Lots of independent musicians make records in their homes. But they don’t always make records about their homes. Aaron Maine, who performs as Porches, does just that on his new album “The House.”
He says the title refers to the apartment in New York City’s Greenwich Village neighborhood where he made the album.
"It was a one-bedroom," he says. "Quite messy, stuffed animals, a lot of friends' art on the wall. A big violet rug, big windows. It was a beautiful place."
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Maine shared that apartment with singer-songwriter Greta Kline of Frankie Cosmos, his girlfriend at the time. He says going on a long Porches tour made him realize how much he missed being home. That’s when the songs started coming together.
He then spent over a year writing and recording “The House” in that cramped living space on the building’s seventh floor. That was challenging at times.
"Once or twice the neighbor came over if I was singing in the bedroom," he says.
Other than that, Maine made music as loudly as he wanted -- using mostly electronic instruments while wearing headphones. That shaped the record too.
"I was really drawn to what I thought were more aggressive sounds," he says. "And really sparse arrangements. A bit more of a barren landscape."
Maine moved out of that apartment after he and Kline broke up. He misses it, but he says listening to “The House” helps. It documents an important time of his life, when his career really started to take off and his music found a wider audience.
"It was special to get to write and record there," he says. "It felt a lot more precious, that time I had at that apartment when I knew that it was fleeting. I really cherished it."
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