Leeds and Reading, it was amazing. We were on quite early but all credit to the crowd. They were loving it from start to finish.

Is there a gig that you really wish never happened or any embarrassing moments on stage?

Last year we played this gig in a tent and the stage was slightly slanted
from one end to the other. Jon, our singer who tends to get involved in the moment was moving about a lot. About 1 or 2 songs in he tripped over something and just started to roll like a human cannon ball nearly taking me out on his way. That was pretty funny but because of the type of band we are it wasn’t a disaster. He just got back onto his feet and the crowd really responded to that.

What is the key item on the Little Man Tate tour bus?

Well, the one key item missing last time was a remote for our DVD! Every time you played a DVD you had to watch it from the beginning and you couldn’t skip forward or back. If you had a box set of something like ‘Family Guy,’ you had to watch the first episode over and over again if you had to get off the bus or the power went out. We must have seen the first episode about 50 times. Suppose, the most important thing is making sure you have an ashtray because it can get quite messy in the back with bottles of water or coke with fag ends in them.

You did a benefit gig for the Sheffield flooding, how did that come about and why?

Well, me and Jon got caught up in the floods because we were rehearsing down at Neep’s End where one of the main power stations broke and left half of Hillsborough without power. We finished at about 3:30 and were in Jon’s dad’s car trying to get back through town. We just kept getting diverted and before we knew it we were down by Meadowhall and had been in the car for 3 hours. You just couldn’t believe how bad it was.

We saw hundreds of traffic jams, cars stranded everywhere and people being rescued. It was pretty weird seeing it all because you never expect Sheffield to be like that. By the time night came you started to realise how bad it was with people losing their lives. So, we decided it might be a good idea to do something. Jon was watching telly on Tuesday and there was some article on the local news saying how much it was going to cost and that a disaster fund had been set up. We thought that we should sort something out to contribute a bit because we can. We ended up raising over £12,000 which we hope helps those who were hit badly by the floods.

Who would you work with musically, dead or alive, if you could?

It’d be nice to work with David Bowie because he is always one to embrace new ideas. I always like to try new ideas in music. Bowie is a great lyrist, great songwriter and he’d come up with some pretty cool stuff. I’d just let him get on with it and then try and reap the rewards!

By Ella Thomas

Little Man Tate’s debut album,
About What You Know, is out now!


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