Interview: MAUI

Vor ein paar Tagen stolperte ich über die rumpelige, lärmende und charmante EP der Band Maui. Da denkt der Europäer natürlich zuerst an Hawaii, aber die Band kommt aus London. Die EP ist selbst produziert und pendelt musikalisch zwischen Neutral Milk Hotel und Modest Mouse. Finde ich ziemlich gut. Und da es nur sehr spärliche Informationen zu dieser jungen Band gibt, wurde ich selbst aktiv und schickte der Band ein paar Fragen. Die sie mir zum Glück beantworteten. Auf Wunsch der Band habe ich das Interview nicht übersetzt, denn hier ein Multilingual-Plugin zu installieren finde ich ein wenig übertrieben.

Hello! Thanks for taking the time answering some questions! Can you please introduce yourself?

We are Mark 23 – Drums (beats brains), Charlie 20 – Bass extravaganza, Sam 20 – Guitar maestro and Harry 20 – Guitar and vocal voluptuousness. We all live for and love playing together in London, with lots of laughing in Maui.

You formed MAUI in late 2013, joined Facebook in January and just released your Demo-EP on soundcloud. That’s kind of fast. Please tell me a little bit about how, when and why you formed your band.

Well, Charlie, Sam and Harry all met together at Art school in 2011, after forming friendships fast over musical mind meshing and lots of other anecdotes and a few years in between, we eventually decided it was best to probably start a band. However we needed a Drummer, and as an old school friend of Sam’s and as Harry’s doppelganger in another city, Mark began playing with us immediately (around september 2013) and the magic was magic. It worked like well oiled oil lamp, shining bright into the dark night.

What are your next steps?

We have recently started gigging around London, and are planning to do as much of this as possible. We are also beginning to gather more material for another release in the near future. Our focus is solely on the music, we love playing and writing and we hope that if we put as much of our time and energy into this as possible, then some kind of momentum will follow.

At this very moment: is making music the best thing you can think of?

Yes, other than being stuck in a lift with Jenny Lee Lindberg or David Bowie. David Byrne is also a dreamy bloke, his book ‚How Music Works‘ is a ruddy brain invigorating read.

We play music that has definite roots in psychedelic rock and roll, with strong emphasis on rhythm, grooves and melody cathexis.

How would you describe your music to someone, who has never heard of you?

Hello someone. We play music that has definite roots in psychedelic rock and roll, with strong emphasis on rhythm, grooves and melody cathexis.

What are your main influences?

We all have our own particular influences in the way we each play our instruments, for example Sam highly regards Graham Coxon of Blur’s guitar playing, whereas Harry admires and relates to the singing style of Jeff Buckley, and both Charlie and Mark share Jazz and Funk influenced playing styles, which we think is rad. However we are all into bands such as Deerhunter, Radiohead or, from the ‚Spinning Top Music‘ family, Pond and Tame Impala.

Do you think it can boost your popularity if you give away your music for free?

We give our music away for free (1), because we want people to be able to have it in their ears, stress free (2). In regards to popularity, I suppose this relies more on the accessibility of the music and so giving music away for free (3) can only be beneficial.

What are your goals in the near future concerning your music?

To grow as a song writing unit, and gather a following to share our merry dances with. The band is all our ‚main thing‘ and we just want to do it twentyfourseven.

Please name a band or musician who you love and think more people should be listening to.

Well it was to hard to choose one, so here’s four. Charlie says St Vincent, Harry reckons a band from Copenhagen called Halasan Bazaar, Sam’s into Wampire and Mark is vibing to some Donny Hathaway.

Thanks!

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