Jazzing it up: Late Night Marauders
The Crow’s Nest, a music column by Russ Litten
Plus Portrait of the Artist
Whenever I listen to Late Night Marauders, I am reminded of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks at The Diner - the classic urban night scene that epitomised 1940s New York City in all it’s lonely nocturnal glamour.
It’s eighty years old, that painting, but something about it seems eternally modern.
The Late Night Marauders play the kind of music steeped in ages-old traditional form, but they imbue their music with the kind of youthful, restless zest that makes everything feel fresh again.
I had a chat with whirlwind soulstress lead singer and songwriter, Ruth Scott.
Late Night Marauders
Who’s in the band and what do they do?
Ruth Scott - Writes the songs and sings lead vocals
James Wood - Keys and vocals
James North - Bass and backing vocals
Peter Robinson - Trombone
Simon Neligan - Trumpet
Tom Small - Drums
How did the band come about?
“The band formed quite naturally, to be honest. I was working as a duo with James Wood when we went to do some recording at The Warren.
“James North was recording us and he mentioned he played bass and I asked him if he would be interested in playing with us, which he was. Pete Robinson had messaged me prior to this and put me and James on at Polar Bear for his night (the Onion Club).
“He mentioned that he really liked what we was doing, and if we ever wanted to put a band together he would be up for playing with us. Tom, who plays drums, is my partner and he said he would be up for coming down and playing with us too.
“With this in mind, I organised our first band rehearsal. It went really well and we discussed the possibility of an extra horn. Pete mentioned that he knew someone, and the following week Simon came down, and it all went from there.”
Who are your key musical influences?
“Tom waits, Ray Charles, Nina Simone.”
Non-musical influences?
“Don’t really know, to be honest. The only thing that comes to mind is my mum and dad, but they are both musical influences, I suppose. They both really love music.
“I remember playing vinyls when I was young like the Beatles and I’m sure I had some of my own, but I can’t remember what they were. I listened to loads of different artists on cassette in the car with my mum, like Cher, Buddy Holly, Elton John, Suzie Quattro.
“My dad would love listening to blues and a bit of jazz. I can remember the pictures of Cher in the cassette being really hot and sexy and asking my mum which one she liked the best, haha!
“As I started buying music, they would let me play my stuff in the car, literally anything!
“I remember getting the spaghetti album by Guns and Roses, and putting it on when travelling to see relatives one day. I was sat in the back laughing with my brother as I knew there was loads of swearing on it.
“I was almost waiting for my mum to say something, we found it hilarious and my parents didn’t say a thing. Maybe it’s one of the reasons I swear so much now, haha!”
Late Night Marauders
Talk me through the songwriting process…
“I write the lyrics and melody on my own. An idea for lyrics or melody will usually pop into my head and I just start writing from there.
“Once it’s finished, I take it to James Wood, I sing it as it is in my head and we work on getting some piano behind it and we look at the structure of it.
“When we have arranged it, we take it to the band and get all the other parts arranged. James Wood is great and really helps to bring it all together in the rehearsals.”
How do you approach studio work?
“As a band we’ve only been in the studio once. We are hoping to get in again soon. When we recorded the EP, we just rehearsed quite a few times beforehand, so everyone was confident with their parts.
“We recorded it all live; by that I mean without a metronome. We wanted it to feel more natural.”
How do you approach live gigs?
“We just rehearse loads. We rehearse the set as we are going to play it to make sure it works and flows. We sometimes take songs out or move them around, to make sure there aren’t any bits when people could stop listening.”
How do you want your audience to feel after coming to see you?
“Happy and buzzing! I want them to want to come back and see us again. I want them to feel like they’ve seen something special and that they want to tell their mates and family about us.”
Talk me through all your releases to date…
“My first release was before I started working with anyone in the band, but I still went under the name of Late Night Marauders.
“I was working with a different pianist as a duo back then, but still the same sort of music. It’s called Hidden Treasure.
“The EP Episode One is our first full band release. A five-track EP that has a variety of different types of songs. They aren’t about one specific thing but, they are about people, I suppose. The different lives people lead, and their stories.”
Late Night Marauders
If you could exist in any other time and space, which would it be and why?
“The 60s. The music was amazing, so many great acts to see and such a variety. So much great stuff happened in the 60s. I think I would have totally got involved and partied hard.”
What are your hopes, dreams and ambitions for the band?
