Introduction
All Female rock band The Maxines based out of Savannah, Georgia bring it! The deliver guitar riffs to die for and moody vocals with plenty of meaning behind every word. Meshing together grunge and metal they released their debut album “Skin Tight” in 2023.
The band features AJ Grey on Vocals and Emma Smith on Bass. They are backed up by twins Coco on Drums and Maddie on Guitar. Give the interview a read and the band a listen!
Interview
Being an all-female rock band, have you ever had any negative experiences in the industry that you think directly relates to that? How do you deal with that?
AJ- Yes, absolutely. The fact that we, and women in the music industry in general, consistently get asked this question proves that there is truth, and an underlying expectation, that women do put up with more shit in the music industry.
Male musicians are never asked, “Do you ever get any criticism or negative comments when it comes to being an all-male rock band?” Whenever I hear something that’s out of line that’s not just someone simply expressing their opinion in a polite manner, which everyone has a right to do, I try to use my voice and always question the person.
I’ve found that the most effective way to create a conversation that imbues change is to ask someone “why?”
EMMA- There are a lot of times post-performance where we’ll get the “I didn’t really expect to like you guys, but y’all rocked that.” sort of remarks from men typically, which just kind of shows that they can sometimes assume what we will sound like solely based off of our appearance as an all female rock band.
We just kind of smile and say thanks! The compliment is appreciated, and hopefully we showed women can be way more than the box they’re shoved into.
MADDIE- Women get a lot more criticism than men on our musical abilities and our stage presence, people either think we’re not doing enough or we’re doing too much, but there are so many more people supporting what we do and giving us positive feedback, so I just ignore the negative comments.
COCO- There’s definitely more criticism toward women in music, either with the way we look or how good we are at our instruments or our stage presence, but I feel like the support from the music community outweighs the occasional negative comments on Instagram posts. We don’t let the negative comments get to us, we’re just here to play cool music for cool people!
As a follow up question, what do you think the benefits of being all female are?
AJ- Women are natural nurturers, so there is a deep respect for one-another that is based on the fact that we all have the same goal, which is to nourish the process of creating our music.
There are no egos to “leave at the door” because there simply are no egos. We make sure that we create a safe space where everyone can express themselves. Everyone’s ideas are heard and every opinion matters.
EMMA- We truly get along and love each other, not only as bandmates, but we’re all really close friends as well. We take care of each other and check in, as well as listen to everyone’s individual inputs. I think that the all-female dynamic makes the flow a lot smoother and everyone understood and heard a bit more.
COCO- I think it’s really beneficial to see women in the music scene because other women can be inspired by us. Being an all-female band, all we have to do is get on stage and we’ve already set an example. We’re living proof that it is possible to find enough female musicians to start a band with you!
MADDIE- We listen to each other and support each other’s ideas, we create a space where you don’t feel scared to suggest an idea that might not sound good, nothing feels like a competition, and we don’t move forward with anything until we’re all happy with it.
This can make writing a new song a long process for us, but it’s important to us that everyone likes what we’re playing and no one is shooting down ideas.
As you describe yourselves as a mesh between grunge and metal, what are some bands from each genre that you think had the biggest influence on your sound?
AJ- Our sound has definitely progressed more into the metal genre over time, but in the beginning it was the classic ‘90s grunge faves like Smashing Pumpkins, Alice In Chains, and Soundgarden. Our influences have gradually gotten a little heavier. We’re really inspired by Deftones, Kittie, Melvins, Tool, System Of A Down. We can even throw in Knocked Loose and Kublai Khan TX.
EMMA- Now we’re leaning a lot into Deftones, TOOL, and definitely messages that relate with what Rage Against The Machine stands for.
MADDIE- I’m really inspired by The Smashing Pumpkins range of soft and heavy grunge songs. They‘ve got songs like Today and songs like Tales of a Scorched Earth, it’s all grunge but it can be dreamy or angry or anything in between.
COCO- Lately we’ve been taking inspiration from more nu-metal bands (Deftones, System of a Down, Korn), but we’ve always taken inspiration from 90’s grunge-rock (Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains).
Your debut album Skin Tight came out in 2023. What would you say is your own personal favorites off that album and how’s the reception been for it as a whole?
AJ- I feel like my answer to this question always changes! It really depends on my mood and what I’m drawn to in the actual moment. Right now, I’d have to say ”Cannibal.” Maddie’s guitar riffs in that song are so damn good and the way the vocals go with them is very Black Sabbath to me.
I also love seeing the crowd’s reaction to “Cannibal.” You know when the heads start banging and limbs start thrashing that you’re on to something.
MADDIE- I love our heavy songs like Cannibal and Salmon Pants, especially when we play them live and the audience gets super into it.
