Kennedy Brock’s scene is “handy man stuff – cutting things; building things.” The Maine’s guitarist states: “Yeah, I like handy man stuff. I have a motorcycle at home that I work on. One of the guys that works with us, our guitar tech, he and I work in a metal shop at home. One of my favourite things over the years has been working and customizing and building guitars that I use personally. My favourite guitar is the American Standard Telecaster that I’m playing currently. It’s a beautiful, beautiful guitar. It’s like almost a navy blue on the front and a blonde wood back. There’s photos of it, I’m sure, it’s very photogenic. I just love working on things like that.”
Guitars influenced Brock’s musical inspiration and direction. He states: “When I was I just started to get in the bands, my older brother is about 10 years older than me and he loved a bunch of grungier stuff like Smashing Pumpkins, and he was a big fan of Radiohead. So by osmosis I consumed a lot of that.” [pullquote]collectively we really like bands that have forged their own path and continue to do what they like to do.” [/pullquote]As for the influence on the band, Brock continues: “Also collectively for the band when we got going, we were all really big fans of Ryan Adams; that was that was a big one for us. Since then collectively we really like bands that have forged their own path and continue to do what they like to do. Bands like Wilco, the Rolling Stones are a great example of that too; constantly evolving.” Joining the band occurred naturally with “Pat and Garrett at the core of it.” Brock reminisces: “I played in another local band that was good friends with them back a little bit before The Maine. And once they had reached out to John, Pat’s older brother, our manager Tim is good friends with John and Jared our other guitarists. And so there’s just been a lot of camaraderie from even before the days of the band. And I guess it has just all fallen into place. Early on in the band, the two original guitarists didn’t want to head out on the road and I, and Jared, were both able to join the band, and yeah we’ve just been cruising along since then.”
As for now, Brock states: “We still really enjoy making music and I think it shows in the songwriting and in the song, Bad Behavior, in particular – it’s fun. And in my opinion, it’s catchy as well. We really had a good time writing this song, and the rest of the record. I think being this far into the band somehow we’ve been able to click better than we ever have. We feel confident in what we what we’re trying to do.” Bad Behavior comes from The Maine’s Lovely, Little, Lonely, due for release in April. This release was a different process for the band. “Usually in the writing process for us we try to at least change things about how the record is recorded, where it’s recorded, we’ve changed moods of albums from the previous one,” explains Brock. “So I think this time really the main difference for us, no pun intended, was that we structured the songs differently. We spent less time in a room together as a live band and more time putting parts down on to the computer and into recording software. So I think it was just way more organized this time around. John spent a lot of time structuring songs and working on ideas before he even came to the band. I think it led for him. It led to a much more cohesive record this time around.”
With the song, Am I Pretty?, [pullquote]It’s more than just the band; it’s this connection that people have around the world and I think there’s something really special and humbling about that.[/pullquote]”Brock states: “I think we were just trying to tell people that we feel the same way; that we get the experience. We get to meet and see a lot of people and we’ve had lots of discussions ourselves and I think yeah, for lack of a better [phrase], the moral of the story is that we you know everybody should be comfortable in their own skin and we all are in this thing together. So I think that actually that message shows very well in our fan base as well. Our fans are unbelievably inclusive; they treat each other amazing. We have so many fans from different parts of the world that are friends with each other and have formed just such a cool community that has become something bigger than ourselves. It’s more than just the band; it’s this connection that people have around the world and I think there’s something really special and humbling about that.” Brock never envisaged this, “only in our wildest dreams.”
Brock feels an attachment to The Maine’s fans and the band acknowledges them as “the fans are such a big part of this. This is our third self-released album that’s going to be coming out here, and you know we wouldn’t be able to do this. People say it all the time – we wouldn’t be able to do it that our fans – but really we try to make sure that you know our actions speak louder than words. We let them know and give them the experience that they deserve because we get to do this because of their unwavering support.” The track, Another Night on Mars, “absolutely” reflects this, and “the whole process of shooting that was so fun to do it. It’s the song you sing at the end of the night when you’re drinking with a friend and you know the words and you don’t not really care how you sound singing it.”