“I would just really love to be a successful band and for it to pay us all a wage so we could spend our time writing, rehearsing and gigging. I’m not interested in fame or anything like that.
“I literally just want to get paid so I can pay my bills and do music as my job. I’d really love to get to play with other artists or write for other people.
“I suppose this is what most musicians want, isn’t it? I would love us to play more festivals and other cities and, like all bands, perform on Jools Holland. That’s the dream, anyway.”
What do you think of the Hull music scene?
“I think it’s really great. What other city puts on a festival specifically for the bands and artists who live there, to showcase what they do?
“We have Mark Page to thank for this and also everyone else who works really hard, such as Dan Mawer. We have the Weekly Sesh, Trinity Live and, obviously, Humber Street Sesh.
“There are other small venues that offer a really good space for people to play, such as Off The Road. There are loads of really great bands and the people in them are generally really bloody nice (the ones I’ve met anyway).”
If Late Night Marauders were an animal, what animal would they be?
“Jesus, I have no idea. An owl, I love birds. I’m a bit of a twitcher, if I’m honest.”
Future gigs coming up?
“11th November Hull Truck as part of the Hull Jazz Festival Kick Start Commission Duo gig - myself and James Wood.
“27th November for the Culture Train, St Mary’s Church, Beverly Duo gig - myself and James Wood.
“18th December - our annual Christmas shindig at the Polar Bear Music Club. Full band. Tickets available soon.”
Late Night Marauders - Links
Portrait of the Artist
Bill Worry
Who are you?
“We are Bill Worry, a shoegaze/ 90s alternative 5-piece band from Hull, birthed off the back of third-time lockdown boredom.”
Line-up:
Amy Precious - Vocals
Edward Logie - Guitar
Joe Boxall - Guitar
Adam Arnold - Bass
Rio Campbell - Drums
What do you do?
“We’re a new band that creates original music, taking our cues from some of our personal favourite artists, think The Smashing Pumpkins, Cocteau Twins, DIIV, Slowdive, The Sugar Cubes … you get the idea … but bundled up into a sports sock and sweated out onto the stage.”
Why do you do it?
“We genuinely just love making music, the entire process is just class; jamming, organising, formalising, practising, then playing live. It’s so cliche and everyone hears it all the time but it’s true.
“When we started the band we did it purely as a project, a creative pastime after a being locked down for the third time over a long, inactive and uninspiring winter period.
“We all knew of each-other some way, whether well, mutually or vaguely and it just seemed to work as soon as we played, so we kept having fun, and here we are as an actual active band !
“To be honest, it still feels like our own little project, like our own private world of music we’ve curated and perfected for hours. We’re just privileged to be able to start playing to people live!
“We love and live for it. We were actually so immersed in the process of creating that we didn’t even have a name when we got our first gig until a week or two before.
“If you’re wanting to know the reasons behind the name… you’ll have to wait another day!”
Current or forthcoming release?
“We don’t actually have anything officially out to stream… just yet. But, we do have some interesting things in the pipeline with some people in the local scene, which we’re all buzzing to be a part of.
“Don’t worry though, you’ll be hearing and seeing a lot more of us soon, and we will definitely have something out in the very near future for you to get your teeth into.”
Forthcoming gigs?
“We play Dive for the second time supporting Girl Afraid and Pavilion on the 4th November, and a place on the bill at Polar Bear on the 30th November, line-up TBC.
“We will soon have more dates in the works, so keep an eye out on our socials for those! We’re super excited to get the ball rolling with gigs, and play our music to more people.”
Plans for the future?
“At the minute we’re focusing really hard on establishing a concrete sound and a really punching set - it seems like we’re finally getting onto something that just clicks for all of us, both as individual musicians and a band.
“We’re hoping to get in the studio by the beginning of next year and get some tracks down.
“That being said, we’re making an effort not to get ahead ourselves and rush the process; we want everything we bring out to be perfect, and be the consequence of a natural, thorough process, not a rushed one.
“In terms of concrete plans, we’re going to keep putting ourselves out there for gigs having only played two so far.
“Hopefully out of town shows will come soon, and we always joke about touring with Wolf Alice in 2023, so I guess that’s a future plan, but we will never know what fate has in store for us until it comes.
“Whatever it is, we’re super excited, and we have a good feeling about everything we’re doing; it just feels right.”
Bill Worry - Links