Porches’ Aaron Maine turns up the dial with his sixth LP ‘Shirt,’ making for a bigger, bolder, and better listen.

Stream: ‘Shirt’ – Porches

Porches does not speak in riddles, but I’m still not sure what he’s talking about.

Aaron Maine’s project began in 2010 with grungy basement guitar, later adopting an atmospheric and abstract indie sound. At least, until 2021. His 2021 record All Day, Gentle Hold was louder, a committed marriage between electronic music and rock and roll.

Through the years, though, Maine never lost his Dick and Jane lyricism. In fact, Maine has always kept it simple: a backing beat, a bass line played straight, thin guitar plucking. Shirt (out September 13, 2024 via Domino Recording Co), turns up the dial on each element — the record is bigger, bolder, better. With more guitar, more bass, and more distortion, Maine builds what he calls “the world” of Shirt. The air is thicker, the street lights darker, the turf phosphorescent. The heavier instrumentation pits perfectly against Maine’s couplet lyricism, making for a simple, yet supersaturated Porches.

“Rag” is the perfect example. A thumping, raunchy detonation sets fire to the chorus as Maine sings, “Don’t know where I was/ World’s f*ing sick of it/ Bag in the hand/ Dog’s biting extra nice.” Maine’s voice is tinged with cigarette smoke and boyish indecency as he insists there is no pleasure without pain. In true Porches fashion, The chorus of “Itch” and “Bread Believer” are restricted to their titles. Maine repeats his earworms time and time again, giving them just the right amount of time to burrow into the ears and minds of their listener. “Crying at the End” is a no-holds-barred breakup song. Maine lets his voice crack as the distortion rips through his body, singing “She’s my only friend, and I’m so sad.”

**There is nowhere Shirt will not go. You do not have to understand every lyric or musical choice.**

In fact, that is the point of Porches. From a nearly-violent dependency on the girl next door to a complicated relationship with the country you come from, the only prerequisite to anything Porches is jam-packed, jet-fueled emotion.

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:: stream/purchase Shirt here ::

:: connect with Porches here ::

A CONVERSATION WITH PORCHES

Atwood Magazine: Congratulations on the record! Can we walk through the inception of Shirt?

Aaron Maine: I was touring post-COVID and the fact that we were out in the world playing music again was f*ing miraculous. I felt we were struck by lightning and let out of a cage. We were playing the songs really heavily, lots of distorted guitar and thrashing around. It was the most high energy Porches had ever been. The thought was to take that energy even further than my last record. I wanted to make a heavier, more saturated album. I don’t think I’ve ever truly set out to make a record that sounds like something. I usually just experiment until a certain batch of songs starts to resonate with me.

I think All Day Gentle Hold was a bit more electronic. The rock moments from that record seem plucked and put into Shirt.

Maine: With this I was interested in the traditional rock band pillars, like the live drum and live bass. I wanted to supersaturate them so they feel modern and more evocative of rock music. I wanted to push the production as far as I could. With this album especially, I think I dove deeper in the past as far as experimenting with production.

It’s been over a decade for Porches. How do you maintain your relationship with this project?

Maine: I don’t think anything has really changed from when I was 16 making songs until now. Porches is an extension of me. I don’t have to show up to Porches and be anyone but myself, which is probably why I am still doing it. I have carved out this space where I can explore different sounds and genres. It’s fulfilling.

Porches is an extension of me… I have carved out this space where I can explore different sounds and genres. It’s fulfilling.

Why did you choose a moniker? Do you ever wish you could go back and choose “Aaron”?

Maine: Yes, so much. I wish I could go back. I don’t know why Porches, I just liked how it sounded. It felt chic. ”Pool, house, shirt,” there’s something there about the one-word objects I’m drawn to.

That’s your brand! I see Porches walking around, noticing something interesting about something mundane and writing a song about it.

Maine: You nailed it. I realized this the last interview I was doing. Talking about why the album was called Shirt. I have always been drawn to the in-between stuff. Nothing dynamite. There’s so much room for interpretation and projection, which is my favorite thing. Whether the shirt is crumpled up on the ground after you slept with someone, or someone is aggressively taking off their shirt. It leaves a lot to the viewer if you inject it with a bunch of emotions. It’s abstract.

A lot of people talk about the big stuff, but Porches uses things as stepping stones. But you have a way of making it make sense. Not everyone can write a song about an itch and make it palatable.

Maine: That’s what I like about that song. It could be an STD but make it sexy. It feels real, hot, and weird.

The chorus has a lot of repetition, which is all over your music.

Maine: People have mentioned that to me before. It is trance-like, almost like staring at yourself in the mirror for too long. Things start to take on different meanings. “Bread Believer” has the same kind of chorus. When I’m writing it I’m parsing out what it means to me. Each time I repeat it I get more confident. It doesn’t have a literal meaning, it’s just to convey emotion. That’s a lot of what my lyric style has been. There’s rarely a story to follow.

Do you have a hard time consuming very specific art or media?

Maine: I don’t listen to very much music. It’s rare and I sort of have to remind myself to do that. It’s not because I don’t resonate with music, it’s more that I spend so much time writing and recording that when there is a chance for silence I’m going to take it. It’s harder for me to get lost in song today than it was when I was 16. I’ve been thinking about how I used to run music back incessantly. I can’t remember the last album I played 50 times.

Is that a reflection of the music or you?

Maine: I think it’s me. Fandom is unique to that younger age. I’m absolutely obsessive about my own music. If I make something I like I’ll listen to it hundreds of times.

Oh, so you’re a narcissist (laughs)?

Maine: I might be! Or I might just make the music I want to hear.

Yes, you do have a very distinctive style.

Maine: Some of the new music I hear on TikTok or whatever is… I feel so detached from that and so uninterested in it. Maybe it’s just getting older or not giving a f*, but it’s very bizarre to me what “viral” is. I feel really lucky to have carved out a little space for me in the music world before this landscape. I wouldn’t know where to begin now. I trust the kids will figure it out and sniff out the bullshit.

I think you are more hopeful than I am.

Maine: I think there will be a pushback against AI and social media. Hopefully generated by kids in high school who realize that this rots their brain. It’s more fun to be out and about. Smell someone, smell something.

Speaking of kids, I want to ask about “School” because it reminds me of earlier Porches.

Maine: I think that’s one of my favorite songs on the record. I like that one because to me the album feels like a play where each song is a scene. When I got the sequence right, I was like, “Yes, it’s a f*ing musical.” I don’t even really know what that song means outside of the obvious scary, Willy Wonka chorus. It’s the halftime show in the world of Shirt. I think it comes into focus a little bit more towards the end of the record. It ends with “Music,” which is hyper-realistic, probably the least abstract on the record. I was thinking about the smoke clearing.

Which track brought the project into focus for you?

Maine: I think “Crying at the End.” When I punched in the screaming section, I had found what I was looking for. “Itch” also felt really cool. At that point I was filling in these gaps for the record. “Joker” is sort of an outlier, but I like it because it’s twisted in the same way as these songs.

I love that song. It’s so strange.

Maine: Yes, it’s easy on the ears in a way these other songs aren’t.

Easy on the ears but hard on the mind.

Maine: To me that’s what the record is. Anxiety-ridden grappling with beauty and evil. I wanted to pit them against each other and see what comes out.

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