Just before the Bring The Noise Festival’s first show, RUL got the chance to meet Pat Kirch, The Maine’s drummer, a few minutes before their sold out gig
Hi Pat, how are you?
Pat Kirch (drums) : Doing well. Enjoying to be back here.
How was the signing session at Landscape Rockshop?
P : It was great. The show is sold out so it was cool for some fans that can’t go to our show, to hang out with us.
You know this venue, don’t you? You played here in…
P : 2012, yeah!
Do you like this place?
P : Yeah, I think this is our favorite venue here. It’s awesome!
As you know, tonight’s gig has been changed and now, you’re on stage with Billy Talent and a French local band named Straightaway instead of a classical headline. Are you glad to play those Canadians for a free festival?
P : Yes, you know we’ve been doing the past two weekends at the Warped Tour in the UK and in Europe and they’ve been there so it’s like, today, we’re doing a small intimate date with just us and them.
By the way, how was the Warped Tour? You played between two bands in a very different style of music!
P : Exciting to play in front of a bunch of new people. Yesterday, we played between Hatebreed and Memphis May Fire!
Were you stressed?
P : It was more… different but it’s fine. It’s kinda like “take it for all that it is”. We do… careless of all the other bands or kind of bands we play with!
Let’s go back to your last record, “Forever Halloween“, which was recorded and released on your own: do you think it met fans’ expectations?
P : I think so! I mean, the fans that I’ve been talking to enjoy the record and the songs are doing good at the shows! Yes, we’re happy with this album, we’ve made a record that we are super proud of it and it’s us, it’s loud. We recorded it to tape and we didn’t added it on a computer and fix things up. It’s the first time that we made a record like that and it’s exciting!
And if you had the chance to change something on this record, what would it be?
P : Absolutely nothing. We did it on purpose and it’s the snapshot of exactly where we were at this exact second. We just played what we could play at this time.
And you think it’s better than other records that you’ve made, more mature…
P : Yeah, it’s the next step. It’s gonna change how we’re gonna make an album in the future. Being in a band is not only overthinking things, it’s also recording the songs all together. It just brings the energy that you can’t get by any other way.
After releasing a name in which there is the word “Halloween”, you just have announced a new acoustic EP intituled “Imaginary Numbers”, which will be released in December 2013 during the Christmas period. Why this choice?
P : Putting this out now doesn’t really have anything to do with the holiday. (Laughs) It just has to happen like that. We’re excited to be doing an acoustic EP, it’s a project we talked about for years and people were asking for it. It just made sense.
Can you tell us a bit more about this new EP? Why is it an acoustic one?
P : It’s just something that we just wanted to do, wanted to try. If we did one, we wanted to record it ourselves by our own. We didn’t have an engineer, we didn’t have anyone, it’s just the five of us. We built a little recording studio, the 81 Twenty-Three offices in Arizona. We just recorded it in four days and just had fun, no pressure! The idea came because we had some extra songs that we wanted to record differently.
And it’s because you only had four days that you just put out an EP and not an acoustic album.
P : We didn’t feel that it was the right time to record ten acoustic songs.
Because it was too boring.
P : Exactly.
What’s the story behind the title “Imaginary Numbers”?
P : To be honest, that’s more of a question for John. The title comes from a song on the EP, the last song (“Love Sad”). It’s just kind of The Maine.
Do you really feel free in your musical choices ?
P : Incredebly free, we can do whatever we want. We really wanted to record a record live and not add things on the computer, catch the way it feels and choose the songs we had. It’s awesome.
Isn’t it a bit more difficult?
P : Not the creative aspect, it’s easer that it could be. The other aspect, like the business aspect of it, is harder and we do everything ourselves. But at this point, we’ve put out just as many albums independently as we have on record labels, so we kinda have some experience to know how to do things at this point.
One of your brand new songs is called “Raining in Paris”. Is Paris a city that inspires you?
P : Yeah. We ended the tour here the last time that we played and John stayed in Paris for a couple of more days just for vacation and he wrote the song here!
After that, you’ll do an acoustic tour.
P : In the US, yes.
Where does this idea come from? Is it a way to try something new and show your fans a new face of The Maine, a more intimate one?
P : We don’t always want to repeat ourselves and it makes us work harder and come up with an interesting set, because if you’re just doing the same thing over again, you’re just gonna do the same boring set, etc.
Is that the reason why you don’t play old songs?
P : But we still do!
But not songs from your very first EPs.
P : The main reason is we have four albums now and three EPs and we play fourteen songs, so you have to pick!
You’re still an independent band right now but is there a label that was really interested by you and wanted you to sign a record deal…
P : Yes, but it’s an industry that we’re not really interested in at this time. We don’t even have those conversations. We just made it known that we were not interested right now!
Any messages to your French fans?
P : Thank you for all the support and we always have a great time here. It’s always awesome and we can’t wait to come here. We’ve got a tour in the States so we would just like thank them for being patient and understanding. We do the best we can. We’ll be outside just after the show for a meet and greet and we love Paris! Can’t wait to keep coming back. (Laughs)
Finally, we are “RockUrLife”, so as a conclusion, what rocks your life?
P : Oh man. What rocks my life? Girls ! Yeah, girls, they are insane!
Website : wearethemaine.net