The Maine Goes Green on New Album

Spring has sprung, and green is the color of the season. It’s also the hue of the Maine’s latest record, Joy Next Door, set to be released on April 10.

The color-coded emo outfit is known for selecting a different shade to symbolize every album cycle, delineating each era, since 2007.

“I really loved the idea of having a time stamp on different chapters in life. I think it makes the music mean more to you when you look back and think that in 2016 when I went to watch the band everyone was wearing red because that was the color of that era,” says founding drummer Patrick Kirch. “I think it helps make things feel more important. That’s where we got the idea of every album having a color.”

From the gold-plated 2008 debut, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, to 2023’s silver-tinged self-titled, the Maine’s covered a lot of the chromatic spectrum. For Kirch, green indicates the soundscapes contained within Joy Next Door and the unique recording process.

“The green came to me when we were beginning on the record to use a lot more organic instruments and acoustic and piano. To me, nature and green felt like it represented that part of the record, and to be fair, this is our tenth album, so we’ve gone through a lot of colors already,” he says.

“For us, the big intention behind this one was just trying to make a true record, put the emphasis on the entire record, and we recorded the album in chronological order from first song to the last song so we could put enough thought into how every song would go into each other and all those kind of details. In the past, we’ve always been an album band, but we just had never put that much intention on that part of it. We would just record whatever we felt like that day. This was the first time there was that much intention behind recording it in that order.”

Lyrically, Joy Next Door is written from singer John O’Callaghan’s perspective and his recent experience of moving back to his childhood neighborhood. Teasers “Palms,” “Quiet Part Loud” and “Die To Fall” offer a glimpse into what he was going through.

“The title Joy Next Door is the idea that happiness is not a destination you get to, it’s a constantly evolving thing,” Kirch explains. “Sometimes it can feel like joy is something that’s so close you can almost touch it, but you can’t quite get there.”

The Tempe, Arizona, group initially announced Joy Next Door with a hometown drone show and have since been giving fans joyrides in the green vintage Mercedes featured in the Maine’s music videos so they can hear it before it drops. Kirch, O’Callaghan, bassist Garrett Nickelsen, and guitarists Jared Monaco and Kennedy Brock are also playing The Kelly Clarkson Show this month.

“When things like this pop up, performing on TV, that’s something my mom can understand, like that’s a big deal, we’re a real band,” Kirch says.

The Maine is touring, too, and coming through Denver on Friday, April 3, at the Ogden Theatre, so break out your best green outfit. Nightly, Grayscale and Franklin Jonas & the Byzantines round out the bill.

For nearly twenty years, the Maine’s been supported by a group of dedicated die-hards known as the 8123 Family — the name’s a reference to the parking garage the band members hung out at during their early years — that’s as much a part of the experience and colorful culture surrounding the group as the music.

“It’s surreal. The fans, we have such a tightknit community with them,” Kirch says. “It honestly feels a little bit like we don’t have too much to do with it. They make it their own thing and we just happen to also be there.

“My favorite part about it is it can be like a home for people, it can be a place, whether it’s online or in-person, that people can feel like they belong somewhere,” he concludes. “The fact it has continued to do that for people is why I keep doing it.”

The Maine, with Nightly, Grayscale and Franklin Jonas & the Byzantines, 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 3, the Ogden Theatre, 935 East Colfax. Tickets are $55.