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Mae is one of the few bands that I missed that I really wanted to see at Warped. They play some damn fine piano pop rock, and their new album, "The Everglow," is excellent. This interview was conducted with Dave Elkins, and he was a really cool guy who genuinely believes in his band.
PL: Do you learn things about yourself by doing interviews?
DE: Yeah, I guess so. I learn how much I believe in my band. I have to talk about my band all the time, and I tend to mean the things I say, so I guess its good that I get to say awesome stuff about my band and my bandmates.
PL: Do you like talking about yourself?
DE: I like talking about the band. The four dudes that I play with are the best I've ever met. We've lived all our lives together and experienced rad things everyday.
PL: Is it hard for bands to look at their work from a critical standpoint after the album's been released because its so close to you?
DE: I think its harder for us to not be critical all the time. Even though we're completely proud of this record and I don't think we'd want to change anything with the final product, but we're always listening to think of what else we could do. If we had another week in the studio, would we have taken a new approach? We change songs around when we play live, just so we can enjoy another part of it.
PL: Have you ever read a critical review and thought that what they said made sense?
DE: Yeah, absolutely.
PL:Do you think its possible for a band to be confident without sounding arrogant?
DE: Yeah. I'm glad that I play with four other guys because I can rely on the fact that we're talking about each other and not about ourselves. In my opinion, I play with the best piano player on this whole Warped Tour. Thats just my opinion, but I think it might be true. He's so good, and I'm proud of the fact that I get to play with such awesome musicians. When we write music, we talk theory together, all of us in the band. We've studied music enough to know how to intelligently communicate it to each other while we're writing and when we're conversing. I think that being arrogant is saying things that you can't prove, like being too boisterous. I love playing music with my band. I love the fact that people love our band enough to let us keep doing what we do. So, as long as we get to play music.
PL: If you could bring back one person from the dead, who would it be and what would you say to them?
DE: It would be John Lennon and I would try to hang out with that dude.
PL: Does Warped take its toll on you more than other tours due to its rigerous schedule?
DE: Yeah. With a club tour, you're in the same box every single day, and this box is huge. The weather is sometimes so humid that you don't want to be outside, so you stay outside. I guess the day ends early, and I get reenergized by about 10 o'clock. We go and hang out with all these bands and spend the night bro-ing down with all these different people. Its got its good and its not so good.
PL: Name one album, besides your own, that you think all kids should have in their collection.
DE: I would say Abbey Road by The Beatles. Its the best album.
PL: Do you have any final comments?
DE: We will be back in Boston. We're playing Boston for the first time (They're actually playing Worcester, but everywhere in Massachusetts seems to be Boston, even to bands from Mass). We have a headlining tour that starts on the 6 of October, and by the 11, we will be in Boston. Hopefully, if you watched the show or you read about this, please check this out and hopefully we can bring a good tour and a good show to Boston.
Interviewed by RF