The Maine to Release “Black & White” This Summer Along with Headline Tour

By: Angelina Berube
Posted In: Entertainment

For the band, The Maine, whose breakout debut album, “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop” sold over 100,000 copies since its release in 2008, the year 2010 is a year of fresh starts-a new record label, new album and a headlining summer tour.

This year, the band signed with Action Theory Records, a subset of the major label, Warner Brothers. This allowed the band to be more involved in the decision making process on their new album. “It’s basically a section that we’ve created under in order to keep it that indie label vibe and to give us a chance to be hands on with everything that goes on with the label,” said Kennedy Brock, guitarist of The Maine.

The band will release their new album, “Black & White,” on Action Theory Records, this summer. “We’re hoping it’s going to be a good year,” Brock said. “We’re really excited about the album and we’re really pumped with everything going on with the label and stuff. Everything’s been a lot more hands on.”

With an EP and full length already under their belts, the band had a sense of where they were musically ready to head on “Black & White.” “The last one, we did a real small tour before and we weren’t a band for very long and we didn’t have any idea who we were really,” said Garrett Nickelsen, bassist of The Maine. “On this one, we had an idea of what we wanted to release and hopefully you can kind of tell.”

“Black & White” also has a more rock and unified sound than “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop,” Nickelsen said. “We kind of took out the electronic stuff and put more guitars,” Nickelsen said. “It’s not a drastic change. We just kind of learned what we liked and it sounds like an actual album. The last one felt like just a bunch of songs. This one feels like it ties together really well.”

On this spring tour with We The Kings, which stopped in Providence, R.I. this past weekend, the band has started to play one track from the forthcoming album, entitled, “Right Girl,” which the crowd danced along to. This past Tuesday, another song, “Inside of You,” was made available on iTunes. These songs show the growth of the band and also a more rock feel that Nickelsen discussed. Nickelsen is also happy with the crowd’s response to the new material. “When you play a new song ,usually no one moves or cares, but people seem to be grooving,” Nickelsen said. “It’s nice. It’s refreshing.”

Although the process of writing did not change much since “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, the band feels they are more aware of their sound and what they want to hear from themselves, feeling they have matured in understanding more about their music. “The more you write songs, the more you understand what works and what doesn’t,” Brock said. “We wrote a lot of songs for this record that didn’t make it or even we had thought about recording. All of those are steps in making the songs we wanted to make. And the whole last album was that way too. I think just every song and everything we do is growing and understanding what we like.”

And the new album shows even more growth from the first time the band recorded early songs such as “Daisy” when they were first starting out as a band. “I can still remember recording “Daisy” and now recording in a nice studio with a major label, it’s crazy,” Nickelsen said. “It’s kind of a weird thing to think about. It’s cool, but you don’t really get the time everyday to think about it. It’s kind of depressing in a way. I wish I think about it more.”

This summer, The Maine will be taking This Century out on their first headline tour, “An Evening with The Maine,” for a set of intimate shows. The tour will be in support of their summer release, “Black & White.” The two band bill will allow the band to spend more time hanging out with fans inside the venue after the show. “We want to give the band that we’re taking, This Century, a good shot,” Brock said. “Because there are only two bands, we are allowing them to play while the whole crowd is actually there and then just after the show we’re going to have time to be inside the venue and hang out with everybody that comes.”

Since the beginning, the band has had a close relationship with fans and this upcoming tour will be no exception. The band will also be taking their good friend and photographer, Dirk Mai, on the road to take pictures of the band and everyone at the show. “We’re just trying to do things to connect with everyone still and feel like everyone’s still apart of it because they are,” Nickelsen said.

As the band prepares for the summer tour, the band will be focusing on the release of “Black & White” and coming up with ideas for music videos. For more information on The Maine, “Black & White” and for a list of tour dates, visit wearethemaine.net.