Going to Warped Tour in the past guaranteed two things: 1) That you’ll see some great bands perform all day, and 2) That it usually falls on the hottest or most humid day of the year.
Kennedy Brock (guitar/vocals) of The Maine remembers those days vividly. Of course it’s hard to forget about the dry Arizona heat, but he also remembers how Warped Tour made him feel.
“I remember sweating out in 100-degree heat,” says Brock about Warped Tour. “You know, I love that stuff. There were so many bands and people that I was introduced to that changed my life.”
Brock and his bandmates wanted others to have the same experience they did growing up attending Warped Tour and decided to start Sad Summer Fest.
The festival, which started in 2019, includes a mix of pop-punk, alternative, indie-rock and emo bands. This year’s edition, which makes a stop in Holmdel on July 14, includes The Maine, Taking Back Sunday, PVRIS, Head Automatica, Mom Jeans and more.
There’s a lot of work that goes into putting Sad Summer Fest together, and a lot has been learned over the years running it. Each member of the band has their own role in making it happen.
“We just all fall into our places,” explains Brock. “Everybody has different things that they really enjoy working on within the band or within the construct of this festival. Personally, I love building stuff.”
As we were speaking, Brock was working on a photo prop for the Sad Summer Festival. While going on tour is always cool, especially a tour for a festival that you created, The Maine has another reason to look forward to Sad Summer Fest as well: Their self-titled record will be released on August 1.
The self-titled is the first record that the pop-punk band has recorded in their new home studio. Maybe it’s because of the comforts of working from home, but the band felt at ease recording the new album. The comfort allowed them to push their limits on this record with familiar faces helping them out.
“I was so excited and happy that we got to work with our buddy Colby Wedgeworth again,” says Brock. “It’s been eight or nine years since we did a record with him, and he produced American Candy and Pioneer. So much of what we do as a band is spurred into existence by constant discussing and discussing and discussing until something forms. We had some talk about what the ideal record would be for us to make right now, and we thought about the ideal person. We loved working with him over the years, and that helped us feel comfortable again, and push the limits.”
Even though The Maine has a distinct sound, they aren’t afraid to explore other genres and use elements of those genres in their music.
“It’s a very conscious effort to use different sounds and different people’s brains while making it, and we try to be influenced by a different subset of material that we all enjoy,” says Brock. We just really love music, and we love listening to music. We love diving into music, and so much of our time is spent analyzing songs we like and talking about them. The other day Garrett (Nickelsen, bass) was talking about a podcast I listen to called Smartless with Jason Bateman and Will Arnett. They were interviewing the guys from Radiohead and Garrett and I were nerding out that they were talking about all of these things. And we were like that’s what we do. We just really love the music, and we have a good time. As long as we are making something that we all really enjoy, we will continue to push forward and push the boundaries a bit.”
One of the songs on the album that contains elements from different genres is “blame.” It was a fun song to make for the band.
“We knew we had this really cool chorus feeling and the whole song felt that way, but it wasn’t doing it for us,” Brock says. “We have had ideas for ‘blame’ for a couple years now so it took a pivot when we wanted to change the verses to be something. Earlier we mentioned Radiohead, but we are big fans of really smart moves in music, and Radiohead are the kings of that.
“One of the things I really loved about their band was their ability to combine songs. For me, the influence in that song was Radiohead, but for John (O’Callaghan, vocals/guitar/piano), I think he was referencing a lot of hip-hop. Rap right now is doing a big switch in the middle of songs where they’ll switch mid -ong and the whole vibe changes. I think he was channeling that and trying to influence that song to have that feeling.”
Another song off the new record that came out differently than expected for the band is ‘how to exit a room.’
“The whole idea of the song came out of this idea of bouncing really fast,” explains Brock. “When we actually went to record it was way more different. It was more acoustic driven, but with real drums, and it had a ’90s band vibe.”
The Maine will be coming to Holmdel on July 14, and Brock is looking forward to playing newer songs, and old songs. Brock hopes that fans will be able to create their own memories from the self-titled album.
“I really want people to have their own moments with it,” explains Brock. “I want people to experience their own life and have it be a part of it. Even at the bar last night, I was talking with friends about bands from here like the Format and we were talking about how certain songs bring you back to certain moments in life. It’s so cool that we get to be a part of that.”
The Maine will be performing at Sad Summer Fest at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel on July 14.