The Pope may be infallible but the Hot Press Newsdesk, it appears, is not.
When Maximo Park mainman Paul Smith was directly quoted on the interweb recently as saying that their new album would be called Rollerdisco Of Dreams, we accepted it on face value. Faith in the electronic media, which, as it turns out, was misplaced.
“That’s the curse of Wikipedia, my friend,” Smith laughs down the phone from his home in Newcastle where Maximo have been rehearsing for their upcoming Irish and UK tour. “It’s a song on the album, but not the name of it.”
So, what is the title then?
“I’m not going to tell you! On behalf of all the people who think there’s not enough mystique in music any more, we’re keeping it secret for a bit longer!”
Thankfully, Smith is more forthcoming about some of the tracks on the collection, which is due in April.
“One of the ones we were rehearsing today is called ‘The Kids Are Sick Again’, which is basically just me remembering what it’s like to be trapped in a suburb with not much to do – no wonder people get peed off!
“A lot of the songs have been inspired by places I’ve visited – Brixton gets a mention, and being in Berlin around Fireworks Night feeds in to ‘Rollerdisco Of Dreams’, which is a personal favourite of mine. It’s a bit of an epic that starts off quite dark and has a lot of different sections, and then you get this real lift going into the middle-eight, which has an even bigger lift in its middle! I’ve been singing it all week in practice going, ‘Blimmin’ heck, I’m really proud of this!’ It’s the one that standouts, like ‘Books From Boxes’ and ‘Parisian Skies’ did on the last record.
“There’s also a Berlin vibe to one of our new B-sides, ‘That Beating Heart’, which starts with the line: ‘In the highest club in Berlin, I’m on the outside looking in.’ It was a club at the top of a 12 or 13-story building, and the spur for me writing about a load of other things which happened that night.”
As previously reported on hotpress.com, Paul and the boys play the Dublin Academy on April 6, with tickets €25.