Maximo Overdrive

You’d almost think that Maxïmo Park had something to hide. The biography on their website lists the members, the fact that they come from Newcastle and, er, that’s about it. Luckily vocalist Paul Smith is a lot more forthcoming.

“It’s been going for three years without me and two and a half years with me. I’d seen the band in Newcastle and it didn’t seem that interesting to me, it didn’t seem that focused. Although they had a lot of musical ideas they were going from style to style and swapping instruments and sharing the vocals. They’d reached the end of the line with that format and had seen me jumping around in an instrumental band that I play in called Me And the Twins and had heard me singing along to Stevie Wonder in a nightclub. That was the first time I’d ever been asked to sing in a band and things seem to have gone alright since then.”
So much so that Maxïmo Park have a debut album, A Certain Trigger, that is attracting deserved acclaim from all quarters. For Paul it’s a case of mixed emotions; surprise at the level of success the band are enjoying coupled with a steely determination.
“It’s weird to have a record out when you entered a practice room two and a half years ago with an idea of what you wanted to do and how you were going to do it, he explains. "My voice dictated how the songs were going to go as did my lyrics, which tend to be quite direct. It didn’t make any sense for it to be slow music. There’s enough slow music that focuses on emotions and it tends to be quite dull. It made sense that everyone sharpened up. I believe in being economical with music, why give people more than they need? I can’t imagine being on stage and sitting through a guitar solo that meant nothing to me. We wanted every single thing to matter. That’s how I live my life.”
Stuffed full of catchy tunes, A Certain Trigger might even be considered a pop record.
“Our early slogan was ‘pop music that isn’t popular yet’, which we had etched into the red vinyl of our first single," reflects Paul. "If you call something indie music or you call it rock music there are so many clichés attached to any genre. Pop just means popular and we didn’t need to be pigeonholed. That’s what the songs are, they’re accessible, instant and have got that raw edge to them. We wanted it to mean something like the best pop music does. ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ is a great pop song, just as much as ‘I Say A Little Prayer’. Categories are overridden by quality pop music. It has those factors that we try to put into our songs. A great melody affects you in ways that you can’t understand.”
Despite the plethora of bands with a similar stylistic modus operandi, Maxïmo Park had no real sense of being part of a scene.
“We were total outsiders," Smith insists. "We just tried to do things by ourselves and develop as a band. We didn’t play our first concert until we were sure that we had enough material and that we were together. I’ve seen so many bands shambling around with half a song. Our aim was to avoid doing the same thing as the bands who've come before us, even though we’re using the same form. I still feel as though there’s new stuff to say. Then Franz Ferdinand came along and made a big impact and we started to feel that if we kept going we’d make some headway. We were quite surprised to find that other bands were doing the same thing.”
The one band they were aware of were near neighbours the Futureheads.
“They came to our gigs and we came to theirs," remembers Paul. "We knew of each other and we both developed in our own way. They were an exciting live band but they’re now a great live band, it’s always spot on. They were doing ‘Hounds Of Love’ and I was going, 'Wow another band likes Kate Bush and they’re really punky and upbeat and not fey indie boys.'"
As for the future of "new Britpop" and the idea that any band who doesn’t get their record out within the next couple of months will have missed the boat, Paul is philosophical.
“I’ll quote Jose Mourinho here – 'Good music is like oil, it will always rise to the top.' For me good music is good music, whatever genre it’s in or whenever it appears”.

A Certain Trigger is out now on Warp