EXCLUSIVE: The Maine on ‘Joy Next Door,’ Touring, and More

Few bands have built the kind of lasting connection with fans that The Maine has over the past two decades. The band surprised listeners today with a brand-new track, “Parking Garage Song #5,” now added to their latest album, Joy Next Door, alongside an accompanying music video. They also announced their return to the road for The Tour Next Door—one part acoustic and one part full band—with tickets officially on sale now.

In an exclusive interview with CelebMix, Jared Monaco of The Maine opens up about the inspiration behind Joy Next Door, the excitement of touring again, and what fans can look forward to next.

Joy Next Door marks your 10th studio album! How did you want this project to feel different or reflective of where you are now as a band?

At first I don’t think it was really a conscious thought. We sort of amassed a pretty large collection of demos, and before we knew it we just started to dig into them to shape the record. I will say that once we got going, it became clear there was a through-line from beginning to end, and we started to look at this album as a parallel to a conventional story [as] (beginning, middle, end) and all of the tones and feelings that coincide with those points in a linear story.

The title Joy Next Door feels both intimate and hopeful. What does that phrase mean to you personally and creatively?

For me, personally, it’s the reminder that the sum of the good things we already have is usually greater than the unknown things we desire.

You released “Palms,” “Die To Fall,” and “Quiet Part Loud” ahead of the album, how do those tracks represent the full body of work?

Die to Fall was our first opportunity to show people the energy and outer bounds of this album, so that’s where we started. I think “Quiet Part” did a great job of representing the more reflective and melodic side of the album, and “Palms” was always my favorite track, so I was just glad to share that one ahead of the release.

There’s often a strong emotional thread in your music. What themes or messages were most important for you to explore on this album?

There were a lot of themes during the writing process, and most of them mirrored the telling of a story. Beginning, growth, into chaos and the unknown, into the discovery and reflective portion that leads us into the sendoff with “And Then,” which in a lot of ways feels to me like it leaves the future a little bit more open-ended.

After nearly two decades together, how has your songwriting process evolved on this album compared to your earlier records?

We’ve learned that feeling comfortable around the people you collaborate with makes it a lot easier to feel uncomfortable with the things you’re creating. The five of us can almost predict what each other will do at this point. That’s just something that has grown from one album to the next. Also, having Sean Silverman along for this process really helped us see our band from a fresh perspective, and one that we all really know and respect.

With over a billion global streams and such a dedicated fanbase, how do you balance staying true to your core sound while still pushing yourselves creatively?

Funny enough, we made this record for ourselves first. We had so many discussions about what to do, or how to do it. At the end of the day, it came down to making something that the five of us would actually want to listen to. My personal opinion is that having John’s stylistic vocals really make it so that we can take things as far as we want to creatively, because at the end of it all, once he sings on a track, it sounds like us again.

This is your first stateside headline tour in nearly two years! What have been a few of your favorite songs to perform live?

This tour was such an amazing leap forward for our band. It’s been a blast to play all of these new songs live every night. If I had to pick one, I’d say “Quiet Part Loud.” We’ve been messing around with the arrangement and instrumentation, and it’s fun to showcase that in a live setting.