The Maine reflect on their past ten years

With their sixth album, Lovely, Little, Lonely, releasing tomorrow (4/7), The Maine took some time to reflect on their last ten years as a band with an open letter written on Medium.

Check out what the band had to say about the last ten years below.

Read more: The Maine premiere season 2 of ‘Miserable Youth’ series, talk longevity and new album

The open letter begins with The Maine writing about how the band started when they were extremely young, talking about how they spread their music on Myspace and how they would also communicate with their fans on the social media website.

“Our plan was to release music and attempt to interact with the people who were following us online. Right out of the gate, we started to realize how important those first hundred people were. Simply acknowledging other human beings on the internet clearly held some sort of power and we ran with it. It became so important to us, we began spending hours every day just responding to fans online, making sure they knew we heard their praise or criticism. It became the thing we have built our entire career on.”

From there, the band continued to reveal how they were being signed to major labels including Fearless Records and Warner Bros. Records.

“We felt a duty to our fans to stay true to what had brought us so far in the first place. The plan was to record the next album without notifying anyone at the label. It was our hope that in the best case scenario, the label would like the album and release it. The worst case scenario, and one we were all bracing for, was if they didn’t like the new stuff. They didn’t like the new stuff. This was a problem for us because contrary to what they thought, we actually were fully behind the songs that we had just finished.”

Of course, being ten years old results in a lot of lessons being learned, which the Maine reflect on, in this heartfelt open letter. Some of those lessons include never underestimating their fans along with avoiding things such as VIP Packages or paid signings.

They end the letter by talking about how they surprised some fans in their hometown of Phoenix, AZ with a private concert in the back of a box truck.

“If we were a traditional band, we might have sent these fans a special box set or a signed poster or something simple like that. Not our band. We stuck with what has always worked for us. We thought outside the box, and ultimately ended up in a box, or a box truck, that is. We drove to these fans’ houses with a fully-loaded box truck and surprised them with a live, full-band performance of our single “Bad Behavior”.”

Check out video of these performances below!

Lovely, Little, Lonely releases April 7. Watch the music video for the lead single here and listen to the second single, ““Black Butterflies and Déjà Vu,” here.

The Maine are heading out on a world tour in support of the new record, which is one of our most anticipated for 2017.

Dates:

03/30 – Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall
04/01 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Club Sound
04/02 – Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory Concert House
04/04 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
04/05 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
04/07 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
04/08 – San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
04/09 – Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues
04/11 – Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole
04/13 – Dallas, TX @ Gas Monkey Bar N Grill
04/14 – Austin, TX @ Emo's
04/15 – Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
04/18 – St Petersburg, FL @ State Theatre
04/19 – Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House of Blues
04/21 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
04/22 – Birmingham, AL @ WorkPlay Theatre
04/24 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
04/25 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
04/27 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
04/28 – Boston, MA @ Royale Boston
04/29 – Uncasville, CT @ Wolf Den at Mohegan Sun Resort
04/30 – Asbury Park, NJ @ The Stone Pony
05/02 – Philadelphia, PA @ The TLA
05/03 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
05/05 – Pontiac, MI @ Crofoot Ballroom
05/06 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
05/07 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave
05/08 – Minneapolis, MN @ Skyway Theatre
06/23 – Marina South, Singapore @ TBD
06/24 – Manila, Philippines @ SM Skydome
06/28 – Hawaii @ TBD
07/15 – Sao Paulo, Brazil @ Tropical Butanta
07/16 – Limeria, Brazil @ Bar da Montanha
07/18 – Porto Alegre, Brazil @ Teatro CIEE
07/19 – Curitiba, Brazil @ TBD
07/21 – Brasilia, Brazil @ Arena Futebol Clube
07/22 – Belo Horizonte, Brazil @ Teatro Bradesco
07/23 – Rio De Janeiro, Brazil @ Circo Voador

Watch more: APMAs 2016 Performance—MAYDAY PARADE & THE MAINE with STEPHAN JENKINS