The Maccabees have teased that they’re working on new music, with “the aim” of making a full studio album.
The London band are currently out on a run of outdoor UK headline shows, which concludes at Leeds’ Kirkstall Abbey tonight (Friday July 31).
They returned to the stage in 2025 for their first gigs together in eight years, including an emotional return to Glastonbury and a huge homecoming performance at All Points East.
Orlando Weeks and co’s summer 2026 tour has seen them debut a new song, ‘Ballad Of So Long’. The title had appeared among a list of tracks they’d been rehearsing, along with another currently-unheard cut,’She’.
During a new interview with Radio X, The Maccabees reflected on returning to their adopted home city of Brighton for this summer’s ‘On The Beach’ series. They also discussed roadtesting new material at their recent shows, and looked ahead to a possible full album.
When asked if the group were any closer to putting together a follow-up to 2015 LP ‘Marks To Prove It’, frontman Orlando Weeks replied: “Well, in that we’re playing new stuff… it’s a big jump for us.
“We hadn’t played together for eight years, and then last summer we weren’t ready to do any of that. We didn’t have any songs, and now we have some songs. We have one that we’re really confident [in] and we’re enjoy playing.
He went on to reveal that The Maccabees have more tracks they’ve “been working on whilst we’ve been away”, adding that they’ll “keep working on” these after the tour wraps up.
“That’s the aim, is to try and do it,” Weeks explained. “Make it good enough, and then it’ll happen, you know.”
Guitarist Hugo White said adding some new songs to the setlist in 2026 has given the band “a hint of the future”. “There is more to it, you know,” he shared.
Later in the chat, Weeks recalled opening for Florence + The Machine at the Hollywood Bowl, and revealed his desire to headline the venue one day.
In May, NME asked Weeks for an update on The Maccabees’ new material. “I would say we’re slightly further on than just talking about it, but we’re not a long way on,” he told us. “I live in Lisbon, so it’s harder for me to just get in a room, but I think the fact that we’re doing these shows is a good opportunity to put a fire under us. We’ll see.”
The Maccabees’ Felix White teased last November that new music from the band may be coming in 2026. He said the current gigs would “either be the last Maccabees shows, or we’ll try and make some music and see where it goes”.
He later told NME about potential future material, explaining: “I think The Maccabees is never going to be a thing where you go, ‘Oh, we got another record, another record, another record…’ because, for better or worse, everyone cares too much about it.
“If we can get together and really feel all the stuff when you’re playing a song together – even if you’re in a bad mood, you can’t help but smile really big and have all the clichés like hairs on the back of your neck [standing up]… if we can find that secret again, then that will be a really amazing thing.”
Last summer, the musician said it was “tempting” for The Maccabees to head back into the studio but revealed that the group weren’t working on any new music at the time.
White had previously admitted that the band’s live return “almost felt embarrassing” after their “definitive” break-up in 2017.
When speaking to NME at their rehearsals at the start of last year, The Maccabees confirmed there had been no talk of new music at that point: “The plan is to do [All Points East] and see how much we love it. We might hate each other by August.”
Support at tonight’s Leeds gig comes from Maxïmo Park, Everything Everything, Mystery Jets and rising Yorkshire singer-songwriter Fiona-Lee. Two intimate warm-up shows took place in Newcastle and Edinburgh earlier this month.
Weeks has released music as a solo artist in the years since The Maccabees’ latest album, and recently played a show as part of Harry Styles’ Meltdown festival. Meanwhile, guitarists Felix and Hugo have made music with 86TVs.
