Smash Magazine
Mae interview
08/16/05

Upgrade your grey matter cause one day it MAE matter…
By: homie

So there I am, cold chillin with the get fresh crew and the tight bros from way back when I get an email. “Just got done talking to Mae’s manager about doing an interview for the upcoming issue of Smash. Can you swing it?” Of course I can. With one swift phone call to Mae drummer (and band intellectual as described by the bands site whatismae.com) Jacob Marshall, we’re off and running. He’s a smart dude and really cool to boot. I don’t want to waste his time so we run over a few questions that delve back into college papers he wrote and how they tie into his band. Sorry if two nerds talking about Synesthesia loses you. Here’s the philosophical wax on Mae…or rather, Multisensory Aesthetic Experience.
“This is perfect (laughing) I just dropped my little sister off at flute practice.” Marshall has been home all of 5 hours literally just getting dropped off on the way home from this summer’s warped tour and already he’s got family errands to run. The seemingly fun loving though responsible type, I figured we’d get deep on the ultimate question…what is Mae?
SM: Starting with the band name…Multisensory Aesthetic Experience. It relates to how senses perceive sensation and interact with each of the other senses.
J: Yeah
SM: That’s deep.
J: (laughing)
SM: Plato frequently commented on the “essence” of nature and hence, the “nature” of things. What would you say is the “essence” of Mae. What are the intangibles that make this band, its music and its art?
J: The essence of Mae is the desire to capture a feeling. In our medium, which is a four minute period of time, we create with our sound the essence of what we feel and what we want other people to feel. So when we have the opportunity to engage an audience, whether its on stage at a show, in person or on cd, the “essence” of Mae is hopefully that feeling that people are left with. The reason I would say that that is the “essence” is because that was what led us to create music from the time we were little kids. It’s as simple as that feeling.
SM: Okay, fair enough. What would you say is the “nature” of Mae? That is to say, what are those actions and reactions that the “essence” of Mae is likely to cause?
J: With respect to this record (Suspension, 2005) this whole experience of the Everglow. The whole idea, the way the packaging came together, everything. It’s about what happened when we decided to be a band. When we put out our first record, we had been a studio project. Our bass player Mark owned a studio at home and we all got together as friends who respected each other musically and wanted to work on some stuff together. It wasn’t until the record was signed to Tooth and Nail records and we bought our van that we realized it was time to sink or swim. So for us, the action of climbing into a van and pursuing our dream was very empowering. We wrote the new record and realized that the majority of it was about the triumphs and overcoming the tribulations of the past 2 ½ years. The intangible in that sense was a feeling of satisfaction. It wasn’t as much that we had arrived, but we had done. We decided to call that feeling or that place the Everglow. There is something inside of you that you feel you’re destined to do. If you’re not doing it, you should be.
SM: A Happy Gillmore “Happy Place” of sorts? (Both laughing)
J: Yeah, kind of, it can be. It’s not always happy though and that’s something that we’ve definitely learned along the way. The hardest moments often yield the greatest results as far as we as people are concerned. Back to the “nature” (laughing), the reaction we would like to see in people is hopefully being a living testament that you can actually pursue what you’re passionate about and achieve it or acquire it or find yourself in that place as a reality not just an idea.
SM: Is another part of the “nature” of Mae to serve as a testament to Christianity? Why are you continuously lumped into this category? Is it mere affiliation with your record label?
J: The Tooth and Nail label has a lot to do with it and the funny thing is, the only reason we signed with Tooth and Nail in the beginning is because they offered us a better deal than the other companies we were talking to. That’s a huge issue in and of itself, the issue of art in relation to faith or spirituality. I can tell you this. This is the best way to put it for us anyway. We’re in the business of creating and selling music. Not God. We have our beliefs for sure, but we’ve never done anything other than try to create music for its own sake. Within that, all sorts of different details about yourself come into play because as an artist your job is to reflect on your experiences and other things around you. So of course that’s going to make its way into it. But we’ve never played a church. We’ve never marketed ourselves in that way at all. For me I think that’s the biggest differentiation, the idea that you can market yourself as a Christian entertainer, that’s always kind of seemed funny to me.
SM: You cant fault your influences but at the same time, this band’s purpose has never been to witness through its music.
J: Yeah, our purpose is just to make music. Music is such a powerful force in and of itself (laughing) you know? It’s such a tough issue because its not like we’re denying something that we believe, its just the idea that you’re selling…it’s kind of funny because we’ve just let the fans…
SM: duke it out?
J: Yeah! We’ve got this FAQ section on our message board and that’s the first question and it’s a simple answer that’s on there. No. We’re not a Christian band. So, (laughing) we kind of left the rest of it for the people to kind of duke it out amongst themselves.
SM: Have you guys ever thought of starting some kind of Devil Worshiping cult just to do away with it once and for all?
J: Once yeah! Haha! After like, the 27th time someone had come to the message board looking for a fight.
SM: Just fake it in a video or something.
J: That’s so funny, that exact scenario did come up and we were like ‘well? We could put this to rest really quick.’

