‘THE MAINE IS DEAD!’ and Constantly Being Reborn
On their fourth Sad Summer Fest tour, The Maine gets into their 16 years of evolving sound, creation of a tight-knit community and what’s up next
All summer, fans of The Maine were confronted with a slogan that’s either ominous or exciting: THE MAINE IS DEAD! The bold statement — which, considering they’re in the swing of touring, clearly does not indicate any break soon — came paired with the release of a new single, “Touch.” And while it was positioned as set apart from their current sound, fans of the band are no strangers to hearing something new each time there’s a release. After 16 years, change is in The Maine’s core identity.
PHOTO BY HALEY MILNES
For the last sixteen years, bandmates John O'Callaghan (lead vocals), Jared Monaco (guitar), Garrett Nickelsen (bass), Patrick Kirch (drums), and Kennedy Brock (guitar) have grown The Maine into something much bigger than a band. Their 8123 community, named after a location in their Arizona hometown, showed out at Sad Summer Fest to celebrate another round of setlists featuring their ninth and self-titled album.
Though summer has ended, and with it the run of The Maine’s fourth Sad Summer Fest, the band isn’t done with shows for the year (or their self-titled album) quite yet. But the festival, which the group had a hand in founding, is a particularly special experience with their powerful fan community, and perhaps even more so as they push themselves toward trying on yet another new sound.
Pleaser had the chance to talk with Kirch and Brock backstage in Philadelphia, getting insight on how their band pushes their sonic growth forward year after year, what Summers with their fans means to them, and if The Maine is really dead:
Pleaser: You guys have said “Touch” is maybe the beginning of a new era, which I think everybody is excited for. What's your process like when you're developing a new sound? Is it intentional or are you guys just kind of going with whatever feels right at the time?
Pat Kirch: I think it's kind of a thing where, is it the beginning of something new or the end of something old? I don't even think that we necessarily know at the moment. We just had this idea for a song and literally just kind of went in and did it. And I think there's a freedom in not making a full album, where this song can either be something that leads to something else or it's just a one-off thought.
So I think we kind of just leaned into the freedom of that. We do whatever we want—we put it out, people hate it, and then maybe we never play it ever again. Or it becomes a song that's always in our set, you know?
Kennedy Brock: Yeah, [we] test the waters in certain ways, just being able to go do something different, one-off in that way. But yeah, what [Pat was] saying, basically I think it's both. We end up doing the initial idea as something that isn't thought about, and then what we're talking about as we're doing things is very intentional. And the way we discuss things as we go I think is, very directional once we've decided on a thing.
Everything right now says “The Maine is Dead.” Can we get some insight into what that means or is it intentionally ambiguous?
PK: It's intentionally ambiguous. I think it can mean whatever people would like it to mean. You know, obviously, we haven't announced a band breakup, so it's a reinvention of sorts.
With each new era you guys come up with a new look and it's always evolving the vibe of The Maine. Do you have a specific way that you make those creative decisions?
PK: It kind of comes about in different ways. I think on the last record, the self-titled record, I had a pretty clear visual vision for it, even while we were in the studio. And [I] kind of pitched everybody on this black-and-white disco dance vibe and we just ran with it.
Other times it's more of an evolving thing, where we'll even begin an era, it's feeling one way, and then it evolves into something else that ends up representing the album that wasn't even there in the beginning. Every time we come about it in a different way, but it's always something that just feels like a necessary part of the music. So, the music comes first and that kind of helps shape all that, dictate the feel of what's to come.
PHOTO BY HALEY MILNES
I love the concept of something that surprises you when you're making a project. Did you guys have any moments of that with the self-titled album?
PK: There's a song called “How to Exit a Room.” That one was written totally like an acoustic song basically. And just one day in the studio, we were just like, this isn't working, how can we do it differently? And it just took a 180. So that's probably, even out of like all of our songs, it might be like the biggest turn that a song has taken in like a very fast amount of time. So that was cool because then even for us, even though all the songs are new, that felt like the most new because we reinvented it literally in real time.
KB: It gives you a boost while you're working on stuff too. You're re-excited about the song in a different way, which was cool.
You guys are finishing off the massive Sweet 16 tour soon. How has that celebration of your career and your relationship with your fans been?
KB: It was really, really fun. Still, it will be for these next dates we're doing. But yeah, it's pretty overwhelming. Every night was really, really a special one. Like the best show we've had in those cities every time.
When you guys were building the band and putting out your first few albums, did you ever imagine that it would be like this — that you would do something like Sweet 16?
KB: I mean, no, not in that way. I think as we keep going, you keep moving goalposts, you keep moving on things. You go, “Oh my God, we've played this room that we've wanted to play forever,” and then you play it. And then you have a good time doing it, and then it evolves into you're excited to be back, and then yeah, it's wild how it all shakes out.
PK: I think our references of what success was in the beginning, you couldn't have imagined. The other bands we looked up to had only two, three, four albums, you know? So to even think that far ahead was not really possible. I thought if we were a band for eight years, that would be like, how is that even possible?
