Music

MARVIN x Sports Team: On their new album Boys These Days, the Cambridge six-piece are ready to grow up

For a band that’s had both of their previous albums debut in the UK top five, often ahead of acts way bigger than them, Cambridge indie-rockers Sports Team haven’t always necessarily had the best luck. Their excellent 2020 debut Deep Down Happy was released in the throes of the pandemic, while its 2022 follow-up Gulp! was lost in the stampede of activity following the end of lockdowns. “Because of the conditions we were releasing them, putting albums out felt more like the end of a campaign,” says Alex Rice, the band’s frontman.

“It felt like, ‘alright, that’s done, let’s start thinking about the next one,’ he says, speaking in a chatty phone call this June. “This album feels like it’s got a real afterlife to it, though. Musically, I think it’s the best stuff we’ve done. People are listening and then being like, ‘I actually really like this’ – often in a way that they didn’t necessarily on the first couple. As we keep touring it and keep playing it, and the more people hear it, the better it’s going to be.”

Read the full feature in the MARVIN British Invasion Issue. Click HERE to purchase.