Having finished an east coast tour in February, Maids return to the road this week for another round of live dates in support of their new video, ‘I’m Afraid’.
“We really just wanted to play a bunch of shows to support [the video], and we really enjoy touring,” guitarist Nathan Berryman says. “It’s a heaps good time; good excuse for having a holiday I suppose.”
The clip was filmed in drummer/ vocalist Sean Cook’s living room. “It was pretty funny, it was like a big screen and when Sean's hair is blowing we used a leaf blower; it was pretty funny because we had no idea how it was gonna turn out because of how we filmed it, but we're pretty stoked with how it looks — pretty different, pretty cool.”
Together since their days at high school, the band almost fell into their heavy rock/ indie genre unintentionally. “I think we've sort of had our influences mesh together. We all really enjoy good heavy parts [but] at the same time we like indie and how it's layered and [has] melodies and a bit of pop. At the end of the day, what we write is purely an expression of who we are. We don't aim to write a specific thing — it's just how it ends up.”
A product of the Newcastle’s music scene, Nathan says: “It's definitely getting better. A few years ago it was pretty slow and a lot of people weren't interested. But to be honest, in the last six to twelve months people have started going to gigs and there’s a good healthy mix of young and good quality bands starting to come through. Bands in Newcastle are starting to realise 'stop pissing around, pull your finger out and give it a good go' sort of thing, which is really good.”
The group is sitting on a number of album ideas, but Nathan says it’s tricky to work on them while touring. “We've got a whole bunch of songs and ideas that are there to be finished, and that’s the problem with smashing out all these tours, we really haven't had a chance to get together and finish them. So we're really keen [to record] some demos and getting a song out in two or three months time.”
Written by Daniel Conaghan
Maids Tour Dates
Wed April 9 - The Small Ballroom (Newcastle)
Thur April 10 - Captain Cook Hotel (Sydney)
Fri April 11 - Bar 291 (Melbourne)
Sat April 12 - Old Bar (Melbourne)
Sun April 13 - Cherry Bar (Melbourne)
Thur April 17 - The Zoo (Brisbane)
Fri April 18 - The Bald Faced Stag (Sydney)
Thur April 24 - Valve Bar (Sydney)
