Porches

Photography by Drew Reynolds. Interview by Heather Hawke.

Porches, the musical alias of New York synth-centric indie singer/songwriter Aaron Maine, returns with fifth album, All Day Gentle Hold !, out now via Domino. All Day Gentle Hold ! is a “celebratory collection of songs” that are “direct and pointed.” This new album is charged up and chaotic and is described by Aaron as “the most energetic, off-the-cuff moments, collaged together into the most captivating songs [he] could make.”

Recorded in his New York home studio between October 2019 and April 2021, and mixed and mastered by James Krausse. Aaron made All Day Gentle Hold ! as a way to make something “injected with as much love, urgency, and lust for humanity as [he] possibly could.” Since the album was made largely during the first year of when the Covid pandemic first impacted the U.S., Aaron’s goal was to focus on creating music regardless of what would happen to his career, the industry, or the world at large. During this pretty unfamiliar structure of everyday life, Aaron wanted to shine a light on the music that came to him in his most natural headspace which ended up leading him into fully embracing his rock roots and the guitar as his main instrument. Unlike his March 2020 album release (Ricky Music), All Day Gentle Hold ! had Aaron wanting a more precise sonic palette of two guitars, keyboard, live drums, and a drum machine. From the inception, all of the album’s tracks were written to work together. The tracks are pulsating with the vivacity of 70s/80s punk, and the all-around angst and passion of teenage years spent listening to pop punk and grunge. 

The 11 tracks on All Day Gentle Hold ! are both personal and universal and tap into the various intimate, mundane and the downright strangeness of everyday moments. You’ll also find Aaron reveling in the joy and confusion of living and coping through it all. 

Aaron started making music as Porches in his hometown of Pleasantville, New York back in 2010, when, after touring briefly with his first band, Space Ghost Cowboys (originally called Aaron Maine & the Reilly Brothers), he started making experimental four-track recordings with a Casio CA-110. His first three EPs (Summer of Ten, Je T’aime, and Scrap & Love Songs Revisited) were released in 2011. The move to Manhattan followed the next year. 

Exploding in Sound issued Porches first full-length release, Slow Dance in the Cosmos in the summer of 2013 and, in response to his live shows across the New York City area, Porches signed with Domino in 2015. Since then, Aaron has released February 2016’s Pool, the companion EP (Water) in September 2016, and those were followed by 2018’s The House and last year’s Ricky Music. With every release, Aaron has made extraordinary strides to figuring out next steps to expand upon his distinctive fizzy pop trademark sound.

Porches web/socials: Website – Bandcamp – Soundcloud – Facebook – Instagram – Twitter 

Hi! So, this past year has been pretty chaotic due to various reasons including the pandemic…Before we began, how are you doing with everything? How has this last year been for you and how are you feeling? How have you been coping with everything? 

Hey! I am doing well, feeling blessed, happy to be here still.  Definitely has been an intense year, and I think it will be a long time before I really have any idea what to make of it.

I feel like the music industry has shifted even more so during the pandemic. How has it felt, to you, as an artist? Has it been freeing? Is it scary trying to question how to approach music making and then how to or if you want to creatively release it to the public?

I think I was very lucky in that during the thick of the lockdown, like the totally not knowing if anything ever was going to happen again part of it, I still felt inclined to make music at all.  it was the thing that sort of kept me sane.  I wasn’t sure if my label was gonna drop me, my booking agency would drop me, if I would ever play a show again, and while that felt kind of scary/hard to swallow at times, it was also honestly a kind of a peaceful position to be making music in.  I found that there was a lot less noise making music while the industry was shut down. I feel like what I was making was coming from a cleaner place, I had to ask myself if I wasn’t doing it for the love of it, than what was I doing it for. 

Going back to the beginning. What was your childhood like growing up in Pleasantville, New York? Did creativity/music/art play a big part of your childhood?  

