Maxïmo Park

Maxïmo Park

Maxïmo Park are an English indie rock band, signed to Warp Records, who formed in 2000.

History

Maxïmo Park formed in Tyne and Wear in 2000, their name adapted from Maximo Gomez Park, a Havana meeting place for Cuban revolutionaries. Initially, the four founding members played only a few small shows, with Archis Tiku on vocals, frequently switching instruments. On the verge of splitting up, they instead decided to look for somebody to provide more of a focus – on stage and lyrically. Singer Paul Smith was discovered by the then-girlfriend of drummer Tom English in a pub while he was singing along to Stevie Wonder's "Superstition". Having found someone with a stage presence, they started to write their first songs together, all despite the fact that the frontman never imagined himself as a frontman of a band. He'd never sung on stage beforehand, so it was a touch of luck that he turned out to be as well-suited to the role that he has grown into over the past few years.

Around March 2004, a friend funded 300 copies of a 7" red vinyl single "Graffiti" and later released a vinyl of their tracks ("The Coast Is Always Changing"/"The Night I Lost My Head") that they’d recorded in their house in Fenham. After some time of doing gigs around their home town, Steve Beckett of the dance-electronic label Warp Records got hold of one of these records and decided to sign Maxïmo Park.

In 2005, they swiftly rose to indie fame with their debut album, A Certain Trigger, which was produced by Paul Epworth (Babyshambles, Bloc Party) [1] and hailed by some critics as one of the best releases of the year, leading to an increasingly devoted fanbase in the United Kingdom. The success of the album was reinforced by a series of increasingly large tours and a support slot to the Kaiser Chiefs on the NME Rock & Roll Riot Tour. In July 2005, their debut album was nominated for the Mercury Prize.

The band played the Glastonbury Festival and the Brixton Academy as part of Xfm's 2005 Winter Wonderland show,[2] which sold out in ten minutes, and were headliners for the NME Awards Tour in early 2006. They also contributed a song to the War Child compilation Help: A Day in the Life.

In August 2006, the band announced that they had started working on their next album. The album was produced by Gil Norton and recorded in London at Rak Studios in St John's Wood. On January 22, 2007 the band announced that their second album, Our Earthly Pleasures, would be released on April 2, 2007 and will be preceded by the album's lead single "Our Velocity" on March 19, 2007. On January 30, 2007 the band released details of their "Our Earthly Pleasures" Tour. Tickets to the majority of the events sold out within minutes, upon their release on February 2.

Paul Smith in The Guardian revealed that he has recently been writing a lot of material based on obituaries, and mentioned a possibility of a compilation CD of songs based on biographical content, and obituarial content.

In August 2007 the band performed on the main stage at the Carling Weekend at Reading and Leeds Festivals.

On 8th and 9th September 2007, Maximo Park supported The Police at Twickenham Stadium. The band then, at the beginning of October, featured on a BBC Radio 1 compilation album celebrating the radio station's 40th anniversary, with a cover version of Justin Timberlake's 2002 single "Like I Love You.

On 15th December 2007 they played a homecoming gig at the Newcastle Metro Radio Arena. To celebrate this home-coming gig and the end of the tour, Tyneside brewers, Scottish & Newcastle UK, invited the band to design their own label for the local [Newcastle Brown Ale].

Members

• Tom English – drums
• Duncan Lloyd – guitar
• Paul Smith – vocals
• Archis Tiku – bass
• Lukas Wooller – keyboard

Discography

Albums

• A Certain Trigger (May 16, 2005) #15 UK
• Missing Songs (January 9, 2006)
• Our Earthly Pleasures (April 2, 2007) #2 UK

Singles

Chart positions are for the UK as compiled by The Official UK Charts Company.

• "The Coast Is Always Changing"/"The Night I Lost My Head" (2004) 63
• "Apply Some Pressure" (February 21, 2005) 20
• "Graffiti" (May 2, 2005) 15
• "Going Missing" (July 18, 2005) 20
• "Apply Some Pressure" (Re-release) (October 24, 2005) 17
• "I Want You to Stay" (February 20, 2006) 21
• "Our Velocity" (March 19, 2007) 9, 1 (indie)
• "Books From Boxes" (June 11, 2007) 16
• "Girls Who Play Guitars" (August 20, 2007) 33, 2 (indie)
• "Karaoke Plays" (November 12, 2007) 113, 4 (indie)

DVDs

• Found on Film (June 5, 2006), which comes with a bonus BBC Sessions CD that contains some previously unreleased songs.

Compilation and soundtrack appearances

• Their song "Wasteland" appeared on the War Child album Help-a Day in the Life in 2005.
• Their song "Apply Some Pressure" has appeared on the videogames Burnout Revenge, SSX On Tour and SingStar Rocks!.
• Their song "Going Missing" appeared as an instrumental version in the film Stranger Than Fiction
• Their song "Our Velocity" appears on the demo for Project Gotham Racing 4 on Xbox 360.
• An acoustic version of their song "Going Missing" was featured on the CD Radio 1's Live Lounge.
• And their cover of "I'm Gonna Be (500 miles)" was featured in its sequel Radio 1's Live Lounge 2.
• A cover of Justin Timberlake's "Like I Love You", with a slightly altered, satirical ending referring of Paul growing up in Billingham listening to records, featured on a compilation celebrating BBC Radio 1's 40th Anniversary.
• Their song The Unshockable features on the soundtrack to the game FIFA 08.

See also

• Heavy metal umlaut

External links

• Maxïmo Park official website
• Maxïmo Park MySpace
• An acoustic session for Vox podcast
• Karaoke Plays Review

Interviews

• The Scenestar Maxïmo Park Interview July 2007
• Interview by Alexander Laurence (The Portable Infinite 2006)
• Die Klangschau: 15 Songs chosen by Maxïmo Park and interview
• Maximo Park video interview with stv/music, June 2007
• Video interview with Paul from Maximo Park
• SUPERSWEET interview