EMMA- My personal favorites are Letter to a pill and Slumber. I’m a sucker for a good vocal melody and AJ is going to hit that every time. These songs both have such great meanings and Slumber is one I relate to very well and keep close to my heart.
The reception seemed very good to me, as I was a “fan” when it was released. I got to personally experience the release show in the crowd and feel the love and passion for The Maxines. Everything they represented, the messages in each song, and of course – the kick ass production.
COCO- It’s really hard to pick a favourite but I love Cannibal, probably because it’s our most metal song on the album and it’s so much fun to play live. I always look forward to AJ’s scream at the start, no matter how many times we’ve played it.
The reception for the album has been great— we get a lot of comments on how it feels nostalgic, which is definitely what we’re going for with the 90s grunge inspiration!
Our favorite track off Skin Tight is Cannibal, would you be able to go into a little detail of the meaning behind the lyrics?
AJ- When I wrote the lyrics for “Cannibal” I had been ruminating about over-consumption for a while. It had been something on my mind that was really bothering me, and still does. We all come from the same place and we’re all made from the same things, yet we’re destroying it all, simply because we can.
It’s a power complex that we need to dismantle because we’re causing so much damage. This Earth has consistently been giving to us and nourishing us. It’s what she does naturally and we’re abusing it. It’s our turn to nurture her.
What is the coolest thing to ever happen to the band at a live show?
AJ- Lzzy Hale made an appearance at one of our shows! Before one of our gigs, I was standing outside of El Rocko, a local music venue here in Savannah, and saw her walk by with the guitarist from Halestorm, Joe Hottinger. She saw my jaw drop to the ground when I noticed she walked by and she gave me a wink.
I couldn’t pass up the opportunity, so I ran around the building and yelled at her like a loon, “Excuse me, are you Lzzy Hale?” She turned around with a huge smile and said “Yes, I am!” Well, I dropped to the ground (not kidding) and her and Joe immediately walked over and gave me a huge hug and they were kind enough to talk to me for a moment. It was so sweet because she kept giving me hugs throughout our talk and Joe was so kind. She said “Yeah, we looked y’all up and thought you looked cool so we wanted to catch your set tonight.” (!!!!)
I had to try to keep my cool but I was freaking out in my head. She asked what time we were going on and I told her around 11:30. She said they had to catch their tour bus by 1am but they were still going to try to make it to see our set.
Well, they made it! And not only were they both there, but Lzzy live streamed our entire set on her Instagram. (!!!!) You can find it on her page. We got so much love from her posting that. What a kind human to do something like that for another band. She didn’t have to live-stream.
Her simply being there was HUGE for us, and she knows that I’m sure, so for her to go out of her way to live-stream our entire set just shows what kind of human she is. What an inspiring, badass woman! We really hope that one day we can open for them.
We noticed that your drummer and guitarist are twins! How does that dynamic affect the band’s interactions?
MADDIE- We grew up playing music together in our basement, switching off on bass, drums, guitar, and even piano, so we’ve got a sort of telepathy when we play together, but you’ll often catch me mouthing to Coco if I think she’s playing too fast or too slow at a show haha! Sometimes the telepathy doesn’t work.
COCO- The two of us are usually on the same page so we either barely have to communicate our ideas to each other, or we don’t even have to say anything at all (we use our twin telepathy, of course). This sometimes results in Emma and AJ not knowing what we’re talking about, but they’re both really good at keeping up with whatever we’re saying to each other haha.
Do you start with a song name/message, or the song and then name it afterwards?
AJ- It’s a mix between the two. I am an intensely deep thinker. I’ll lock onto a specific subject or feeling and write and write and write about it simply because I’m trying to figure it out for myself. What I’ve found through the creative process is that it’s all about trying to find the answers to the questions you’re asking yourself. I have multiple lyric journals and I’m constantly writing in them and diving deep into how I feel about certain things going on in the world or in my own life.
When I write lyrics, I hear the melody in my head, and if something really sticks with me I’ll present the idea to the band. I feel like Maddie has a similar creative process with the guitar — she hones in on what she’s vibing with and then presents the riff to the band. It’s never one way or the other. We never like to put rules into how a song is written because the song is the leader — it ends up writing itself, in a way. It’s a really lovely process writing songs together.
Which one of your songs do you think hasn’t had much love from listeners but really is an underrated song?
MADDIE- Nothing and Everything has the least amount of listens, but it’s one of our heavier songs and i think it deserves more love!!
COCO- I feel like Scum is underrated, maybe because we don’t play it at shows because it’s more Nirvana-punk-y and upbeat so it doesn’t fit with our slower heavier stuff that we play now. My dad loves it though so that makes up for it being underrated.
2024 saw the release of your EP Evil In Me, does this mark an intention to move to EP releases, or is an album in the works?
MADDIE- I like the idea of doing a split EP eventually, but we prefer to release full albums rather than smaller projects.