I was a creative kid for sure.  I was always drawing, painting, skateboarding, playing music, stuff like that.  I was lucky enough to have a couple friends who were into the same kind of things, so we pretty much just bugged out together.  I also played trumpet in the high school band for 8 years.  I almost studied classical performance in college, but I ended up studying painting for 3 years.

When you were old enough to start seeking out music, where did you regularly find yourself (a certain record store / internet site / getting recommendations from a certain friend)? Who were some of the artists you first found and then were always on the lookout for? 

Napster! I think the first song I ever downloaded was “Under The Bridge” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  my mom brought my brother and I to get our first CDs at Sam Goody, I remember getting Tubthumper by Chumbawamba, and convincing my brother to get the Backstreet Boys Backstreet’s Back because I loved that song ‘everybody’

Talking some more about your formative years… What was the very first concert you attended? Did you play any sports / go to summer camps? When was the first time you felt super inspired by music? Were there posers on your wall when you were growing up? 

I remember the first time I sang in public was at a Starbucks in the town next to where I grew up.  They would let high school kids set up like these open mic/concert nights and let our band play to our friends, and whoever was in the coffee shop.  I played bass in this band when I was 16, and I think for one of the songs we covered a Jeff Buckley song, and I played guitar and sang for that number.  it wasn’t like a “I’m gonna be a singer” moment, but I definitely remember the adrenaline rush pretty vividly.  There was also this spot called The Dragonfly Cafe, that I haven’t thought about in years, but they would do a similar thing where they’d let us book little shows and invite our friends.  if even 10 people showed up it was like the best feeling ever.  I had some friends that would do house shows, church basement shows, youth center shows, backyard shows, talent shows, battle of the bands, and essentially anywhere someone would let us set up and play music was the place to be.  I’d say those are definitely the most formative and important shows to me.

I read that in 2010/2011 you started making four-track recordings with a Casio CA-110 that became Porches’ first three EPS: Summer of Ten, Je T’aime, and Scrap & Love Songs Revisited. Describe your path to first becoming involved with music. When did you first become aware that music was going to be a part of your life? What was your formal / not formal music education like growing up?

I self-released my first “album” called Harmonica when I was 17 under Aaron Maine.  I went to Kinkos and photocopied the album insert, bought the little plastic sleeves, burnt the CDs on my mom’s desktop, passed them out to my friends, sold them for five bucks at shows, maybe even before Bandcamp?!  I never really had a plan, I just tried to get on any bill I could, because I wanted to perform the songs I was making. It’s sort of always been an inexplicable compulsion.  It’s always been less about an outcome and more about just needing to do it.  I made those first 3 Porches EPs in my mom’s basement, maybe when I was 20, I booked a month-long U.S. tour, playing anyplace that would let a band with absolutely no following play, dropped out of school, got in this green short bus and hit the road.  I remember after that tour was sort of when I was like ‘I wanna do this forever’.

Jumping ahead to All Day Gentle Hold !…. I read that you recorded this new album in your New York home studio between October 2019 and April 2021 and that you wanted to make something injected with “as much love, urgency, and lust for humanity” as you possibly could. What was your songwriting/creative process like for the album? Where were you at mentally when you wrote the lyrics/music for this? What was your mindset like?

I was trying to build this world that conveyed a tangible emotion and mood that was based less on the literal meaning of the lyrics, and more on the feelings that the abstract sounds of the words and melodies could conjure up.  A lot the lyrics are repetitive, dizzy, mantra-like, kind of meant to stir the listener (and me) into a frenzy/trance moment.  The whole thing feels pretty guttural to me, urgent but deliberate.  I guess that’s how I was feeling making this stuff, pretty spun-out star spiral-eyed, but very HERE.

Did you have any parts of the tracks off of All Day Gentle Hold ! (whether it be lyrics, beats, harmonies) around the time you were creating Ricky Music or before? Did it make you see the music in a new light?