Simple answer section…
SM: Your bio on your website asks a couple questions. What would music look like? Music for the deaf comes in an array of colors and shapes, not unlike the Windows Media Player. What are the colors and shapes of your songs?
J: That’s funny because I was the one who actually came up with the name. I was doing a study in college. I did a couple years of funded research on the relationship between color and sound. There’s this group of people that have this thing called Synesthesia, are you familiar with that?
SM: Very much so.
J: Awesome! As you well know, they have an experience where sound results in color or sometimes, haste results in color, it’s a mixing of the senses. In my research I compared and contrasted the responses of a bunch of people who have Synesthesia to specific instrumental pieces of music so there’s no lyrical ideas to get in the way. We broke down those results and then compared them to a group of people that have perfect pitch. In perfect pitch, a lot of people that have it use a color based association with it. For example, specific frequencies will evoke a specific hue and that’s how they know it’s an A Sharp. They just hear it and it will make sense that it is Lime Green. It was really, really cool to see the way that those two groups of people have a lot in common. I kind of started mapping something out with that but (laughing) that’s gonna take a few more years!
SM: You’re gonna have to stop touring if you’re going to finish this project.
J: Yeah, I know, I’ve got my undergrad but I’d love to go back and…
SM: Get the masters and a PhD?
J: Yeah man! Haha!
SM: Better you than I, let’s put it that way! Moving right along. If you lick the stage of the Whiskey in Los Angeles, you’ll know the taste of rock and roll. Where else would you suggest that people might find the taste of music? Or rather their musical tastes?
J: Mmm, that’s very good, a chicken or the egg question?
SM: Sure.
J: My dad actually was in a band back in the late 70’s into the 80’s and I kind of grew up on his tour bus. I was about 4. I was kind of surrounded by it which is funny because I know that the most formative years are like 1-3 and I spent that, 300 days a year, on tour. (laughter) So it’s kind of funny that now I find myself in the same position.
SM: So the answer is, put your kids on tour. Maybe drop them off at a Mae show and put ‘em in the van.
J: I have a 7 year old brother and he actually comes along to all of the shows and sings along. It’s funny to me that the same song can be appealing to my grandmother that will be appealing to my 7 year old brother.
SM: The next question delves into what music physically feels like.
J: Yeah
SM: You’ve been on tour for how long now without a break? You’re battered, bruised, etc.
J: We literally just got dropped off at our houses about 5 hours ago from warped tour. We’re exhausted but I’ll tell you what, there’s an actual energy you can get when you’re playing. It’s the energy you get from the crowd itself but man, as soon as you get back…The crowd feels good with the amps behind you and the people getting into the music and stuff so that feels good. But the other part you said, (laughing) then you get back to the bus and you’re just like ‘oh.’ Haha!
SM: The other part doesn’t feel so good huh?
J: Yeah! Haha! But I’ll tell you what. No complaints. We’ve had an amazing year so far and I’m looking forward to getting a rest for sure for a little bit but we’re going out and headlining a whole US tour and a couple of Canadian dates this fall. I cant wait to get back out.
SM: Final question. If Mae played a show in the woods…would anyone hear them?
J: (Laughter) I’ve got to be honest. This interview has been…amazing. Let me first say something real quick. Yesterday I was getting interviewed and this poor girl, bless her heart, asked me two questions. One of them was “do you like pancakes?” and the other one was…it wasn’t even a question, it was sort of a statement about technology and music. She said that music has changed a lot with technology and things…and that was it. I was trying to figure out what she was trying to get at. So to go from that to talking about Plato and all that! It’s funny! (laughter). I love running the gamut. I would have to say yes, somebody would hear it and that somebody would be at least the five of us playing. It would be a glorified rehearsal.
SM: That pretty much does it. So good luck with flute practice and we look forward to seeing you guys on the West Coast sometime soon.
J: See you soon!