ABOUT THE MAKING OF HALLUCINATING LOVE 

The year 2020 was supposed to be a reset, with time set aside to work on new material. But they soon started spiralling. Chris was facing chronic insomnia and getting to grips with a recent ADHD diagnosis; Liam developed crippling anxiety – and that’s not to mention everything that was going on globally at the time. “There was a massive fallout from us touring the world and then as soon as we finished, being locked down,” says Liam. “Our mental health plummeted.”

They were feeling the pressure in more ways than one, and ended up scrapping their first draft. Writing trips were booked in to help jumpstart a new creative flow. Then, in late 2021, Chris started experiencing chronic headaches. After one such trip the following spring – where the duo wrote some of their best music yet – he finally received the diagnosis: a rare condition called chiari malformation that causes pressure on the brain. “It was brutal,” says Chris, while Liam adds: “It was heartbreaking to see him try and push on in the studio, sometimes he would keel over from the pain and then try to push on with work again.”

Eventually, something had to give. Chris underwent surgery in November 2023, just as their album was coming close to being finished. The experience has brought Maribou State – friends since their teens back in Hertfordshire, just outside of London – close like never before. That album, poignantly titled ‘Hallucinating Love’, is imbued with a special warmth, the kind of rush of being with your friends in a festival field, hugging them tightly, and of triumphing over a challenging few years. The pair also made the difficult decision to delay its release, so that Chris could have the recovery time he needed. There were serious complications with surgery and, at one point, concerns that he might not make it. Thankfully he pulled through – and the duo are grateful to their fans for their support. “They’ve been so compassionate and understanding during this time, it’s been really amazing,” says Chris.

‘Hallucinating Love’ is worth the wait: it’s ambitious, packed with sublime anthemia, and is injected with restless energy, soaring strings and stunning guest vocals from long-standing collaborator Holly Walker and new friends like MOBO-nominated artist Andreya Triana. It evidences Maribou State’s evolving balance of intimacy and intricacy, as well as their knack for making epic sundown music. Says Liam: “When we were writing, we were imagining how great it’d feel to finally be back onstage, bringing people together again.” The overall feeling is one of hope. Hallucinating Love is “about being in a dark place, a place of struggle, and then looking forward to bright futures,” Chris explains.

Working more closely with others also helped to mine musical gold, at various recording sessions in bucolic settings around the country. Liam and Chris invited along collaborators like incredibly talented producer Jack Sibley and bassist Jonjo Williams, creating little makeshift communities wherever they went. It infused their music with a new energy. On the album’s lead single ‘Blackoak’, you can even hear an amateur choir of friends, recorded in the stairwell of an old country house during one of their stays.

Elsewhere there’s the cabin-folk of ‘Rolling Stone’ and the Celtic marching drums of standout track ‘Peace Talk’, on which Holly Walker delivers a truly superb vocal performance. She returns on another highlight, today’s ‘Otherside’, too – a joyful blast of soul-pop that evokes careening along the coastline in California. The field recordings and samples in their music – for which the duo are known – give their sound a richly layered texture, like a dusty cassette tape found in the bottom of a glovebox. And here they take it all to the next level: ‘Dance on the World’, ‘Otherside’, ‘Peace Talk’ are among their most expansive tunes yet – evidencing just their skill as songwriters. ‘All I Need’ is classic Maribou, a trick-mirror of melancholy and hope, with Andreya Triana’s gorgeous vocal cushioned by a propulsive, glitchy trip-hop beat, brightly-lit guitar and ghostly omnichord. This being Maribou State, the songs are evocative and full of gorgeous details – see ‘Bloom’’s guitar line, unfurling like a flower, with drum flourishes that gently recall old-skool rave.