John O'Callaghan. Photo by Heather Houghton
In an interview before their show at Chain Reaction, The Maine discussed recording their new album, touring, and bearded men in lipstick.
In the complete darkness of the alley next to Chain Reaction, I met with guitarist Jared Monaco and bassist Garrett Nickelsen, with only our voices guiding the conversation. The lights in the alley had not yet been turned on, so the only source of light we had came from Garrett’s flashlight app. The guys were incredibly friendly and versatile, and adapted well to our blind interview.
Before The Maine was formed, Garrett was still in high school, while Jared was in his first year of college. “I was studying business, so basically I had no idea what I wanted to do,” Jared added with a laugh. “Then the band started and I failed three out of my five classes.”
Now, almost five years and two albums later, The Maine have just wrapped up recording their third full length album, entitled Pioneer. As far as the writing process, Garrett says, “It usually starts with an idea John (vocalist) has, either being a melody or a chord progression that he’s been working on, and usually he’ll have a verse or a chorus, and sometimes he’ll have a complete song, but it all depends on the original idea. Then we’ll all sit in a room and work it out and finish the song.”
The album artwork of Pioneer features a burly man with extensive facial hair, and bright red lipstick. Curious as to the meaning of the photo, I asked Garrett and Jared about the story behind it. “John had this vision early on of a big burly guy with a beard and red lipstick on, and I guess we want people to attach their own meanings to it,” Jared stated. Garrett added, “We just were trying to figure out what we were picturing, what was in our heads when we were recording and what we felt through the songs, and that just stuck out. We started talking about certain CD art, and that one just stuck out. It was kind of weird and a little different, and it would probably throw some people off, but it’s supposed to represent a guy doing his own thing and not being afraid of who he is. That’s kind of the motto we had for the record.”
As far as the picture itself, Jared added, “Dirk Mai, our photographer, has a buddy, and that’s actually the guy on the cover. His name is Jason. We’ve never met him. Dirk took some photos as a mock, and we ended up really liking it. We liked the vibe of it, so we went with it for the cover.”
“[Pioneer features] a lot of rock. It’s definitely more rock-driven than we’ve ever done. I think it’s a guitar record. There’s a lot of cool guitar parts that go through the whole thing. There’s a certain vibe to it- a lot of the songs kind of do their own thing,” Garrett described. Jared added, “It’s kind of a roller coaster too. Even within the song itself. There’s a song on the end of the album, called “Waiting For My Sun To Shine,” and it starts out kind of somber sounding, and it kind of picks up, and starts to build and build, and there’s this explosive peak to the song, and then it goes back down. I feel like we were experimenting with dynamics and also creating a vibe.”
Garrett continued, “On some of the songs, we were like, ‘let’s experiment a little bit, and let’s see what else we can do and how we can put the song together.’ That song in particular, I remember, we just kinda jammed it. It just kinda flowed like that. It wasn’t really thought out too much, and it just felt real good. That’s what feels great about this album, I think. It’s just not over-thought.”
The Maine at Chain Reaction
In producing Pioneer, Garrett commented on working with producer Colby Wedgeworth: “We kinda went into it saying that we didn’t really want too much input on anything. The first thought was that we wanted someone who could just press record and was really quick. We just wanted to work really quick. We just wanted someone who could keep up with what we were doing. But as it went along, and we started to record more and got comfortable, he had his input.” Jared added, “He had some great ideas. It’s awesome to get to that comfortable place with your producer, or co-producer in this case. I needed that reassurance too. As I was writing a lead or something, I would judge the quality of each part off of his reactions.”
For The Maine, the recording process has both ups and downs. The hardest part of recording for Garrett is “drums. Ugh, it’s so annoying. Everything just ends up sounding the same. All you hear is cymbals, and after 18 hours of listening to drums you kinda go crazy. So I say, not losing your mind during drums is probably the hardest. As far as the most rewarding, there’s usually the part in the song where you’re like, THAT connected it together, THAT was what we were looking for. It could be a lead, it could be a vocal part, a million different things. So the most rewarding is definitely that one moment.”
