INTERVIEW | MAINE THE MEDICINE TALKS ABOUT ‘S.O.A. (SON OF ALICE)’ ALBUM

By MJ Savino • On What is New , , , , , ,

Recently this year Maine The Medi­cine released his crit­ic­ally acclaimed album ‘S.O.A (Son Of Alice).’ In the in-depth inter­view below he talks about hon­or­ing his moth­er with the album, high emo­tions cre­at­ing the album, his secret ingredi­ent to releas­ing time­less music, and more.

MJ: I see you and Leadgeon are still going strong, talk a little bit about that chemistry.

Maine: Well with Leadgeon, that’s 30-year chem­istry and broth­er­hood. I don’t have to tell him what kind of beats I need, he already knows. Now lyr­ic­ally we always push each oth­er with the pen. For us, that inner com­pet­i­tion will always be there.

MJ: One thing I find when it comes to your albums it’s dif­fi­cult to pin­point one or even two favor­ite records. All your albums are theme-based and flow like a story from begin­ning to end, with no skip­ping. How­ever, I do want to touch on “Pour Liquor” as that seems to hit hard and hit home with many fans and listeners.

Maine: Yes, “Pour Liquor” seems to be a pop­u­lar one with the fans. I wrote that hook dur­ing the Cov­id,  because of all the friends and fam­ily I lost that year. I had­n’t got­ten a chance to write a verse to it until the night of my dad’s funer­al. I was already halfway through the album, but I needed to pay homage to my fath­er. As for the fea­ture, that’s my cous­in Khali Hustle from the Bay Area. He, like myself, lost a few people, and almost lost his own life to an attemp­ted mur­der­er. So, I’m grate­ful he’s still here to jump on this record with me.

MJ: I want to take a moment to pull on heartstrings and ask how dif­fi­cult it was to cre­ate “Momma” and the array of emo­tions you must feel hear­ing that song being played.

Maine: Yes, that song was hard to make, and at times was hard to listen to. My mom was my everything, and that void will nev­er be filled. She was a single mom, worked 2 jobs, and tried her best to provide for my sis­ter and me. She was a big fan of my music, even though she said I curse too much. But she would love to watch my videos on You­Tube. So, I just wanted to hon­or her with this album, and make her proud. Maybe one day I can com­pose myself enough to per­form it.

MJ: Both as a fan and pro­fes­sion­al in the music industry, I must say how refresh­ing it is to exper­i­ence your growth as a man and artist with each album you release. There’s a man­ner in which you invite the world into your per­son­al life exper­i­ences that allows us to authen­tic­ally embrace and grip your emo­tions. Your use of lyr­i­cism and word­play flows effort­lessly over boom-bap cadences. What is it about Maine The Medi­cine that stands out from oth­er artists?

Maine: I just try to be the best ver­sion of myself. I move off of the emo­tion and the vibe of the beat. Sure I have top­ics that I want to address,  but instead of for­cing I wait for the right track to bring it out of me. I also know as an artist I can always get bet­ter. I can always make my sword sharp­er. I nev­er con­vince myself that I made it because that can go to your head. I want to con­tin­ue to keep that hun­ger for more.

MJ: Take us behind the scenes of the album ‘S.O.A.’  Let us in from the inspir­a­tion to cre­ation to the final product. I know the album is buzz­ing with a social media frenzy and fans are listen­ing on repeat with genu­ine compassion.

 

 

Maine: The cre­at­ive part was fun and thera­peut­ic for me. I mean, of course, it was some pres­sure because this album is ded­ic­ated to my mom. But at the same time, that’s what helped it flow. When I was listen­ing to the tracks, I was think­ing who could’ve made this dope? There are so many dope artists I know that I had­n’t worked with yet, so I wanted to link with them on this album. Plus I got the few staples that are always on my albums like Leadgeon, Sus­pect,  and Tyso­ul. But I listened to this album about a hun­dred times to make sure it gave me the same feel­ing as the first time. I can hon­estly say it most cer­tainly did.

MJ: What is your secret to being able to stay afloat and cre­ate time­less music? In an era where music seems to fall into an abyss of one-hit won­ders and what’s trend­ing, there must be some challenges.

Maine: I make music on how I feel and the vibe the beat gives me. I put my all into my music, and I’m not afraid of being vul­ner­able about my life. I think artists fail when they force a hit or try to sound like what’s hot. The best thing to do is to let the music come nat­ur­ally. In the pro­cess some­times you end up with a hit that you did­n’t know was going to be a hit.

MJ: I’m not sure what can top ‘S.O.A.’ but can you give us some inside scoop on oth­er pro­jects or endeavors you’re work­ing on?

Maine: It’s going to be really hard to top ‘S.O.A.’ but I’m not really sure that I want to. Because it’s such a spe­cial album, I would­n’t mind if this is my “Ill­mat­ic.” No album I do after this will ever be as spe­cial as this one. As for future pro­jects, I will stick to the same for­mula I have been using and let the mood and the beat take me on a jour­ney. I have a few pro­jects com­ing up, like the Mercy Gang EP and an EP titled ‘Iron Horse Talk.’ Leadgeon and I have an EP as well. But for now, I’m just push­ing the ‘S.O.A.’ album, and the tee shirt line we’re work­ing on with Elec­tric Frog Designs.

MJ: As we wrap up, take this time to let the world and fans know any­thing else about the album or Maine The Medicine

Maine: I want people to know that I put a lot of time and emo­tion into this album. I’m super honored about the response I’m get­ting off ‘S.O.A.’  The love and sup­port make me feel like I suc­ceeded in mak­ing my mama proud. The thing I want people to know about Maine is I love being cre­at­ive. I’m going to always try to give you some­thing different.

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MJ Savino

MJ is Hip Hop Blog­ger, Pub­li­cist, Book­ing Agent, Act­iv­ist, but fan first and fore­most. “Hip Hop saved my life, it is only right I give back to the culture”!

About MJ Savino

MJ is Hip Hop Blogger, Publicist, Booking Agent, Activist, but fan first and foremost. "Hip Hop saved my life, it is only right I give back to the culture"!