Home
sign up| features / music interview |
 content by: editor |
 maximo park interview
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.It’s gonna be Omega. There’s not much flab on Maximo Park’s musical bones, and all those hours of dedicated playing have rendered their sound, to use northern parlance, tight as a gnat’s chuff. New LP Our Earthly Pleasures says so.Former health worker turned Maximo Park bass impresario, Archis Tiku points his fretboard at us down the phone line from Warp Records HQ and blasts us with a cocksure statement of intent: “We’re in attack mode. We know how good we are, and we want to blow everyone away with our tunes, our raw power, force and drive.” With phrasing more akin to Motörhead’s Lemmy letting rip, he continues: “We’ve got louder… But not just loud for loud’s sake.” Don’t be expecting any old metal though. Think ‘Maximo Park with the knobs turned up a tad’, courtesy of A-list rock producer Gil Norton. “We knew of Gil Norton’s work from favourite records like Pixies’ Doolittle and Echo & The Bunnymen’s Ocean Rain,” says Archis. “We wanted the record to be more open-sounding, heavy and melodic.” Norton’s output has also notably featured desk duty for the Foo Fighters, but in truth he hasn’t really bent the Maximo Park’s sound much beyond the familiar strains of A Certain Trigger.  Having steered clear of bloated production and fancy orchestrations, the band’s trademark uptempo, jaunty riffing reaches maximum acceleration on new single Our Velocity. But even when the soaring chords and euphoric instrumentation suggest frontman Paul Smith is coming out of himself, the articulate Geordie lyricist reveals he’s “alone, with just my thoughts,” adding repeatedly, “If everyone became this sensitive, I wouldn’t have to be so sensitive.” Elsewhere, the Smiths-esque intro of Books From Boxes has Smith and a departing ladyfriend spending the evening “unpacking books from boxes” while “the pounding rain continued its bleak fall. We decided just to write after all.” The literary sprinklings evinced on Russian Literature further showcase Smith’s bookwormy bent, but his lyrics aren’t overly arch, wordy or clever-dick – they remain well thought out, concise and honest sounding. We put it to Archis Tiku that with Maximo Park’s songs suggesting they’re sensitive lads, “Do you want girls to mother you?” “No, I really don’t think so,” comes the reply. “We’re gentlemen, or rather gentlemen with dirty minds.” The girl thing rears its head all through their songs, and hints of music biz liaisons surface on Girls With Guitars, a bittersweet paean to female strummers. “The path of excess just leads to boredom,” sings Smith. “She goes and she gets drunk, she gets off, she goes and she gives it…” Though hardly puritanical about hedonistic pursuits, Smith has however voiced his disdain for rock’n’roll buffoonery. And although Maximo Park do like a pint, they also like to get well-oiled in a different way. “On our band rider we always request five tins of mackerel in tomato sauce, whichever country we’re playing in,” reveals Tiku. “I mean, the beer is always there, but will the mackerel be? We do like our Omega 3 oils.” On the evidence of Our Earthly Pleasures, fatty acids really do help a band’s second album. Oily fish and bags of conviction mean Maximo Park have upped their ante.
Stuart Turnbull
Maximo Park – Our Earthly Pleasures, released 09 April 07 on Warp.
 comments
Read members' comments related to this music.
comment by chinaparcel
Apr 27, 2007
I had to smile at this interview.I loved Maximo's new album and was pleased to see it zoom into the charts at No.2 the week after it was released.However as for the knowledge that the band members eat tinned mackerel in tomato sauce,I found this pretty off-putting.I realise the importance of oily fish in one's diet...but as a former reflexologist I don't somehow think that tomato sauce is the healthiest food around!! That said,the band's music is excellent.I was lucky enough to see them at the 100 Club earlier this month and they didn't disappoint. Plenty of energy,pizazz and I've never seen a frontman like Paul Smith-he's got it all,plus bags of style. So keep up the good work,boys-you've plenty of fans out there.
|
 |
related info
 useful links
note: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
music  music archive Watch music sessions and interviews from 2002 to 2008. books  books and comics archive Author interviews and reviews from 2002 to 2008. |
send to a friend
maximo park
access 1000s of articles