Cult Manchester Emo Outfit THE MAPLE STATE Return With Brand New Single ‘Zero Days Since Last Incident’
Stream and share - HERE
Celebrate 20th Anniversary Of Debut Album At Least Until We’ve Settled In At Special Live Dates
July 18th, Manchester / July 19th, London
Tickets on sale now - https://linktr.ee/themaplestate
Stream the album here - HERE
Manchester band of brothers THE MAPLE STATE are delighted to announce their return today with a brand new single ‘Zero Days Since Last Incident’ set for release on 17th July 2025.
The band are currently putting the final touches to a new album scheduled for release this autumn, with further details TBA very soon.
Written in Denmark at his bandmate and brother Christian’s flat, commenting on the single, front man Greg Counsell says: “It felt for the first time in years like I’d written a proper Maple State song—there was real connective tissue to those songs we wrote back when we were teenagers. There’s something about the rhythm guitar that reminds me of bands like Braid or Hey Mercedes.”
Chronicling a rough patch of mental health for Counsell (now a conservation scientist by day) the lyrics for the new single are about as autobiographical as it gets. “The summer before, I had been in a bad spot, unsure about where my life was heading, just getting out of a really rotten relationship, and looking in all the wrong places for solutions,” he says.
“I was presenting my research at a conference and as I walked up to the lectern I suddenly got tunnel vision and stumbled into someone sitting near the stage. I thought I was having a heart attack. I was just thinking ‘why am I here? what am I doing here?!’. I somehow ended up onstage and presented my work, but I’ve no memory of any of it. Next thing I knew, I was outside the conference centre, which was right on the coast. I walked down to the sea and dived in. My colleagues thought I had lost my mind. Maybe they were right. Making this album played a big part in getting me back into a good place.”
Recently reuniting the original line up of the band, the quartet are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of their debut album At Least Until We’ve Settled In this summer—a cult favourite and cultural touchstone for a generation of artists who followed, including The 1975’s Matty Healy, who recently named the record in his list of all time favourite albums.
Album opener 'You Can’t Put Two Hotels On Mayfair' was also featured by the iconic Drive Thru Records on their compilation album Bands You Love, Have Heard Of, And Should Know.
The quartet will play two special celebration shows at Night & Day Café, Manchester on 18th July with support from old friends The Black Mile, and a London date at Water Rats on 19th July with young guns The Yacht Club.
Back in September 2008 after a Manchester hometown show, the band walked off stage not knowing it would be 13 years before they were all in the same room again. In 2020, drummer John Goodwin was working on a solo record with long-time producer and friend Drew Farrer. Greg showed up at Drew’s studio to pick up a guitar and was surprised to find himself face-to-face with his old best friend.
“Over the coming months John and I would spend a lot of time together, catching up on the lives we’d lived since we’d parted ways,” says Greg of the reunion. “We apologised for all that went wrong with the band, realising that the things which had driven us apart back then were so inconsequential now. We started to track demos of songs I’d been working on during the Covid lockdowns and in spring of 2021, with travel opened up, we all found ourselves standing in Drew’s studio where 18 years earlier we had tracked our first songs as The Maple State—four friends who had shared an unbelievable adventure in our youth, now pushing 40, with children of our own.”
“Living in Manchester, London, Denmark and Kazakhstan, the opportunities for such meetings have been limited, but our bond and friendship has never been stronger. The love I feel for this band has worked its way into our new songs, my lyrics became about the band itself and the joy of being back together, something I never imagined would happen. Over the years, while playing with other musicians and side projects, I have often wondered what makes a Maple State song—now I know, it’s the four of us together. John’s bouncing, rolling, effortless drumming with Christian and William exchanging and intertwining melodies on guitars and keyboards. I can write songs all day, but only the four of us can write a Maple State song.”
“The whole process of recording this record had been laid-back,” adds drummer John Goodwin, “largely thanks to Drew’s generous, open-door approach, which let us each drop in and add parts incrementally over a couple of years. But on this day, the five of us were back together in the same space, listening to songs that were nearly finished, having fun, catching up and just soaking up the energy. It felt great to be back with the band again after so long.”
In its original run At Least Until We’ve Settled In sold 3000 copies, but was only ever available to buy on CD at The Maple State shows during the mid 2000s. Responding to more than a decade of requests from the fans, the band finally released a digital reissue of the record in 2020, including additional unreleased recordings from the original sessions.
20 years-on from its release The Maple State are continually delighted by the ongoing appreciation for the record and are looking forward to celebrating the 20th anniversary with fans, friends, and family this summer.
Details of a forthcoming new album and further live dates will be announced in the coming months.
Live dates:
18th July – Night and Day Café, Manchester, UK
19th July – Water Rats, London, UK
Tickets - https://themaplestate.bandcamp.com/merch
The Maple State online:
https://themaplestate.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/themaplestate
https://www.facebook.com/themaplestate
The Maple State are:
Gregory Counsell – Bass guitar and lead vocals
Christian Counsell – Guitar and vocals
John Goodwin – Drums, percussion and vocals
William Pearson – keyboards, synthesizers and vocals
More info:
In 2005 a young Maple State were still playing small punk-rock clubs and pubs across the north of England, when At Least Until We’ve Settled In found its way into the hands of some of the biggest names in the UK and US alternative scenes – Mark Hoppus (Blink182), Brett Gurewitz (Bad Religion), Oliver Sykes (Bring Me The Horizon), and the late Andy Gill (Gang of Four) all became fans of the record. Legendary New Wave figure Seymour Stein (Sire Records) even flew over from New York to attend a show in London, leaving the promoter at the Water Rats Theatre rolling his eyes when the “unknown” Maple State put Mr Stein’s name down on the guest-list.
Renowned for their energetic live performances, the following three years saw the band bombarded with tour offers both in the UK and further afield. They spent much of this period on the road with bands such as Motion City Soundtrack, +44, Frank Turner, Say Anything, Minus the Bear, Fightstar, The Academy Is.., and Get.Cape.Wear.Cape.Fly, helping them to cement a name as one of the UK’s premiere cult underground bands.
The band signed with Manchester Indie label High Voltage Sounds for their 2007 release, the Joanna EP produced by Andy Gill (Gang of Four, Killing Joke, Red Hot Chili Peppers) and went on to release the critically acclaimed Say, Scientist EP in February 2008. They disbanded in early 2009, before returning triumphantly in 2018 with the album The Things I Heard at the Party and a string of sold-out UK dates.
