The Maccabees’ Felix White Talks About More Shows And New Music: “If We Can Find That Secret Again, That Will Be Really Amazing”

As The Maccabees mark ten years since their last album ‘Marks To Prove It’, guitarist Felix White spoke with NME to look back on the record and share where the band stands with plans for new music and more shows in 2026.

Read More: The Maccabees live at Glastonbury 2025: a glorious, emotional reunion
Last week, the reunited indie group revealed a set of summer shows scheduled for July 2026, including a headline performance at Truck Festival, along with dates in London, Cornwall, Bristol, Brighton and Leeds.

These newly announced dates follow The Maccabees stepping back onto the stage earlier this year for their first run of performances since splitting in 2017. They opened the return with a charity show at London’s The Dome, then headed to Glastonbury Festival for a Park Stage headline slot, played a handful of intimate headline gigs across Europe, the UK and Ireland, and closed things out with a one day takeover at All Points East.

“Everyone was just a bit stunned at how good it felt,” White told NME about the reunion. “It was almost like the music that we had made when we were younger needed to rest for a long time without us touching it. So when we finally played it again as older people, there was something more finished about it compared to when we were young.”

 

The guitarist added that their original era now feels distant in a strange way. “It feels like it happened to a completely different person, especially because the time we spent apart made it seem like we had all become different people.”

What has stayed constant, though, is how performing feels for him. “When we were younger, I had this feeling that time changed during the shows. It felt like everything slowed down,” he said. “Even though the pace is fast, the moment stretches out. I felt that again this year, especially at All Points East. You are playing, everything is moving quickly, but you still get these pockets where you stop inside it and think, ‘Oh my god, I am here, and this is wild’.”

The band’s return next summer will start at London’s Alexandra Palace Park, which in a way mirrors how their farewell shows ended in 2017 inside the main Alexandra Palace building. “There was talk about doing the indoor Ally Pally again, but it almost felt like a sacred thing that should not be touched,” White said.

“We felt that trying to go back inside and recreate that feeling would never compare. But doing it outdoors instead felt exciting, because those shows have this incredible view over London. It would be meaningful if people who were at those final Maccabees shows eight or nine years ago came back next year and thought about who they were back then compared to who they are now.”

The Maccabees live at Glastonbury 2025. Credit: Derek Bremner for NME

The upcoming shows will also bring the five piece to Brighton for the first time in eleven years. The coastal city is where the band began, and this time they will headline a beach concert. “When The Maccabees started, we were all living in Brighton and there was this little burst of momentum where we played two or three times a week,” White said, mentioning early support slots with Arctic Monkeys, Maximo Park and The Strokes.

“There was a period where everything seemed to happen really quickly and lots of young people were coming to the shows, so Brighton will always mean a lot to us. We even got banned from Concorde 2 because kids were hanging from things, and people still say to me, ‘I was the one who got thrown off the stage’. We have lived whole lives since then, and now we get to do these outdoor shows that only big, established bands usually play. It feels like something you would want to go back and tell your younger self.”

The Maccabees have already mentioned that these 2026 shows will be their last unless new material comes together. “We are talking about writing,” White said. “These shows will still be incredible even without new music, but if something does appear, it could make everything even more intense. We have not sat in a room to work yet, but we are talking about doing that.”

“That will be the next moment that shows how strong this whole thing really is. We are nervous but also excited about what could come from that, but we just have to wait and see. We have cleared some time early next year, so we will find out.”

White continued, “The risky but thrilling part is that there is no plan. No one knows what will happen, and we want to let it unfold naturally. If something special happens that feels like a true continuation of The Maccabees’ story, then we will follow it.”

Thinking back on their body of work, White pointed out how little music the band actually released during their fifteen years together, with only four albums behind them. “That shows how much everyone cared. Even though it was difficult at times when we were young, that care lasted in a good way. The music has held up because of that.”

“I do not think The Maccabees will ever be the type of band that keeps putting out record after record, because everyone feels too deeply about it. But if we get in a room and really feel something together, even if one of us is moody that day, you cannot stop the smile or the hair on the back of your neck standing up. If we can find that secret again, that will be something really beautiful.”

Playing their older songs again this summer revealed some unexpected emotional moments for White, especially with tracks like ‘Kamakura’, a highlight from ‘Marks To Prove It’. “That song will always mean a lot to me,” he said. “But singing the chorus, ‘Best friends forgive you / Best friends forget / You get old’, felt accidentally autobiographical about the band.”

“It was emotional singing it, because it captured exactly what was happening on stage, so those small lyrical moments on [‘Marks…’] really cut through and summed up the whole experience this year.”

Felix White and Orlando Weeks of The Maccabees at Glastonbury 2025. Credit: Andy Ford for NME

‘Marks To Prove It’ became The Maccabees’ first album to reach Number One on the Official UK Albums Chart when it arrived in July 2015. Today (November 28), the band has released a new edition on double vinyl, a 3CD set and digital formats that include B sides, acoustic versions and radio sessions. The CD and digital editions also feature their full Glastonbury 2015 performance, which included a guest appearance from Jamie T.

When the reissue was revealed, the band also made ‘Koya’ widely available for the first time. It had previously only been issued as a B side on an early vinyl. “There were two or three songs that we always felt could have been singles, but we either lost patience with them or ran into problems,” White explained. “‘Koya’ is one that we finally put out for everyone, and then there is ‘Nimm’ and ‘The Truth’. In another reality, those could have been important Maccabees songs.”

He added, “In some ways, hearing them again makes you feel like creating more Maccabees music would be exciting, because you think, ‘We abandoned this, but there are so many special moments in this music that almost no one ever heard’.”

Thinking about ‘Marks To Prove It’ a decade later, especially with the band reunited, White said the album sums up their entire story in one place. “It became this blend of all the ways we had made records before,” he said. “There is a bit of how we made [2012’s] ‘Given To The Wild’, which had a more cinematic feel. But we had also gone back to playing quickly together in the room.”

“There were strange coincidences too. The last lyric on ‘Marks To Prove It’ is Land [singer Orlando Weeks] singing ‘Break it up to make it better’. It almost feels like a message to yourself, something you only understand years later when you look back. You cannot see it at the time because you are too deep in it.”

The Maccabees’ 10th anniversary reissue of ‘Marks To Prove It’ is out now. Their summer 2026 tour dates are listed below. Tickets are available now.

The Maccabees’ 2026 tour dates are as follows:

JULY
9 – London, Alexandra Palace Park
11 – Cornwall, The Eden Sessions
23 – Bristol, Amphitheatre – Siren
24-26 – Abingdon, Truck Festival
25 – Brighton, On The Beach
31 – Leeds, Kirkstall Abbey