I started writing some of these songs immediately after Ricky Music was finished being mixed, which was probably eight months before it came out.  When I was putting this record together, I one thousand percent saw all of my songs that I had been working on in an entirely different light.  it became very clear to me what songs I felt were worthy of putting out and which ones I did not.  I think that they were all important to make, but I felt that if I was going to put another record out, I wanted it to be the most fantastic thing I could possibly put together.  I felt this strange kind of responsibility to make the most joyful thing I could for whoever was gonna be listening to it.

You’ve described All Day Gentle Hold ! as “the most energetic, off-the-cuff moments, collaged together into the most captivating songs [you] could make.” As this is your fifth album, did the writing/recording process change since the last time you worked on music? Is that process something that’s shifted for you over time? 

I’ve just been making records in my room since was 16.  the process changes each time as far as maybe how I approach it, but it’s more or less just making songs you know?  I think with this one the process was more open.  I shared it with a lot of friends while I was working on it, had people over, played them the songs I was working on, asked for feedback, listened to the feedback, watched their expressions while they listened, tried to gauge their excitement or boredom etc.  I think that helped the songs a lot.  it’s a lot easier to let things slide in my songs when I’m listening alone, but they become glaringly/excruciatingly apparent when someone else is listening in the room with you.  

Which songs on All Day Gentle Hold ! were the easiest / most difficult to create? What are two or three songs you are most proud of on this record? Why?

For this album, I sort of felt if a song wasn’t joyful to make/listen to/record/sing/show a friend, then it didn’t really deserve to make the cut, even if there were interesting things about it.  I wanted the listener to be swallowed into the world from the first second of the record to the last.  In the past I’ve set these goals/obstacles and was like doing these musical experiments.  I think my last two albums are sort of documents/collages of that type of exploring.  I focused on making this one as ‘realized’ as I could. 

I do remember recording “Comedown Song” and feeling the most possessed I’ve ever felt. I’d say I wrote and recorded the whole song as it appears on the record in like fifteen minutes straight. it was one of those times that I really felt like my body was a vessel, I think I cried after making it. 

When and how did the album title All Day Gentle Hold ! come about in the album creation process? What is the significance of the title? 

I chose the title because I feel like it’s very much in line with the lyrical themes record.  The words “All Day Gentle Hold !” almost make sense literally but are also kind of clunky and thick.  What I like is that you don’t need to necessarily understand the ‘meaning’ of phrase to understand what “All Day Gentle Hold!” feels like, sounds like, or looks like.

What was your favorite part about the writing / album creation process of All Day Gentle Hold ! ? 

I would wake up every morning, listen through what I was working on, make a big list of ideas, things to add, take away, try out etc., pin it on my wall and set off and see what I could accomplish. It kept my days going and my head straight

The “Okay” video is great! What went into the treatment for this video? How long was this video in the making? Any fun behind the scenes facts from the making of it?

I’ll probably write like 30 treatments per video before landing on one that actually feels right.  I was really focused on making the video concepts for this record as tight, simple, and performance based as I could.  I thought if there’s one thing I feel natural doing, it’s performing, so why not try and capture those moments on camera.

On that topic, I know you directed the “Okay” video, how hands-on are you with making of / direction of your other visuals (press images, artwork) that accompanies the music? Do you feel like the art that accompanies one’s music is more / less important than it used to be? How do you feel like social media / the internet impacts the intention behind all of this?

I am very hands on with all of the visuals…the merch, album art, videos, photos etc.  I think the visuals are more important than they’ve ever been probably.  I think people want as much of a glimpse into the artists world as they can get.

Does traveling influence you as an artist? Are you inspired by the places you go, or do you think your work would sound about the same no matter where you created it?

I feel inspired as a human being in transit, but not so much inspired to make music.  I’ll write and stuff while touring, which pretty much the only traveling I do, but it feels more important to really just feel that momentum rather than trying to capture it and make it into anything else.

How do you recalibrate before getting on stage and at the end of the day? How do you get in the correct mindset?

It’s all I look forward to, the music is the mindset!