GEORDIE alternative rock-band Maximo Park have spoken of their excitement after headlining Ramsbottom’s Head for the Hills festival on Friday night.

Speaking to the Bolton News before their headline set on the Hills Stage,

guitarist and lead songwriter Duncan Lloyd, told us more about his experiences at festivals and what the band have coming up in the near future.

“It’s really exciting to be here,” he said. “We were looking at the line-up this morning and there are some really good acts on.

“It’s nice to come to a different part of Lancashire. We tend to do most of our gigs in Manchester or Liverpool so it is nice to get out and see people from this neck of the woods. To headline is great because we’re coming towards the end of the season, so it’s a nice way to round it all off.

“Festivals are that time of the year when it’s people’s escape. A lot of the time people’s summers have been building up to it and you can see that it’s a real time for them to just get lost and enjoy themselves. For us, just being a part of that, and being able to play to a crowd where you know this is the big weekend they’ve been looking forward to, there’s still a real buzz to that.”

It is now 12 years since the band released their debut album, A Certain Trigger, which saw them nominated for the 2005 Mercury Prize. All of the band members were in their mid-20s at the time. Now in their late 30s, and having released their sixth studio album, how do they feel they’ve evolved over time?

“Being a bit older, I think we’re definitely tighter as a band. We feel that we can go out and perform almost anywhere and connect in some way,” said Lloyd.

“When we first started you would sort of show up and there would be a lot of nerves and itchiness to get it done, but now we can enjoy it a bit more. If we have a problem or something goes off or strings break, we take it in our stride a lot more.”

“Also, just seeing how the crowds have changed. When we started out in 2005 it was very much just teenagers and people in their 20s who came to our shows, but as time went on the older generation got into us a bit more as well. You start seeing younger people coming in too. That’s one of the things we treasure, that our crowds are very mixed in gender and ages.”

The band’s latest album, Risk To Exist, was released back in April, and has been described by critics as a protest album. It is just the latest sign that Paul Smith and co are keen to move away from their roots in ‘lad rock’ and appeal to a more mature audience.

“The album is political but it’s also full of empathy. Being in the North East, ‘I, Daniel Blake’ had come out and those are very real issues for people in our region, and this region, and a lot of the UK.

“I think more and more people are being engaged. Without being preachy, we don’t want to say you should believe this too, but we’re just saying that we feel strongly about this stuff. We feel empathy and want to connect with whoever is listening as well.

“We couldn’t’ sit down and write a record without addressing it because everything was started to affect our lives and everyone’s around us.”

The band shot to fame during indie’s mid-noughties heyday, alongside the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, and Razorlight. Since then, however, the genre’s fortunes have dipped considerably.

A quick look at the line-ups for this year’s Leeds & Reading Festival highlights the dearth of established indie bands to emerge from the UK in recent years. While the festival organisers insist that booking acts from other genres helps to attract a more diverse audience, there is no doubt that their hand has been forced by the lack of fresh talent.

“I think the problem at the moment is that there is so much choice out there and there aren’t that many tastemakers,” said Lloyd.

“When we grew up listening to music in the 90s, there was the print press, the NME, and Melody Maker, saying these are the bands that are really good, and you would listen to that stuff. A lot of those strong journalistic voices and musical tribes are not really there anymore.

“There is loads of good British music out there, it’s just having that platform. In the past it would have been NME and we don’t really have the equivalent of a Pitchfork in the UK. It feels like we could really do with someone with a bit of credibility and nous just to look at all genres in British music and say ‘this is what’s going on’.

“I think we’re going through big changes but good music will out. Whether it’s a good grime record, or a good indie record, it will eventually get there. I don’t think it’s the end of anything, it’s just something new that we’re all dealing with.”

Following their headline slot at Head for the Hills, Maximo Park are set to embark on a European tour next week. But, what does the future hold for Lloyd and his bandmates that?

“The plan is to try and jam a lot more into our soundchecks and perhaps come up with some new stuff. We’re hoping to get a couple of tracks together which may just trigger off something new,” he said.

“I know that Paul is working on a solo thing and he wants to work on a new Maximo thing. I’m in a similar position where I’m doing a bit of solo stuff. We’re just kind of thinking, let’s have a little breather, do a bit of writing on tour and I think come back with a new record fairly soon.”