Warped Tour Week – The Maine

Story and Photos By: Chris Martinez
(Sacramento Live Performance Columnist)

Warped Tour Week With Chris Martinez – Part 4 – The Maine

It’s not often that you see a new band sell out tours, keep the fans coming, put out hit records, and score covers on magazines like AP. The Maine have done it, and they have done it well. For a band that started out only two years ago, they have reached a very successful level that bands only dream of. With two EPs and one LP under their belt, The Maine took on The AP Tour this past Spring and recently co-headlined the 2009 Vans Warped Tour. I got the chance to share a few minutes with Jared Monaco, the lead guitarist of the band.

CM: So have you guys seen any cool bands today?

Jared: Yeah we have. Our buddies, This Providence, are out on the tour now. They joined a few days ago, so we watched them.

CM: I hear you guys just signed to Warner Bros. Records, what can you tell me about that?

Jared: Yeah, we just signed a little over a month ago, so we’re really excited.

CM: What’s that like? Going from a small label to a major label?

Jared: We haven’t really noticed any changes yet. Fearless and Warner are still working together on our stuff until we drop the next record, whenever that will be. Everything has been pretty smooth and I just feel like we have more resources available now. There’s more people on the team, on board, ready to do anything that we need them to do.

CM: Do you guys have any recordings yet? Any new demos?

Jared: Nothing new. We’re always writing just for that reason. We don’t know when we’re going to get in the studio, hopefully some time soon. I mean, our album just passed the one-year mark. So we’re looking to throw something down by 2010.

CM: How does the writing process work for you guys? Do you guys gather in a group and brainstorm or does one person come with an idea?

Jared: It depends so much. Usually everything we write comes from John. He has a huge, huge, huge part in everything we do. Usually the whole idea of what we’re going to do comes from John. Then he brings it to me, I’m like the go-to guy and we work on it together. Then we’ll bring it to the guys and work on it as a band and figure out what parts need to change.

It’s been really hard on Warped Tour, because we’re so tired every day, and it really depends on where you are and what mood you’re in. I feel like Warped Tour has been a huge drain. I’ve had writers block the whole time.

CM: Are you guys touring in a van or bus?

Jared: In a bus, so it’s not that bad, but it’s still one of those thing where you’re always off balance and you don’t really have the time to sit down and focus. Lately we’ve been writing a bit more though.

CM: You guys just co-headlined The AP Tour right?

Jared: Yeah, we just did The AP Tour with 3OH!, Family Force Five, Hit The Lights, A Rocket To The Moon.

CM: Was this your first co-headlining tour?

Jared: It was our first co-headlining tour that size. We did a co-headliner with The Secret Handshake way back in the beginning when we were first starting. And yeah, it was really cool to share the stage with those guys. It was really awesome; we had a good time.

CM: On your recent LP, did you guys bring back any songs from your previous EPs?

Jared: We brought back one song, “Count ‘Em One, Two, Three.” It was off the “Stay Up, Get Down EP,” our first one. It was actually written before I was in the band. It was cool to bring back something unfamiliar to me and to throw down on the full length.

CM: Do you guys still play old songs live?

Jared: Yeah, we play, “The Way We Talk” in our set. When we have more time, we play a lot more old ones. We only have 30 minutes and we try and squeeze in as much as possible from the new album and some old stuff.

CM: You guys recently did Punk Goes Crunk right? What song did you guys cover?

Jared: Yeah, we did Punk Goes Crunk, it was awesome, man. We did an Akon cover.

CM: Did you guys pick the song yourselves or did the company pick it?

Jared: We picked it ourselves. John wanted to do a sort of hip-hop vibe and we went with “I Wanna Love You” by Snoop/Akon.

CM: Do you guys still play the cover live?

Jared: We stopped playing it live. We have a new cover now, its “Pour Some Sugar On Me” by Def Leopard. The next release that’s coming out is Punk Goes Classic Rock.

CM: Are you guys going to put that song on it?

Jared: I don’t know if it’s on it yet or not. We just decided to do that cover and then a week or two later we found out that they were doing classic rock.

CM: How long have you guys been together?

Jared: Two years.

CM: How did you guys get together?

Jared: Pat and Garret used to be in a band together. I grew up with John and my band used to play against Pat and Garret’s band in Battle of the Bands, and stuff like that around Phoenix. Kennedy had a band in Scottsdale, which is like 40 minutes from where we were. So everyone had a band before this one except for John. This was his first band. So he said he just wanted to start and sing. And it kind of worked out.

CM: What was your first show like, as a band?

Jared: I wasn’t in the band, but I was at the show. John was turned around and faced Pat the whole time. He was terrified to be on stage. We have this documentary we just put out called In Person. There’s this part where we’re talking about the first show ever and how nervous John was and there’s footage of him with his back to the crowd and it splices with footage of him now and he’s pouring water over himself and being an asshole on stage. Pretty Funny.

CM: Is this your first Warped Tour?

Jared: This is actually our second. We did two weeks last year in a van. This is our first full stint on the tour, and we have a bus now. Way better. Way better.

CM: You guys have a Twitter right? Does it help you get in touch with your fans?

Jared: Yeah. We use everything, man. Its not just Twitter, we just opened up our own website called We Are The Maine Its part of this new campaign we’re running where we’re super, super, super intimate with fan. We can post our blogs on there and it’s fully interactive.

CM: Alright, that’s it for our interview.

Jared: Cool! Thanks, you guys.

Click here to see all of Chris’ Warped Tour photos.