How's life in the Maple State at the moment?
 | | The Maple State |
"Incredibly busy but incredibly rewarding; since December it really has become a full time job for us, so I guess we’re getting a taste of how hard we’ll be working for the next year or so!" You're touring with +44. How has that been? "It’s been amazing, we’re playing the biggest venues we’ve done so far and we’re doing it with the best crew and band imaginable. The audiences have been great too; we’re musically very different from +44 so we’ve been amazed with the really positive response we’ve got at the shows. "It was strange to be playing the Academy with Mark Hoppus; when I went to see Blink 182 play there back in 2000, I never dreamed we’d be doing this sort of thing a few years down the line." Where did the name come from? | "I wrote the lyrics to the song after the office Christmas party in 2005. A lot of alcohol was consumed and a very interesting time was had by all." | | Gregory on the inspiration for Joanna |
"We get asked this in every interview we’ve done in the past two years and I don’t think we’ve ever had an answer for it. I think Christian just saw it written somewhere and liked it." The new single, Joanna, what's it about? "Myself and William use to work in a call centre in Stockport - great work if you can get it - and Joanna was a young lady who also worked there who I had a bit of a crush on. "I wrote the lyrics to the song after the office Christmas party in 2005. It was in this really posh hotel just outside of Stockport, and basically a lot of alcohol was consumed and a very interesting time was had by all." The EP is out on High Voltage. What do you think of the label?
 | | The Maple State |
"It’s a great label; Alistair and Richard, who run the label, are awesome guys. They work flat out promoting their bands and really getting them heard and seen around the country. Right now, we couldn’t ask for anymore from them." What does the future hold for the Maple State? "We’re going into the studio to record what should be our next single and we’ll be getting that out as soon as possible. We’re touring the UK in March and hopefully heading out to the US to do some dates with our friends Motion City Soundtrack in July. "Other than that, we’re writing and demoing songs for our album which we’re going to try and have out by the end of the year." Joanna is out now on High Voltage Records. | 
