Over the last six months Newcastle’s Maximo Park have seen their fan-base get bigger and bigger thanks to continued airplay and getting their faces all over MTV. Now the Georgie lads are hitting the big time thanks to an illustrious signing with pioneering label Warp. Paul Smith and Duncan Lloyd tell Fused more just before they head off on a US tour…
Was there any particular moment when you thought: ‘Wow, it’s going to happen now’?
Paul: There was no real sort of seismic moment where we thought ‘This is it, this is the big time boys!’ We are doing pretty well in this country, but then you go over to America and you have to start again so you never really feel like there’s something really big happening. I think if you rest on your laurels it’s a very dangerous situation to be in. Satisfaction is a bit of a curse in this business.
Your label Warp records, is famous for pioneering techno music, so why are you signed to them?
Paul: A lot of other industry people were interested but Warp shared the same ideals as us about creativity, regardless of whether we fit in on their roster, so it meant a lot to sign to them. People are talking about it and I don’t know many other bands who are talked about because of what label they are on. Marking us out against others is another talking point surrounding Maximo Park that is important to us as a band.
And also you are really danceable, aren’t you, so in that respect it all makes sense…
Paul: Yeah! For me music is either good or it isn’t. Good music that’s upbeat makes me get up and move. If that’s in a club or in your house or whatever, it doesn’t really matter to me. Indie is a sort of lifestyle these days and we don’t want to be part of that. We’d rather appeal to as many people as possible and draw them into the edge that we feel our music has.
Do you feel part of the whole new guitar band movement/ Post-Punk / whatever it is labelled?
Paul: No, we do what we do. We never thought: ‘Hey there’s something going on here! Let’s get on the band wagon!’ Our attitude from the start was: ‘Let’s do something that is inventive!’ I suppose the Post-Punk ethic thing comes from our raw energy and the three-cord thing. But there is a lot of 50’s and 60’s pop on there too! I can see why people are saying it but if you look under the surface they’ll find that there is a lot more to Maximo Park.
Going back to your roots, is there any such thing as a north-eastern scene?
Paul: Not really. Things spring up in isolation and it’s up to other people to join those things together. In Newcastle there is a lot of variety but it’s very hard to have a scene. There are a lot of guitar bands - they are not necessarily good guitar bands - but that’s just the way of the world. But I definitely think the north-east is more creative than people give it credit for. If that variation continues then it will become a thriving area for music. But scenes are generally constructed rather than being genuine. It’s almost mythical.
It’s quite weird that this whole ‘scene-bubble’ thing seems to travel round the country.
Paul: There’s interesting stuff happening everywhere. Nobody cared about Newcastle two years ago when we started out. But we made inroads and the Futureheads were coming through around the same time. All of a sudden it takes two or three bands to trigger something off and people’s attentions wander to the north-east.
Do you feel related to this whole art school scene made popular by bands like the Futureheads and The Kaiser Chiefs?
Duncan: Art school is quite cliquey. People who make music often try to do it in order to escape the whole art thing. To me it’s the stronger art- form. You can understand music anywhere in the world but not everybody will understand a piece of art- the senses are stirred more by music I think. Saying that, art school definitely does have a lot of musicians in it. They come hand in hand, you can’t really help that. But as a band we are not really trying to be from any kind of tradition.
Paul: It goes through cycles. John Lennon went to art school. And Roxy Music, David Bowie… even people like The Who. Yeah, it’s just one of those things, I don’t think it’s anything new.
A Certain Trigger is out now.
Christine Franz