The landscape of music has changed so much. Now, we can see the people that were ahead of us and some of them are still here. So you see that as possible, and then that makes you feel like, okay, we can keep doing this.
PHOTO BY HALEY MILNES
This is y'all's fourth Sad Summer Fest and, of course, you guys had a hand in founding it. What does it mean to you guys to get to do this every summer?
PK: It's awesome. I feel proud to be a part of it. And I am proud that Sad Summer has built people that look forward to coming to it, regardless of our band, that it kind of took on its own identity. So that's the coolest thing, is to put something out in the world and then see it become its own thing. It's a lot like watching your kids grow.
You guys have such an awesome community with 8123. I know it's kind of a hard question, but what does that mean to each of you to have that tangible community that you can look at?
PK: I mean, that's a hard thing to describe. I think at least for myself, I'm honored that we get to do that, that we get to bring people together, whether it's people that meet each other through our music and they are friends, or they have a shared experience with us.
KB: I'm proud of the community, just like [Pat] was saying with the last thing. We're very lucky that we get to be a part of a community like that.
PK: It's cool to feel like you have your own space in the world, because if not, it can kind of feel like you're just floating out there on your own. It's a thing that, I think until we're finished being a band, it'll be hard to understand the impact that it's had.
Because so much of the thought every day is like, well, what more can we do? What cool things can we do for people? So it's like, you're not appreciating it as much as you should, but I'm almost okay with that deep down. I appreciate it, but to me, it’s more important for my energy to be towards making it better for people so that other people can experience the things that they get from it.
When you look forward, what do you hope you can get from the next era? Or what do you hope you can do next when you've already done so many of those big bucket list items?
PK: I think it's just like, can our next record be our best album? That's the only goal. And hopefully, people continue to come out of the shows and build their own friendships and stuff. But outside of that, we're a band, so what bands do is make albums. So I hope that our shows get better and I hope that our albums get better.
KB: It's a thing where we just want to continue enjoying doing it.
With the new single, and even with the last album, what's your favorite part of the creation process of a new project?
PK: There's always a moment when recording a song that's like, all right, it kind of feels like a demo. And then you add whatever you keep in your recording, drum, bass, keyboards, guitars, and then there's like, the fourth guitar part that gets added on, you're like, oh, now this feels like a song. It feels like a fully thought-out thing. I think the moment that happens, and you realize, now this is what it's going to be like when people hear it.
KB: There's always a crescendo of [when] we all are listening to the song a bunch of times. Sometimes it happens in the demo phase where we're all just jamming that thing over and over again being like, oh, cool, whatever we found there is something special. It's always funny to be like, once the record's out, “I don't do that anymore.”
Garrett was playing a song the other day, we were talking about something for a future set, and he was listening to it, he's like, “It's been so long since I've listened to this song.” And you're just really thinking about parts and then really listening to things. And that's kind of a fun aspect too; a couple years later, you'll hear something and be like, “Oh, sh*t, I wish we could do it that way now.” You're always constantly looking at it.
Is it possible for you guys to have a favorite song of your own with such a big discography?
KB: Mine's always the one that's most fun playing currently. Right now, I'm loving playing “Touch.” It's very fun. Totally different vibe. Just gets going, it's cool.
PK: I can't pick because whenever I get to, I just put on a full album. I don't do it often, but if I'm trying to dream up a new idea, sometimes I'll just put on some of our albums and I get like…it's an emotional thing because I'm really proud of what we did. Like, I haven't listened to American Candy in eight years, but then I'll put it on and be like, “Oh my God, this is this cool.”
So if I put any album on, as [I’m] listening to everything, that's my favorite, and then I listen to the next one. I can appreciate them all for different [reasons], they'll do different things. I like different things about all of them. Even ones that I feel maybe aren't objectively as good as others or something, there's still things [I like] about them. Like what we're doing, even how it sounds, or oh, we made a decision that totally changed, just by picking a different drum to play or something that changed the course of all of it or deciding to record with a certain person. Yeah, so I'm the biggest fan.
What's been your favorite memory from this summer?
KB: I've been just happy to be out with all the bands that we've been out with. A lot of them are longtime friends and getting to have those interactions throughout the day all day — yhat community thing. I miss those aspects from the summer tours that we would do like Warped Tour and stuff. And I think that camaraderie helps all the bands do better because you're picking pieces from those conversations and you're learning from each other. It's a cool thing.
PK: It's kind of a basic answer, but I think some of the shows just pop out as like, “Oh man, this feels just so awesome.” I mean, you think about when the idea of the festival came and then to be doing it this much later and see how much it's grown, and looking at the crowd and seeing a mixture of just how many people are there. A mixture of seeing all the sad summer decor everywhere. I was like, “Oh, this is actually a real thing that people come to.”
While The Maine are soon wrapping up the Sweet 16 Tour, their annual hometown 8123 Fest is quick approaching. The celebration will continue with full play-throughs of The Maine and American Candy on night one, and a “Career-Spanning Experience” on night two — sure to be a weekend to remember for the whole 8123 family.
