Known Pleasures: Maximo Park

With the seemingly endless flow of new bands, the phrase ‘sounds like the new…’ has become almost a stock response when you hear a description of a new act. One band you never hear anyone else being compared to though is Maximo Park - the Newcastle based five-piece, who are set to release their second studio album ‘Our Earthly Pleasures’ this April.

In a time when you fear for the long term future of many second album bands, due to the continued hunt for the next big thing, there is huge pressure to follow the success of Maximo’ Mercury Music Prize nominated debut ‘A Certain Trigger.’ Thankfully though, Paul Smith and co. have responded with an album which will firmly cement their place as one of the biggest names music. Gigwise caught up with charismatic frontman Paul Smith, keyboardist Lukas Wooller and guitarist Duncan Lloyd at Warp’s offices in North London to discuss their impending superstardom and all…

Realistic, keyboard player Lukas Wooller says that the band weren’t always so confident of their success. He tells us: “It’s funny because I haven’t played it to my mates at all because I know they are gonna sit there and go (puffs out his cheeks and shrugs) and I don’t want to sit there with them to see the reaction because it is something you are going to have to give a few times because it is denser and there is more music and more lyrics. It doesn’t give you as much chance to breathe and it’s not catchy in the same way the first album was, it is quite a heavy record but that is what is going to make you want to listen to it again and make you listen to it in five or ten years time as there are a lot of layers.”

However the danger of a second album slating was never really felt outside of their social circle, “I think sometimes when bands have sold a few records you have those considerations where people have said that they want to replicate that success or try to second guess what people want and the record is compromised” says Maximo Park’s hyperactive lead singer Paul Smith. “Even if certain people don’t like it I still feel strongly that there will be a nice ground swell of people that do like it and will always stand by the songs. It’s an excitement that we have at the moment because we just want to get them out there. I’m pretty confident it is better than the first.”

The album is produced by Gil Norton who has worked with Foo Fighters and The Pixies which was one of the reasons behind his choice “I think it reflects our heavier tastes. We are massive Sonic Youth fans and do tend to prefer American guitar bands over British bands” Lukas says with a quiet calmness that belies his manic stage presence. Guitarist Duncan Lloyd adds “We like Fugazi and Smashing Pumpkins and all that. We said before that on the first album you can’t really hear those kind of influences and we wanted to bring that out in this album. Also when you see the band live the sound is bigger than on the record and I suppose we are essentially a live band and wanted to bring that element to the fore. The influence of playing live for a year was really strong.”