How did you meet and what’s the story behind your band name?
The band name is a story of serendipity! We were very picky and we were thinking of names Sivan kept thinking of Felix the cat and she didn’t know why. Eventually she let the Felix thing go and we came up with The April Mays, as Sivan’s name means a month and my surname is Mayhew. As a joke Sivan suggested we spell it ‘m.a.z.e’. I liked it. When I looked up The April Maze online to check that no other bands had the name already the only thing that came up was a Felix the Cat film from 1930 entitled ‘April Maze’ which was produced by Australian born cartoonist Pat Sullivan! We took that as a sign.
How would you describe your music?
Our songs are varied. We sing a lot of harmonies – Sivan sings and plays cello while I sing and play guitar, stomp-box and banjo. We call it alternative folk. People often tell us after shows that our music remind them of Fleetwood Mac, Civil Wars, The Lumineers, and… The Beatles which is the biggest compliment of all time!
What have you been up to so far and what can we expect over the coming months?
Sivan is British/Australian and her Sister still lives in Oxford, and I am Australian/Canadian with grand parents from each of the UK 4 corners (Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England) – so we have decided to make the UK our home base.
We have been playing loads of shows and festivals across the UK this summer and have recorded a special UK/Europe album currently only available at shows. We are very excited about the next single from the album called I’ve Seen The Rain which we recorded with award winning producer Tim Carr (he’s worked with Coldplay, Kanye West, Cat Empire, Matt Corby).
If you could duet with anybody who would it be and why?
Being a duo ourselves we would love to do a duet in 4 part harmony with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham 40 years ago, when they released Buckingham Nicks. Give us a time machine and we’d head straight back to the early 1970’s and get a boat to San Fran and do this – I can’t wait!
What’s your desert island disc and why would you take this one album?
Tea For The Tillerman – Cat Stevens. The album is a masterpiece and includes some of my favourite songs of all time. I will never get sick of this album, its so wonderfully written, performed and produced. It sounds just how good popular music should sound. It soothes the soul and takes me back to my childhood when the world was safe and there was so much to live for. My brother has made me promise that I will sing Miles from Nowhere at his funeral. If I die first I would like him to do the same for me.
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