Mae played on the U campus April 21 as part of the ASUU-sponsored Grand Kerfuffle. A band since 2002 Mae is starting to emerge as one of Rock N’ Rolls hottest new bands.
Interviewed:
Zack Gehring: Guitar
Jacob Marshall: Drums
Rob Sweitzer: Keyboards
Do you guys feel like you have made it now?
Gehring: no (laughs)
Marshall: I think if you ever feel like you have made it I think it is time to stop.
Sweitzer: If there was any empirical evidence of having made it, I think it would be here. We have already made a living off of playing music. It is all relative.
What does MAE mean?
G: MAE is a theory that Jacob came up with in college. It was this idea to study the effects of certain stimuli whether it be visual, or sonic, or tastes. So if you hear music you see a color Multi-sensory Aesthetic Experience, which breaks down to MAE.
What genre would you place yourselves in?
Marshall: Rock ‘n’ roll and the reason being is that when you start subdividing more than that it is weird and it doesn’t really benefit. There is a spectrum that we play in, from the hard to the soft. If you try to isolate that you might lose a listener that might get something out of that.
What bands have influenced your work?
M: The three main bands that have influenced our work would be, The Beatles, U2 and The Police.
G: Not so much in the music sense but as far as MAE has never tried this before. These bands have tried different things.
Has this been a long journey as a band for you guys?
G: It has been four years and for three of those we lived in a van together.
Has anything surprised you as you get higher up in the music industry?
S: How little a lot of the people in charge know about what is going on. You get people who are really good business people at the top of the field that have no idea what is going on with a generation.
S: The money part is perused more than the moving aspects of art. It is disgusting I think.
What are your views on electronic file sharing?
M: It has definitely helped us.
G: The accessibility has increased and that is a good thing but I just wish and a lot of kids do a lot of kids don’t, if you like the band come support it. If you burn the first CD cause someone gave it to you but then you burn the four ’cause you don’t want to buy it?
Do you guys like Salt Lake City?
M: We love this city.
So you have come through before?
M: We used to play at Kilby Court.
G: Yeah that is where we got started.
Girls did come up and recognize us and freak out.
Have you had any crazy fan experiences yet?
G: We had to change our numbers at one point because someone gave it out.
S: It was actually my friends in “Under Oath” who would sign records after shows and put my number on it as a joke.
What song are you guys stoked to do live?
M: We hate them all. (all laugh)
All of our new stuff.
S: we are definitely feeling the itch to start really being cohesive and putting together our next record. We have been working on that for the past month. The material that is coming out now is just flooring us. I think people are really going to be excited out it.
When can we expect the release of this album?
S: Early in ’07 probably March.
Have you had any star struck moments now that you are meeting some celebrities
G: Drew Barrymore! She interviewed us at Warp Tour.
S: Yeah that was crazy.
M: Ah. She was awesome! (all laughing)
M: At our concert with Yellow Card in NY there were all these fans like, Jessica Alba, The Olsen Twins, and Lindsey Lohan.
So are you all single or taken?
S: Well, I am married.
M: Dave is married kind of he has a very serious girlfriend. Mark is in love.
S: He’s got this shirt that his girlfriend made him that he goes to bed wearing (all laugh).
Do you guys get along or do you get in fights?
G: We hate each other! (laughs)
M: As soon as you leave we are going to fight
S: Remarkably we get along really well. It is a pleasant existence. We are like brothers though so it is hard to say that we don’t get agitated with each other.
Do you hang out when you are not on the road?:
G: It is funny we are all like “we have to get away from these dudes,” and then we call each other that night and are like “what are you up to dude?”
Lennie MahlerZack Gehring and Mae perform one of their hits Friday evening as part of The Grand Kerfuffle.