lowprofiles
The Maine
Alternative Press - Rob Ortenzi on 1/23/09 @ 11:46 AM - altpress.com
NOW PLAYING: Can't Stop, Won't Stop (FEARLESS)
WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW 'EM: The band's Matt Squire-produced debut is hookier than a Clive Barker flick, yet not a single band member can legally purchase alcohol in the U.S.
YOU LIKE? YOU'LL LIKE: CUTE IS WHAT WE AIM FOR / PERMANENT ME / JACK'S MANNEQUIN
STORY: Brendan Manley
PHOTO: Patrick Emmons
Romantic notions of DIY touring be damned-it's no fun sleeping in the back of a Chevy Suburban, especially when your mattress is a spare tire. That's why the recent upgrade to a standard-issue touring van for fresh-faced power-pop quintet the Maine is enough to keep the band grinning. Everything else-like spending much of this past summer opening for Good Charlotte and Boys Like Girls while promoting their catchy full-length debut, Can't Stop, Won't Stop-is icing on their pop-rock cake. While things may appear to be happening overnight for the group (and, true, they did just form in 2007 while some members were still in high school), drummer Pat Kirch is quick to point out that a lot can be accomplished during a short amount of time. "We've definitely put in our work," says drummer Pat Kirch, who initiated the band with bassist Garrett Nickelsen. "Aside from sleeping in the Suburban, [while I was still in school] I used to stay up until 3 or 3:30 every night talking to [fans] on MySpace. When I look back, I can't believe what we've done in a year-and-a-half."
After attracting the attention of Fearless Records during an early indie tour (the infamous trek in the Suburban), the band-Kirch, Nickelsen, vocalist John O'Callaghan and guitarists Kennedy Brock and Jared Monaco-formally introduced themselves to the world in December 2007 with the EP The Way We Talk, which garnered substantial buzz among critics and fans alike-including a spot among AP's "Bands You Need To Know" in 2008. "We recorded the EP in four days at a friend's house," remembers Kirch. "We couldn't tour [afterward] because me and Garrett were still in high school, so we just wrote for the [full-length] record."
The band tapped producer Matt Squire (Panic At The Disco, All Time Low) to man the boards and entered the studio in January of this year to begin work on Can't Stop, Won't Stop, released this past July. Packed with clever, hook-laden toe-tappers that suggest a level of songwriting maturity well beyond the group's years, Can't Stop is unapologetically poppy, yet nothing like the ultra-sanitized teen boy- bands sharing stages with Miley Cyrus at a stadium near you. Having a luxurious six weeks to record allowed the band time to experiment with a greater palette of sounds and textures, while still holding true to their keep-it-simple ethos. "We didn't set out with anything specific in mind-we just wanted to make a record that we would enjoy, and hopefully other people would, too," says Kirch. "We wanted to make the record we wanted to make."
After the Good Charlotte tour, they jumped the pond with the Academy Is... and We The Kings to do their first tour of the U.K., then returned stateside for a two-month gig with All Time Low and Mayday Parade. Even after the whirlwind that's been the past two years, the Maine's immediate future won't be any slower: Kirch says the Maine plan to tour well into 2009 behind Can't Stop, which despite its occasional imperfections, is a major milestone in the band's young career-which Kirch says reflects the band's growth. "Even though there are things that aren't perfect and we could've done better, this record represents a moment in time for us," he says. "When we wrote this album, I'd come home from school and we'd work on songs every day. There's nothing that we would change."
Which album's had the most influence on you?
"Third Eye Blind's [self-titled] first record," says Pat Kirch. "That was the first concert I ever went to, and after that, I started wanting to be in a band. It's a timeless album, and we want to be able to do something like that eventually. In the '90s there was a lot more focus on songs, whereas now music's a lot more focused on image. That album has great songs, and that's what we want to focus on. We want to write great songs."
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The Maine = AMAZING<3
ilovethem with awmyheart? Pat?