The band is no stranger to touring, but for them, it doesn’t make it any easier each time they leave. Jared commented, “The hardest part is definitely just being away from home so much. For me at least.” As for Garrett, he replied, “That used to be pretty difficult for me, but we’ve been doing it for a good amount of time now, so I’m pretty used to that. It’s just, sometimes tour can make everyone pretty tired, like emotionally and physically drained, where you’re like, ‘I just want to sleep!’ so you’ll have those moments. But the best moments outweigh that more.” Jared added, “The best moments are playing shows and watching our fan base grow. I couldn’t ask for more.”
After their show at Chain Reaction, The Maine will travel to Brazil next week for a short tour. “We’ve had fans telling us they want us to come to Brazil ever since we started this thing. My twitter feed is all in Portuguese,” Jared said with a grin. Garrett added, “Most of the people that social network with us seem to all be from Brazil. We’ve been talking about it for years. The show in Rio is 2,000 kids, and it’s sold out. We do better down there than up here! We’re really excited to play there.”
Before their present tour supporting Pioneer, The Maine was on the road with Taking Back Sunday. Garrett gushed, “They’re incredible guys. One of the nicest bands we’ve toured with. Being able to watch one of your favorite bands every night…we spent more time watching them than any other band we’ve toured with. It was so great. Just them being so great to us, made me happy.”
The band previewed the show to be “about 13 songs you might not know,” according to Garrett. Jared added that fans could expect “a lot of standing. The first album set is 50 minutes to an hour.” Garrett then continued, “We play the whole new record, and then we go off for about 20 minutes, and we show this video that we made just poking fun at ourselves, and then we play our second set, which we’re doing kind of stripped down versions of older songs, and then we’re playing a Christmas song that we haven’t in a while, and then we meet kids after. Each ticket gets a creepy mask of the guy on our album cover. It’s a pretty chill night.”
Upon entering Chain Reaction at the start of the show, the “chill” night was actually pretty muggy. I soon realized that I was wearing the same outfit as the vocalist, which was made up of a long sleeve black shirt and a denim vest. The show was sold out, and the venue was packed to capacity with about one hundred teenage girls, with a few guys who were dragged along. In the front row stood an eight-year old girl among many other taller and older girls, but her stature and age stood out to the band. Throughout the night, vocalist John O’Callaghan talked directly to her, telling her, “I will be on my best behavior tonight. Thanks for being here little darling!” as well as prefacing any vulgar language with “earmuffs.” The first half of the show featured The Maine performing their new album, Pioneer, in its entirety.
Each song introduction and ending was met with deafening, high-pitched screams, along with numerous girls (and guys) shouting “I love you!” and various shouts of “Take off your clothes!” when John would comment about the high temperature inside the venue. The stage was cluttered with lamps, which were not illuminated until the band’s second set. The audience was extremely active, as they sang along to songs from the record that isn’t even released yet. Each sad song was met with a choir of voices yelling “Awww!” and the more upbeat rock songs featured call and response singing from the audience, as well as rhythmic clapping. John informed the front row that they made him nervous, “in a good way”.
After about an hour-long set, The Maine left the stage and a satiric video cataloguing their history as a band was played to an overly enthusiastic audience. The band soon came back on stage, now illuminated by the lamps, and took their seats on stools, armed with accordions and acoustic guitars. Throughout most of the second half, John continually held onto a red Solo cup containing a mysterious liquid. The stripped-down set featured many of The Maine’s hits, including “Saving Grace,” an appropriate holiday tune entitled “Ho Ho Hopefully,” and “Every Road.” A fan requested a song, and John told her, “I don’t know if we’re playing that song, but I know we’re playing this next song,” and the band launched into “Everything I Ask For,” with the majority of the vocals sung by the audience. John told the sold out crowd, “We’re doing this because we’re proud of this record, and people appreciate what we are doing.”
The Maine fans left Chain Reaction feeling content as they got to hear two hours worth of songs, as well as meet the band. Pioneer will be released on December 6th, satisfying a broad fan base made up of teenage girls and lipstick-clad bearded men.
