Garrett Nickelsen: “We’re Kind of Crazy People.”

The New Year is in full swing and many of us are setting our sights on making our New Year’s resolutions a reality. Of course, being everyday folk, our resolutions usually range from “keep my room clean” to “shed a couple of pounds.” What if your resolution was “I’m going to try not to die?” It sounds dramatic, but that is the life of a musician. At least that’s what Pat and Garrett from The Maine told us their goal was when we caught up with them in December to talk about the upcoming year. We’re not completely convinced that “staying alive” counts as a yearlong goal, but the two did give us a lot of insight into what the band has planned over the next few months and what they like to do when they’re not working.

Check out the interview below to see what they had to say.

HTS: Since you guys finished the tour not that long ago, how did it go? How has the reception been?

Pat: It was awesome. We kinda weren’t sure what to expect cause, you know, us and Anberlin, I think, like have different fan bases and things like that. So we weren’t sure how the mix was going to be, but um. It was good. Can’t complain about that.
Garrett: Yeah. It was awesome. It was pretty short, so it went by pretty quick. But you know, all the bands are awesome so it was good hangs and stuff. Really fun.

HTS: So when I was talking to Lydia, I heard that you guys have a little backstage ritual you guys do. What is that ritual exactly?
Garrett: We do this little chant thing before we go on. Uh, it’s just like a clap/chant thing, but.
Pat: Besides that, we kinda just hang out and get in the mood to do a show I guess.
Garrett: Yeah, not too crazy.
Pat: We don’t have like set things that we have to do everyday or anything like that.

HTS: No one wears the same underwear for like a week type thing?
Garrett: Well, I do that, not on purpose.

HTS: Sanitary.
Garrett: Yeah, just cause I don’t shower. But I showered yesterday, so I feel good.

HTS: You guys just came out with an acoustic EP, yesterday. So why did you decide to release an acoustic EP?
Garrett: Um, it was something we’ve talked about for a long time. But our fans kind of always would say that we should do one. And then, we had a little bit of time off before the Anberlin tour, or the tour we just did. So we built a little studio in the back of our manager’s office. And we just recorded it, in like 5 or 6 days on our own. It was just us five, which we’ve never done. And it was a lot of fun, you know. Just kind of something we threw together pretty quick.
Pat: Just trying to explore a different dynamic of what we do as a band, try something else, and push what we do. Having a restriction on a set of songs kind of helps makes you think of things in a different way than you would if you knew you could make it sound big and whatever. So, I think it just made us think outside the box a little bit.

HTS: And you guys are doing an acoustic tour for that. Is your set going to be dramatically different with what you do?
Both: Yeah.
Garrett: We’ve sort of done something like that before. When our record “Pioneer” came out, we played that record full band, and then split it in half and came out and did an acoustic set of like 5 or 6 songs. But this will be the full set. So we’re going to re-work everything and make it work so it’s not loud, in your face, and its more, you know … calm.
Pat: And it’s a good chance to play tunes that don’t normally make it into the set. So we’re planning some small shows. It’s going to be like the hardcore fans that have been there forever so we’re going to play some things we haven’t played yet before, or haven’t played in years.

HTS: So which one do you prefer, acoustic or regular?
Pat: Full band shows…
Garrett: That’s what we love doing. But it’s going to be fun to do something different.