Pop-punkers The Maine have been on the road non-stop for about a year and a half. Their single “Everything I Want” blew up in early 2009 as they set out as co-headliners for the Alternative Press tour with 3OH!3. Then they spent the entire summer playing the Hurley Stage at Warped Tour. Currently they are supporting Boston natives Boys Like Girls and Cobra Starship on the Op Presents tour. Guitar and back up vocalist Kennedy Brock talked to Blast for a few minutes before The Maine headlined a show at Philadelphia’s Electric Factory on one of their days off to let us know what the band is up to and their recording plans in upcoming months
BLAST: How is it being on a tour this big? What are your favorite and least favorite things about it?
KENNEDY BROCK: It’s really comfortable being on tour with these guys. We did a tour with [Boys Like Girls] about two summers ago and they really mentored us about what to do and what not to do on tour. Being back is cool with this older brother band. There is a lack of privacy though. That’s not really a big deal at all though. There is just always someone around, somewhere. There’s nowhere that any of the bands go where they aren’t in front of people.
BLAST: You guys have announced that you are going on a break after this tour to record. Have you decided where you’re going? How much about the new record has been decided?
KB: The break is planned to do some writing in preparation for a record and if we have time to record before we head back on the road. As of right now, we haven’t been doing a lot of writing besides what usually gets done on the road. We’re not really sure [where] and it’s not set in stone when we’ll go in to record, but the sooner the better.
BLAST: Does this mean that the rumor about The Maine going on a headlining tour in the spring is true?
KB: That’s not true necessarily either. We have talked about random stuff but nothing has been set up. We’re still trying to narrow down when we’ll go and do stuff.
BLAST: How do you think The Maine has changed since the two EPs and “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop”?
KB: I feel like every time you do something you get better at it. We’ve had a good amount of songs to put under our belt now. We’ve been growing up a little bit. I think everyone is just coming into their own. We are all grown up. There’s not much that’s necessarily changed just more developed I guess. The writing should stay the same. It’s a lot of John O’s [the lead singer] brain and we all try to harness what he does well. Things should stay pretty similar.
BLAST: There’s a journal/diary that you guys did for Warped Tour. Why did you choose Warped Tour to do this?
KB: I think Warped Tour, in itself, is a crazy thing. At the same time, it’s like any normal tour we’ve done. We just wanted people to see where our heads are at during every day. Each of us did journals every day of the tour then mashed them up and added pictures of different things that were happening. I think it’s a cool way of showing everyone the kind of behind the scenes stuff.
The Op Tour featuring Boys Like Girls, Cobra Starship, The Maine, A Rocket to the Moon and Versaemerge will be in Boston November 27th and 28th at Showcase Live in Foxboro, Mass. Order links for The Maine’s Warped Tour diary, “This is Real Life” can be found on their myspace.
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