The Maine seem natural in whatever storyline the video clip presents them with though Brock states: “it’s funny because we were all comfortable and then all collectively uncomfortable. I think we all embrace the fact that it can be uncomfortable to be in front of the camera and we try to just collectively work our way through it.” As for a future in film, “acting would be super fun. Yeah we get to do a bit of that in video, and it’s really fun. I don’t know how much I would enjoy it if it wasn’t alongside of my best friends. Yeah. I think the video for us is it’s such an interesting thing, it’s so cool to be able to give a song some separate meaning or story line or being able to put a visual to it. It’s something that is so cool. Sometimes we are the creators of that idea and sometimes we are stumped and we’re looking to somebody else that we trust in the video and audio world that has an idea for us. So I think overall my favourite of the videos are the ones that feel so careless and fun and it’s exciting. On this new record I’m sure we’re going to have a lot of that emotion to throw around.”
Brock loves all aspects of being in a band – making music, film clips, performing, touring. With touring, Brock exclaims: “Love it, love it, give me more. Super excited to be over in Australia again. I love travelling. I love exploring around. I love being out of my element. I think it’s always such a cool thing to experience different bands and get to talk to different people around the world. And obviously we love playing music and playing being on stage and I would do that anywhere. But we’re so lucky that we get to do that all over the world.”
“We’re pretty wild on tour,” Brock confesses. “I guess in relation to me, being around the world and never knowing where I am. John Garrett and I, we’ve been lost in London once before when we had a show there and we basically we didn’t have our accents down. So when somebody gave us directions to where we were supposed to go we ended up clear on other side of London. [pullquote]“We’re pretty wild on tour,”[/pullquote] And if you know anything about it, London is so crazy. I’ve never I’ve been there so many times and I’ve never been in the same place twice. So we found ourselves across town and completely lost. And all of us pretty dang drunk. There’s been many a time like that where I’m shocked that we we’ve been able to pull together to survive. But it’s always fun. We enjoy every second of it. And we never try to follow the rules completely so there’s always room for error.”
This incident, however, was not the inspiration for English girls. Brock continues: “That was a different time. Yeah. Very similar. Just a wild night on one of our first times over actually. Coincidentally, that part of the story that John was telling is from a time we were with band and crew from All Time Low. So it’s always just a fun experience. I’ve had I’ve had some wild times in Australia as well. I remember one of the first times we were over there, I got separated from the rest of the group.”
Brock laughs as he continues: “See this happens all the time – me getting lost. I believe we were in Brisbane and I had made it back to our hotel and that was that was my first experience with Hungry Jacks. And at that time of night I’m sure I stuck out with my American accent and tight pants. I remember getting back to the apartment. This is a funny story. OK. So yeah I’m not sure if I’ve ever told this story before but I came back to the apartment. I don’t even touch the Hungry Jacks. I leave it on the table and Pat wakes up in the middle of the night to me sleep walking in the room and I’ve opened my suitcase and I am peeing on all of my clean clothes. This was the first night we were there. And so yeah I got a crash course on how to party in Australia the very first time we were we were in town.” Brock states this time will be different as he’s a bit more refined now.”
Make sure you catch The Maine on their upcoming Australian Tour!
ALL TIME LOW With Special Guests Neck Deep and The Maine
Presented by Destroy All Lines, Chugg Entertainment & Hysteria
AUCKLAND
Wednesday 10th May – Powerstation (Licensed All Ages)
aaaticketing.co.nz
BRISBANE
Friday 12th May – Riverstage (Licensed All Ages)
ticketmaster.com.au or 136 100
oztix.com.au or 1300 762 545
SYDNEY
Saturday 13th May – Hordern Pavilion (Licensed All Ages)
ticketek.com.au or 132 849
MELBOURNE
Sunday 14th May – Festival Hall (Licensed All Ages)
ticketmaster.com.au or 136 100
ADELAIDE
Tuesday 16th May – Thebarton Theatre (Licensed All Ages)
ticketmaster.com.au or 136 100
FREMANTLE
Thursday 18th May – Metropolis (18+)
oztix.com.au or 1300 762 545
FREMANTLE
Friday 19th May – Metropolis (Under 18)
oztix.com.au or 1300 762 545
For more information go to:
AllTimeLow.com
NeckDeep.co
Be the first to comment