Many bands don’t make it to their tenth album, and even fewer do so with the same five friends they started with in a garage nearly two decades ago. But The Maine has always been the exception to the rule, treating their discography less like a product and more like a living, breathing gallery for their "8123 Family" of fans. On April 10th, the band officially ushered in the "Green Era" with the release of Joy Next Door. According to the band, the inspiration was "inherently born out of wanting to make something for ourselves. Something that all five of us could agree on and see ourselves putting on our record players."
Getting to double digits in the album column wasn't without its mental hurdles, however. The band admits there were "lots of challenges going into the tenth album," noting that "for starters, it's very difficult to wrestle with the thought of the nine albums that came before this one." To shake off the weight of their own history, the quintet—John O’Callaghan, Kennedy Brock, Jared Monaco, Garrett Nickelsen, and Pat Kirch—focused on the momentum of the present. They approached the recording process with a "strip it to the studs" mentality, where no idea was sacred. "The biggest surprise in the studio was that no matter how finished a song felt in its demo form, we were determined to break it down and reshape it to see what it was made of before we decided it was good enough to be on this album," the band explains, calling the exhaustive process the only way to ensure the record became "the best form of itself."
This dedication to the craft is palpable on the new single, "Quiet Part Loud," a track propelled by martial drums and an almost therapeutically intimate vocal performance. John O’Callaghan reveals that the song was born out of a "now or never" urgency, stating that "some songs take months or years to write, and some take hours. This one came together quickly out of necessity, because time is sometimes not on your side." That raw, organic energy is exactly why the band chose green to represent this cycle. Drummer Pat Kirch notes that the "green grass on the album art feels like it matches perfectly with the organic instrumentation and imperfections left intact on the album."
Looking ahead, the band is most eager for fans to hear "Palms," a track they describe as an "earworm" that is "big and full of energy." But more than just individual hits, the band hopes listeners take in the project as a cohesive narrative, having written and recorded it in sequential order. "I hope they get to experience this album the way I like to experience albums. Front to back," the band says, adding that "now that the record's done, we're just looking forward to that moment when it no longer belongs to us."
As they gear up for the I love you but I chose The Maine tour this spring, they want the world to know they have no intention of tapping the brakes. "We're not slowing down," they insist. "The thought of bringing these new songs on the road and seeing so many familiar faces reminds all of us why we do this thing."
Joy Next Door is out now, listen on Spotify.
