Exclusive Interview with MAIZE
British/Australian band MAIZE are set to take the club scene by storm. Their debut single “Remember to Lose” has just been released. It’s a mellow club beat that’s sure to get people on their feet. The band includes songwriter/producer Tim Metcalfe and drum and bass DJ/composer Piers Baron. MAIZE recently chatted with us about their single, plans for an album, and what makes them nerdy. Read our interview below.
Tell us about your new song “Remember to Lose”. What’s it about?
PB : When MAIZE gets together we think of it as a union of souls, a meeting of minds, we don’t discuss the narrative we just let the room be a theater of unbridled creativity. In the case of “Remember to Lose” one of the motivations, even though it wasn’t mentioned during the process, but we both fell upon in retrospect, was to get inside the mind of the person who invented Baked Beans; to know what drove them, how they thought, where their mind was at, when before, during and after their journey from idea to market with one of the world’s finest sauce based self-contained meals. Honestly, it was a no-brainer.
TM: I literally have no idea what it’s about it. We wrote it with a Swede so maybe she knows? I’m not good with other languages.
Do you plan on releasing a new album anytime soon?
PB: We have enough material for two albums as of now, but they all feel like singles, so we are gonna keep going with singles for now. MAIZE is here for good, get comfortable.
TM: It’s gonna be hard to top 1989 or Pet Sounds.
What drew you to get into music?
PB: The need to tell a story, the want to feel acceptance from like-minded creatives, fast women, free booze and crisps, seriously when you do a gig, you ask for crisps in the dressing room and you get crisps as many as you want, no brands excluded all territories included, Walkers, Squares, Kettle Chips, Lays, Have’a Corn Chips, Tostitos, It’s bonkers, it’s absolute Armageddon on free crisps. (laughs).
TM: I’ve always wanted to plug-in my USB behind the decks and really just have it! Avicii seems cool. I like the song about the ‘sexy bitch’.
Are there any artists that you would love to collab with?
PB: Yeah anyone who is out there being themselves, representing properly, artists who aren’t stage-managed, people who have something to say on and off stage. If I wasn’t in MAIZE I would want to work with us.
TM: Liam or Noel Gallagher, M.I.A., Danger Mouse, Damon Albarn if he’s in a good mood.
When you sit down to mix a song do you have any rituals?
PB. You know when you’re a kid and you find a shiny floor that allows you to slide on your knees? Well me and Tim have one at the studio, so we just do that, we don’t talk much during, but it really allows us to push ourselves in a competitive and brotherly way sometimes we may only do one warm up and then one real slide, but I feel if you hold the final pose for 60 seconds it can allow the other person to see exactly where you are creatively for the day. (laughs). Then 20 minutes on the clarinet, 45 minutes kickboxing, half a bottle of tequila followed by an ice bath. After that just straight into it, no fucks given.
TM: Read above; but my lips aren’t strong enough to play the clarinet so I just do squats during that period. (laughs).
PB. Yamaha NS10’s, MCDSP, UAD, Soundtoys and Izotope plug ins.
TM. I record most shit just into my iPhone.
Will you be going on tour anytime soon?
PB. Working out the small print now, I have to admit getting the flight cases for our smoking jackets is holding things up slightly at the moment. But you don’t want creases in the garms, do you?
TM. I hope so!
What can fans expect from your tour?
PB. Basically, two lads get on stage and absolutely fucking have it. Imagine Zayn Malik, Gordon Ramsay and Emily Ratajowski doing the conga through the Hadron Collider? You can expect good hair, great food, some bad language, but topped off with some great eye candy, fantastic laughs and hopefully valet parking, all for the equivalent price of a Starbucks visit for a family of 4 and that’s just the backstage area.
TM. A lot of miming and backing tracks probably. Was it Guetta that said “the less I have to do, the better” ?
We at TNWU all have something nerdy/geeky about us. What is something nerdy/geeky about you?
PB. I often weep over injustice. No matter how big or how small, sometimes a small welling of the eyes, sometimes full tears. The one thing it has taught me? The heart can heal the mind.
TM. I spend more time watching cooking shows than I do making music…
Where can you find MAIZE online: