THE MAPLE STATE Carpe Diem On New Single 'No Time To Waste'
Stream and share - https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/themaplestate/no-time-to-waste
Cult Manchester Emo Outfit Reveal Details of New Album Don’t Take Forever Released 7th November 2025
Preorder - https://themaplestate.bandcamp.com/album/dont-take-forever
Special Album Launch Show 24th October @ Aatma, Manchester
Tickets on sale now - https://linktr.ee/themaplestate
Manchester band of brothers THE MAPLE STATE are pleased to share their new single ‘No Time To Waste’, set for release on 15th October 2025 via all good digital service providers.
The quartet have also today released the artwork and tracklist for their forthcoming new album, Don’t Take Forever, which will be released on 7th November 2025.
Preorders are live now: https://themaplestate.bandcamp.com/album/dont-take-forever
The album features original artwork by Chris Cyprus, a contemporary artist from Manchester who came to the band’s attention a few years back.
“I first saw a painting of his in a Hebden Bridge art gallery and immediately fell in love with his work,” says front man Greg Counsell. “Over the past few years I visited Chris a number of times in his studio and we bonded over music and a shared love of the nostalgic, and somewhat melancholic romance that you find in the towns and villages that exist in the shadow of Manchester. His ability to capture moments of transition, dawn and twilight, just make me feel so much. Even though he is painting contemporary scenes, they feel almost mythical and timeless. Like a memory from a time I never actually knew.”
“On one visit Chris showed me a series of paintings he had started to work on while visiting family in New England, and as I looked at these paintings I immediately felt that link back to the Midwest emo of my childhood, the get up kids, American football, the promise ring, these paintings just transported me back to another time and place. Here was a Mancunian artist who had found that same beauty in visuals and we had found in the music. He’s able to capture that same beauty in a totally different setting, finding that emotional core—that makes so much sense in Manchester—in these American suburban scenes."
"One unfinished painting called ‘waiting for a friend’ caught my eye. The more we spoke about the painting and the album, the more it just felt like a perfect fit, so Chris agreed to finish the painting and let us use it for the album art."
Bridging the gap between their 2005 debut and the present, ‘No Time To Waste’ sees the band reconnecting with their old sound and the energy of their early songwriting—a blast of up-tempo midwest emo that’s perfect for a nostalgic, golden autumn season.
“Coming off the back of our last album, I was still struggling to reconcile that music with our past, and it took making this new album for me to realise that we can just do whatever we want, whenever we want,” says front man Greg Counsell. “This song is speaking to the 17 year old version of me who wrote At least until we’ve settled in—it’s the same ideas and same emotional, cathartic music but played with that maturity that comes from being 20 years older.”
Lyrically the track is about a friend of Counsell’s who was in a relationship that wasn’t serving them well, but was scared to leave because she saw all her friends settled down with families and didn’t want to start again, feeling like she had failed in some way.
“In the song I’m telling her: this is your life; this is the only life you have, so don’t waste it on a bad relationship, and stop comparing your life to others around you,” says Counsell. “There’s something better out there for you, but you have to do that scary thing and take that step into the world, and that only gets harder and scarier the long you leave it. If you dive in, then the world is still a magical place if you let yourself see it. So don’t be reduced by someone else and don’t sell yourself short.”
“At the same time it’s about me being at a different stage on the same journey; and finally settling down after nearly 40 after years of running, and how that’s even more reason not to compare yourself to others, because we all do this at different rates and we’re all figuring it out in our own way and our own time. Those people who right now seem happy and settled might find themselves single and out in the world again at some point, so that ‘reversal of fate’ will keep going.”
“Ultimately, what’s important is having those good people around you, who understand all of this and can support you and not judge you, even if your lives are on different trajectories at the moment.”
The first body of new material from the band since their second album The Things I Heard At The Party in 2018, forthcoming album Don’t Take Forever will be the first release from the recently-reunited original line up in two decades.
The band will play a special album release show on 24th October at Aatma, Manchester, with tickets on sale now.
The Maple State announced their return earlier this year with surprise new single ‘Zero Days Since Last Incident’ to a flurry of underground tastemaker excitement, following up with the album’s lead single ‘Settle Down’ in summer 2025.
Live dates:
24th October - Aatma - Manchester, UK (album release show) w/ support from The Latchkey Kids
Tickets on sale now: HERE
Don’t Take Forever tracklist:
1. Winner Part II
2. Zero Days Since Last Incident
3. Settle Down
4. Better Than Before
5. No Time To Waste
6. Dead Beneath The Stars
7. Willow
8. There’s always money in the banana stand
9. Winner Part II (reprise)
10. Vacancy
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.
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. They disbanded in early 2009, before returning in 2018 with a new line up for the album The Things I Heard at the Party and a string of sold-out UK dates.
Then, in 2020, original 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.
Earlier this summer, the quartet celebrated the 20th anniversary of the release of their 2005 debut album At Least Until We’ve Settled In with two special sold out celebration shows. The record has since become a cult favourite and cultural touchstone for a generation of artists who followed, including The 1975’s Matty Healy, who recently named the album in his list of all time favourites.
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.
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.