You wrote a song for a horror novel, could you tell us more about it and how that came about?
AJ- Long story short, I met Brom through his wife, Laurie Brom, when she came into a vintage shop I was working at a few years ago. Brom had written his new novel Evil In Me and had a dream of making a song that was in the book come to life. He saw us perform and thought we were the perfect band to make that happen since the main character of his novel is an aspiring punk musician from the early ‘80s named Ruby Tucker.
He send me a message asking me if we could meet to discuss an idea he had. We met up and here we are with an EP of three songs! Four including the 8-track version of “Evil In Me.” I helped him write the lyrics for the song in the book that Ruby sings and it’s woven throughout the audiobook, which is a dream come true due to the fact that I’m a major bookworm!
What would be your dream venue to play a single show in?
MADDIE- I would love play a morning metal show at Diner on Abercorn for all the metalhead food service workers that can’t make it to Friday night shows. It’s never too early in the day to listen to heavy music. I would also love to play a show in my hometown in Canada or in Toronto.
EMMA- I don’t really have a “dream venue” so to speak. I actually have never been to a larger scale concert, buttt it would be so surreal to have a sold out show. I think the first time that that happens to us I’ll freak.
If you could cover any non-rock song in history, what would it be and why?
AJ- I would love to cover “It’s A Man’s World” by James Brown or “Bang Bang” by Nancy Sinatra.
EMMA- Probably Bloody Mary by Lady Gaga, funny enough. I’m queer, and that is definitely a queer anthem. That song makes me dance and that’s not a good thing.
COCO- I would love to do a rock cover of an oldies song— we once played briefly through part of The Wanderer by Dion, back when we were writing Skin Tight, so maybe we should revisit that
MADDIE- We’ve played around with Let’s Get It Started by Black Eyed Peas during practice, I think that would be funny to surprise people with
What’s the immediate plans for the band moving forward?
EMMA- An album is DEFINITELY in the works. In fact we just started writing two more new ones and are super close to the finishing touches! We have already written four unreleased songs : Bloodstains, Plastic, Rotten, and Sink. These next two are great, one very emotionally powerful, and one very fun nu metal stuff.
Is there a festival worldwide that you just look at and think yeah that’s a bit of us and we would love to play that?!
EMMA- Probably Rockville. A super popular rock band from Savannah, Bastardane, played at the festival and gave me a lot of inspiration that that could one day be possible for us. I’ve wanted to go to Rockville for a long time now, so that would be a dream.
COCO- I would love to play Shaky Knees sometime— me and Maddie were supposed to go with our dad the year it was cancelled because of COVID, so it would be sick to play that fest (and get him in for free haha).
Keep/ Remove … Coca Cola/Pepsi, Milk Chocolate/White Chocolate, Grunge/Metal ?
AJ- Coca Cola/Pepsi = remove both because I don’t like soda
Milk Chocolate/White chocolate = remove both because I like dark chocolate
Grunge/Metal = Keep both because I got rid of all the others
EMMA- Coke, Milk Chocolate, and Grunge all the way.
COCO- Cappuccino, white chocolate, metal
If you could go back and tell yourselves before the band started something that you know now, what would it be? And how do you think that would have affected the band’s path?
AJ- I would tell myself to lean into the weirdness of my voice rather than trying to sound like something else. That said though, there are some things that I’m glad no one told me to do or gave me advice about because I learned on my own in an organic way, and I think finding your own way can be more powerful than someone telling you how to be, even if it is your future self..
EMMA- I’d tell myself that there was a music scene in Savannah. I truly had no idea somehow, even though I’ve lived here my whole life and always gone downtown and been a part of music.
COCO- “Play kick with your heel up, it’s easier lol” I don’t think that would affect the bands path, it would have just helped me get my technique down sooner
What is the best album ever made?
AJ- Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette
MADDIE- Much Love by Microwave
EMMA- Fleetwood Mac greatest hits
COCO- Permission to Land by The Darkness. Doesn’t get better than that album.
Your guitar playing is exceptional throughout your songs , and we saw you described them as swoon worthy… While we agree we would like to know who inspired you to pick up the guitar in the first place?
MADDIE- My dad plays guitar so Coco and I grew up playing his acoustic and electric, and listened to lots of Lenny Kravitz, U2, the White Stripes, and Rage Against the Machine. White Stripes and Rage were easy songs for Coco and I to switch off instruments and learn together, and eventually I started learning more Tool and System of a Down and improving my metal techniques like chugging and pinch harmonics and all that.
To any new guitarists reading this, you don’t need expensive gear to play guitar! I learned on a pawn shop electric and I play with cheap Donner pedals, so keep practicing and get on that stage!!!
All rights to the songs used in this interview are retained by The Maxines. All photos were provided by the band and were taken by Bec Wolfe & Adriana Iris Boatwright.
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