Tempe-based rock quintet The Maine made one final stop on its tour at The Clubhouse on Friday. Concertgoers were excited to hear songs from their newest album “Pioneer,” as well as songs from their previous two records.
Before the show, singer John O’Callaghan, guitarist Jared Monaco, and bassist Garrett Nickelsen sat down with The State Press to discuss their new album and the future of the band.
The State Press: What inspired you to start recording so soon after releasing your last album “Black and White” (2010)?
Garrett Nickelsen: I don’t know. To us, I feel like it felt like a long time. I remember when we first actually sat down and started writing it felt like we were in jail for a long time, and we just sat down and wrote about 12 songs in three days. It just kind of felt like (something) we needed to do more than anything.
Jared Monaco: We toured a lot on “Black and White.” (It was) pretty exhaustive touring. We were doing a lot of national stuff. John always has these ideas flowing, so I felt it was kind of due for us to get back in and start working on these songs. It felt right, and I’m glad we did.
John O’Callaghan: I guess we just wanted to write music and keep doing it. It just kind of happened. We just recorded, and we enjoyed the way it sounded. Not sonically, well, yeah, sonically. The quality of the recordings were just very pleasing to us, so we just decided to do the whole thing. I just think as musicians, as we try to call ourselves or get to a point where we can really call ourselves (that), … this was very imperative to trying to reach that goal.
SP: What keeps you going as a band with all of the economic and label-related problems that are so prevalent in music today?
JOC: Tonight’s a perfect example. This tour has been very fulfilling for us because the kids, the adults, the young adults that have come out to the tour, already knew what to expect before walking into the room. They knew it was only going to be us, they knew we were playing the new record, so for them to actually show up is such a positive influence on us, and it makes us feel like we’re actually doing something that people care about. I think now more than ever it’s the people that are showing up to the shows. That’s really what continues to drive us.
SP: You guys have been playing the new album during the tour. What is your favorite song to play live, and which song has received the best response so far?
GN: My favorite to play is probably a song called “When I’m at Home.” I just feel like it’s one of the craziest songs we’ve ever recorded, and just to hear it live is kind of cool to me every night. (Pointing to Monaco) He shreds.
JM: That one’s fun for me, too. The album’s pretty adventurous guitar-wise, so for me it’s fun to do that live, and John gets to play an electric on “When I’m at Home.” I don’t think we’ve ever done that before, so it’s kind of cool to be in that setting as a band.
GN: “Some Days” is the one that seems to go over the best, at least so far.
SP: What influenced the material on this record both lyrically and musically?
JOC: Lyrically, I wanted to stray away from the normal, kind of our go-to, which is just writing songs about getting the girl or losing the girl or chasing the girl, and (write) more about things we’ve experienced. I mean, we’re constantly listening to tons of different music so it’s hard to pinpoint one inspiration. I think subconsciously we all kind of bring everything. Nothing’s original, you know what I mean? Nothing, in my opinion, art-wise is original now. It can’t be because there’s always somebody that’s done something before. We didn’t go in and sit down and say, “Let’s write a Wilco song” or “Let’s write a New Radicals song.” I just kind of took my ideas to them or we started writing. I don’t know. It came naturally.
SP: Even though you have just released “Pioneer,” what is your future plans in terms of writing and recording?
JOC: We’re already writing.
GN: We also have a lot of songs left over. We ended up recording over 30 songs so there are a lot of B-sides that I’m sure we’re going to do something with.
JOC: I think, just trying to experiment and just trying to take things places we haven’t yet. We don’t want to create a stale environment, and we don’t want to put out “Pioneer” again. We’re not going to record 13 more that sound like that. Who knows?
Reach the reporter at okhiel@asu.edu.
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