Maximo Park – Gonzo

You’re both looking brown, where’ve you been?

Paul Smith: I’ve just been on Holiday in Whitby Bay. It was a bit windy, but the Sun was very nice. [motions towards Lukas] He went to Turkey.

Lukas Wooller [keys]: Aye, I’ve been to the Med. There was a nice breeze. 40 degrees.
We got back from America a week on Tuesday ago, so we’ve had a week’s holiday, which has been really nice.

And how did that go?

Lukas: We’d not been for nearly 2 years. We’re still really tiny over there. We were with 2 support bands, one called Monsters Are Waiting, the other called The Oohlahs, both from LA. Small bands.

Did you cover the whole country?

Paul: It was sort of East and West, we made a big M.

Skipping out the South then?

Lukas: You don’t wanna get caught there, unless there’s something specific going on, cos you might get lynched.

That’s always a danger.

Paul: We did China last December as well, and then Moscow in January. We also did a few small shows in Newcastle in the clubs we used to play. Then we went out to Europe and did a few little shows in 200-300 capacity venues, just getting the hardcore fans the new material first. Then we went round the UK, went back to Europe to do lots of Festivals and stuff, and we’re off to Japan tomorrow to do Summer Sonic Festival. Then it’s Australia after that, and they’re quite excited about us over there, so it’s exciting. We’re doing Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.

Can you remember your first appearance on Gonzo?

Paul: The very first one was in Camden, we were playing with the Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster at the Barfly. I remember meeting Zane Lowe and he was such a nice guy, like, he sort of put you at ease. Cos he’s obviously quite a loud personality when you see him on the telly – although I never really had MTV so I never saw him on the telly – but I heard him on the radio, and you think of him as being a very exuberant guy – and he is. I remember us being in the pub just before we went on and he was really nice. He said I was smartly dressed, which was nice of him to say so, I was doing my best!

Were you nervous about meeting someone off the radio?

A little bit, we’d only just been signed and we were making our record at the same time. We went from the studio where our equipment was, loaded it all out and went to the gig. [to Lukas] did Paul Epworth do our sound that night?

Lukas: Yeah I think he did actually,

Paul: Epworth had done sound engineering for LCD Soundsystem and The Rapture – y’know, he’d worked with some amazing people as a sound engineer, not just as a producer. Cos he came along, it was good because we were just starting out and it felt like everything was going our way, they were putting us on MTV and Paul was coming to help us. It was nice, a really nice night in the end.

Can you remember who played with you that night?

Lukas: It was that band that split up… not The Minotaurs…  The Unicorns.

Paul: Yeah, did not Modey Lemon play as well? I remember it as if it were yesterday.

Lukas: Cos The Unicorns split up live on stage that night as well.

What would be your birthday message for Gonzo?

Paul: Clean that couch!