In an alternate universe, Marmozets plodded on, knuckled down, and found a way to make it work – as many bands do. And while that hypothetical timeline has crossed the minds of all four members, it doesn’t look pretty. Becca can only picture a “car crash”.
“Your baby was a blessing in disguise,” realises Josh.
“We were pretty burnt out, even before we got the news,” adds Jack. “Normally you get back from tour and crash, but it was happening while we were on the road. Time to refresh and refocus was definitely needed, for all of us.”
“We didn’t know how to do anything outside of touring. How do we do taxes? How do we make friendships?” Josh continues. “I have autism, and I hadn’t really figured out how to navigate that with touring. Not to go on a sob story, but we’d been doing shows, non-stop, since we were 14.”
Having been in the back of vans for a decade, the relentless lifestyle and endless road miles had taken their toll. It was time to consciously remove that constant, leaving Becca, Jack, Josh and Sam with somewhat of a blank slate.
“It wasn’t like someone took it away from us,” Josh points out, when asked if that transition was difficult at first. “It was our own decision to stop the truck here.”
“I was focused on having a kid, and we needed to get a house,” adds Becca, who didn’t have time to reminisce thanks to the pressing responsibilities of parenthood.
For Sam – the quietest of the four – he took his empty diary as a window of opportunity.
“You think about [touring] now and again, but your whole self isn’t just playing music in front of people. You can be much more than that. I didn’t realise how much I loved cooking. I started working in the chippy, I absolutely loved it. People used to [leave] reviews at the place I used to work at, and that was so rewarding,” he reflects.