Ahead of their upcoming headlining 2026 North American tour, The Maine has revealed their second single, “Quiet Part Loud,” from their upcoming tenth record Joy Next Door. Due for release on April 10 via Photo Finish Records, the LP also boasts instant fan-favorite lead track “Die To Fall.”
The two offerings show The Maine at their best, authentic and dynamic—always keeping listeners young and young at heart on their toes.
Ahead of their LP release and tour run with Nightly, Grayscale, Franklin Jonas, Friday Pilots Club, Broadside, and Moody Joody, idobi Radio had the chance to catch up with drummer Pat Kirch. Here, we chatted about “Quiet Part Loud,” the band’s big drone show, and what passionate setlist fans can expect on the live shows.
You guys took a well-deserved step back from headline runs for about two years. While you’re never truly “off,” how did you recoup and recharge during this time?
Being home a lot more is nice to be able to have more consistency. We were working on the album the whole time, and we were able to work more traditional hours. So, I can be home every day by six o’clock and be with the family, and so that was really nice. I think we played like 16 shows, which is not very many. I think the longest I was ever gone for a year was 10 days. And that’s something that hasn’t happened in 20 years. Now, it feels very hectic again, where there’s like so much to get done—so much rehearsal, so much planning. But we’re pumped!
You’ve been deep in dad mode, now you have to get back into those bus bunks!
Yeah, I often feel that my life has these two sides to it! We’ll be doing a show and then not going to bed until two or three in the morning. And now, I always take the earliest flight home from a festival, so I can get back. So then, I’m only sleeping for three hours, and then I’m home, taking up the trash and changing diapers within like six hours of playing the show.
Now, with the release of “Quiet Part Loud,” you really tapped into full-fledged indie rock territory. What headspace were you guys in when crafting the new single?
This one was really about getting out of the way of the song—the vocal and the piano, and not overdoing it with everything else. So, you can really hear each part. There’s only a couple of things happening. There’s the drum thing that I play that almost sounds like it’s a loop, but it’s not. There’s acoustic guitar, piano, vocals, and bass. On earlier records, you’re just like adding everything you possibly can, and there’s a billion guitar parts. As we make records, we learn what we like in music that we listen to. There was something that we felt was really powerful with the vocals, so we just didn’t want to impose on top of it.
What made “Die To Fall” stand out as the best way to intro the Joy Next Door era of The Maine?
I think we felt like it had an energy to it. It should feel exciting! That song just has a tempo to it and an energy to it. That was, to me, this perfect balance of new territory, but, you know, it has a peppiness to it that people would be familiar with, like with “Black Butterflies…” or “Loved You A Little.” or whatever.
Then, going with “Quiet Part Loud” second, it gives people another taste that the album isn’t going to be only fast and upbeat and in your face. The album is probably somewhere in between these two songs.
You guys also did something quite unexpected for your initial album announcement with the drone show. What brought about this idea?
We’re just always looking for fun ways to introduce things to the world. And I’ve seen drone shows before, like it’d be awesome to have our logo in the sky and have people go and see it in person. To me, it feels the marketing side and how you interact with your fans, like, things have gotten a little boring. Now it’s just like, we’ll post the album cover on our Instagram and say, “Here’s the song.” I think it’s cool to have some fun with it, and have it feel more impactful to people. That there’s something tangible, that they can get together and take part in person, and check it out. And even if they can’t be there they’re seeing people online posting about it!
And you even drove fans around in the Joy Next Door green car!
We also did buy the car [from the album cover.] The five of us all own a car together. On top of all the things that we’ve done together to intertwine our lives together, now we each own one-fifth of a very cheap car.
You are definitely the most active Twitter user of The Maine, and often get some “feedback” from fans—or beloved setlist divas—about setlist possibilities. What can you tell them about the upcoming tour setlist?
We are going to change up the setlists a lot more often. We’ve done the voting thing before, and then on the last tour, we like did it where we just asked people [to cheer] and they were loud or quiet, you know. But now, instead of just changing out a song each night, there’s going to be five or six different parts of the show that every night will be different. So, there’ll be a lot more opportunity for people to hear their favorite song.
You can never make everybody happy. And I understand that. I appreciate the hate. I appreciate being pushed. I appreciate being told when I’m not making a good setlist, even if I don’t agree. And we’re having fun with it, and we’re going to mix up the show as much as we possibly can.
I can tell you that we are playing at least a song from dyed every night of the tour, and it won’t be the same song every night. Not going to be playing every song on dyed throughout the tour, but we’re going to mix it up.
There’s a thing where some fans feel like I’m offended by the setlist divas, but I encourage it. I enjoy the back and forth. I think it’s all in good fun. And I appreciate the passion!
In a few words, how would you describe Joy Next Door?
It’s the pure representation of five people in a room in 2026. And that’s it. It’s us in this moment. It’s not us trying to be like we were when we were 25. It is 35-year-old people that have been doing this for 20 years, doing what we are now.
I think it’s so easy to try to retrace things that you’ve been successful [with] in the past, but it’s like, that’s not what you were doing when you did those things the first time. Like when we made Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, we weren’t trying to be like we were when we were 15. We were trying to be like we were in that moment.
So we’re not the like shiny, hot new band of the time, we’re The Maine, and we’re really proud to be The Maine.
Want more new music news? Tune in to idobi Radio with Patrick Walford’s music news updates every hour.
