Maica Mia
I was first introduced to Maica Mia on a warm end-of-summer night of September 2013 in Quebec City when an impressive lineup of Montreal ensembles were opening for New Yorkers ARP. They went first and made my night. Nothing charms me more than being surprised, when all you know of a band is the name you saw on a cool poster. With Maicamia, you can forget your expectations. The duo turned trio in the last year – joined by bass player Mauro Pezzente of GY!BE – create a unique and personal rock; a slightly eerie, musically pungent, always intense experience.
Credit: Thomas B. Martin
From being tagged slowcore to dark folk, Maicamia doesn’t seem to follow genre rules. Guitar barely audible, overtaken by the penetrating vocals until it explodes into shreds and dismantles any idea you had of where the song was going. A similar phenomenon with the drums: live, it turns into a cohesive battle. Their texts, like a ripple of complex emotions, might speak to you, although it feels as if they are not meant to be guessed or deconstructed; Maicamia are simply there, they exist because they feel a need to.
December of 2012 marked the release of their spectacularly dense and capable debut LP, Sparcity Blues.Therefore, 2013 was an important year for the band; in the aftermath of the release, they played many festivals around the province, notably EMF(I WANT TO GO) and Pop Montreal. Shows played in churches can be really special and I can imagine how their darkly ethereal sound would resonate in such a space. The band also took the time to record Des Era which will be available January of 2014:
‘’Getting this new album recorded felt really good. We look forward to having something out there that represents us.’’
They recorded this new LP in their pratice/recording studio in Montreal a.k.a. Paradise Studio. The writing process of such unrestricted, experimental music comes in waves where they feed off one another’s inspiration:
‘’ It’s always pretty organic in the sense that, someone just starts playing something and somebody else jumps right in there to keep it going. It’s like you catch a bus and you might not even realize that you did so, but someone else in the room is very aware of the magical bus you are on and they go make sure to keep it driving.
However, when Jonny is working on the MPC, it’s much more of a process. He spends hours and hours in his room and every once in a while, he will call me over to listen to some new beats or whatever and then we take it from there.’’
Maicamia plans to start recording again in March. Maybe 2014 will bless us with two of their releases. I wouldn’t complain nor would I be surprised if their ascertainable talent made them the linchpin of an scene everflowing with talented musicians.
A house down the road. 