Just a year ago, The Maine backed up Boys Like Girls at Showcase Live in Foxboro. This year, they are headlining their own tour and promoting their new album, Black and White. They are a young, gifted band that has risen quickly to success. You would think that it would go to their heads. Not exactly. Drummer Pat Kirch–representing fellow band members John O’Callaghan on lead vocals, Kennedy Brock on guitar, Jared Monaco on guitar and Garrett Nickelsen on bass–just seems grateful to be here.
MM – Welcome back to Boston. We are very happy to have you. You guys opened for Boys like Girls and how do like the venue?
Pat – It’s really cool – nice and new….
MM – And what do you think about Bos ton?
Pat – It’s awesome. We’ve always really good shows in Boston.
MM – Tell me about what it’s like to be in Boston compared to other places in the country In terms of shows like this.
Pat – This is definitely one of the big ger shows to tour which is cool, definitely something that we’ve been looking forward to. It’s just that there is a great environment and the kids seem to be excited to come to the shows here.
MM – Did you like the punk scene and did you get influenced a little bit from that?
Pat – Yeah, me and Garrett ran hardcore bands for a few years before this band started kind of like played shows…..There was five or six bands we played with every weekend and that what I kind of think is missing now. There’re not really like consis tent shows, like, before the thing to do like every weekend you’d go see a show and now there’s not too much of that.
MM – What is the focus for the band like The Maine in terms of musical style, be cause you’ve been influenced by so many styles. How do you do it?
Pat – I think the goal is to take our influ ences and then kind of form our own sound and the ultimate goal to have our own iden tity at the end of the day. And for people to like oh that’s what the Maine sounds like this or that…
MM – I know you guys had a new pro ducer recently. How did that work for you?
Pat – It was great. We worked with How ard Benson this time. It was great. He kind of let us do whatever he wanted. And he kind of, like, helped us do what we do bet ter.
MM – You were with an indie label previ ously before you went to the majors. How long were you with the indie label before you got signed with a major?
Pat – We were signed probably for two years. They were still helping us out. They helped us build what we have now. We couldn’t have done it with out them and it was a really great partnership. And now we have more people to help us out and I think the biggest thing now is to make sure we keep doing what we’ve always done and now we have more people to help.
We were a band for a little under a year [when we first signed].
MM – That’s amazing!
Pat – There were labels at our first show to check us out. It all happened very fast but at the same time it doesn’t really feel fast be cause we worked so hard and nothing was handed to us even though it did happen very fast. It was all very planned out and we knew exactly what we wanted to do, or to a point. So I think that’s been our biggest thing is just having an idea of what we want to sound like and be perceived as, and just flow that pattern, and we don’t do anything that doesn’t fit in with that.
MM – How would you define the Maine style?
Pat – Rock band. I mean that’s very gen eral but I guess that’s how we would like to keep it. I guess there is definitely pop rock elements. I guess maybe we’re pop rock.
MM – What do want your fans to see when they see you on stage?
Pat – Hopefully they can see that we’re real. I think there are a lot of people that are not who we are, and hopefully we can continue to be that. And hopefully people can see that.
MM – Why did you become a musician?
Pat – My neighbor played drums and he showed me something and I kept playing and I haven’t wanted to do anything else. And I once I got started, I couldn’t see myself do anything else. When I finished high school, or even before I finished high school, we started going on the road and there is nothing else I wanted to do besides that. My mom finished my senior year of high school online while I was recording the first album; my mom was finishing my English final on line.
My family, my mom knew this is the one thing that I wanted to do and it seemed to be working out enough so they supported and they still support it.
Also, we have a new album, Black and White, and it’s in stores and on iTunes. Check it out.
MM – In the past social media has been incredible in connecting fans. Where do think The Maine would be if you didn’t have all those social media connections?
Pat – I try to take pride in setting the trends and patterns, and setting the bar of what bands need to do on their sites and hopefully connecting with fans more than any other band, really making it more of a family. I think we’d be doing the exact same thing but in a completely different way. I just think that we’d figure it out just like we figured out how to work with the Internet. If we didn’t have the Internet we’d be doing the same thing. We are going to do what ever it takes to get as many people we can to hear the music.
MM – Any last words for up and coming musicians?
Pat – Really do what you believe and be yourself as much as you can. It’s good to take influence from people that do things really well but at the same time try to find your own identity. And once you decide who you want to be, don’t ever sacrifice that. Do not ever forget you are or who you want to be and then I think you’ll be fine…and work hard because nothing will be handed to you. ….if you don’t work for it, it’s going to go away as fast as it came.