MAPMAKER

If I had to choose one word to describe this debut album by Mapmaker, I would choose "promising." The band, comprised entirely of Loyola students, combine elements of indie rock and jazz to create a catchy yet complex sound. With both catchy, quirky tunes like "Bubble Wrap" and darker, more emotional pieces like "Earth," State & The Nimbus Cloud certainly demonstrates the band's talent and creativity (both musically and lyrically). If this album is anything to go by, we can certainly expect great things from Mapmaker in the future. - Autonomouszine.com

In a stale, tired music industry where so many bands sound exactly the same, many musicians seem to struggle with writing truly original music. However, the Chicago-based indie band Mapmaker have managed to create something completely different. Their unique hybrid of the jazz and indie rock genres is quirky, funky and intriguing: an innovative, refreshing change from the generic pop-rock that has taken over the radio.
Comprised entirely of Loyola University Chicago students, Mapmaker formed through a series of random occurrences. “A lot of coincidences, or maybe fate, if you want to call it that, brought us together.” said lead singer/keyboardist Maxx McGathey. He explained one such happenstance, “I met Max Martini, our drummer, in class. We sat next to each other, and one day we both wore the same Medeski Martin & Wood shirt. So then we started talking and realized that we had a lot of random things in common like same initials, same first name, same birthday… that was really weird.” A series of other random occurrences brought McGathey and Martini together with saxophonist Nick Bush, guitarist Nick Cardelli, guitarist/clarinetist Evan Fazio, and bassist Aled Fain.
This story would be much less intriguing (and this article would have a much different introduction) if Mapmaker sucked, but they do not. In fact, they are quite talented, a fact which can be confirmed by attending any of their live shows. Each member of the band has a gift for music, and no one member sticks out as the most or least talented. “There’s no director in Mapmaker,” said McGathey, “and there’s no weak link.” This becomes apparent when watching Mapmaker perform live, because every member gets at least one solo (which, in a true jazz fashion, are mostly improvised). Also, rather than relying on one singer, a few Mapmaker songs are sung by Martini instead of McGathey. This variety adds another dimension of interest to what would already be an energetic, entertaining show. Whether playing a casual set in Zip’s (a lounge in the basement of one of Loyola’s dorms) or a show for a larger crowd at the Subterranean, Mapmaker puts on an excellent live show.
Like any other band, Mapmaker faces challenges, including the problem of what to do after college. “ We put a lot of our time into the band but we each have things we aspire to do that aren’t a part of music at all. That aren’t part of Mapmaker,” explained McGathey. However, he said, no member of Mapmaker would turn down an opportunity to pursue the band as a life choice if the opportunity presented itself. “This has really exceeded our expectations and I think we really have something special,” said McGathey. “ So when the time comes for any of us to make the decision to leave the band to follow another aspiration, basically we said that if we make the decision to stay with the band, the band will need to have some success at that point. And by success we mean our name being out there and people knowing us.” (That’s what I’m here for, boys!) But, for now, the band is content to do what they love without worrying too much about the future.
Far from your ordinary college band, Mapmaker has demonstrated true talent, dedication, and originality. If you’re a fan of funky guitar riffs, jazzy sax solos, expressive lyrics or good music in general, I highly recommend checking out Mapmaker at www.myspace.com/mapmakermusic, checking out one of their live shows, and/or buying their album State and the Nimbus Cloud (available for download on iTunes). - Autonomouszine.com

A Cartographer makes maps. Mapmaker makes music. Mapmaker, one of Loyola’s newest bands, quickly gaining popularity as the go-to group for University related events and general rock awesomeness. Together, sophomores Nick Bush (biophysics and neuroscience) on saxophone, Nicholas Cardelli (business) on guitar, Aled Fain (biochemistry) on bass, Evan Fazio (advertising/pr) on guitar, Maxx McGathey (philosophy and communication) on vocals/keyboard and junior Max Martini (English and education) on drums come together to perform a genre of music they classify as indie/jazz/rock.
They will play on Nov. 10 and 13 for Hunger Week and have an album coming out next semester. The group came together for one of their first interviews as a band to discus how they came together, how the group got their name and the fortune cookie that might have sealed their fate as a band.


The Phoenix [P] : How did you guys get together?


Maxx McGathey [MM]: The four of us were all in jazz band once. And the coolest part of the story is Max and I both had class together. We showed up to class with the same Medeski, Martin and Wood shirt on the same day and I was like ‘You play music, you play drums? You should jam with us’ … So then there were the five of us, then Nick was in my music theory class. He heard me play and he was like we should jam and then I invited him to play with us and that was kind of the start.


Evan Fazio [EF]: I have a secret confession to make. You [Martini] told me you had already met Maxx and that we should jam with him sometime because he plays piano. And we had said, ‘Piano players always say they want to jam, but they aren’t that good.’ And then you said ‘Yeah but he sounds like he knows what he is talking about, it might be worthwhile.’
MMc : But even before that I met Evan because he lived on my floor in Regis.


Aled Fain [AF]: And we [McGathey] roomed together at orientation.


Max Martini [MM]: Besides that ,Nick [Bush], Maxx and I all have the same birthday.
Nicholas Cardelli: Also, Evan and I met at orientation and we were talking about guitars. And I remember him saying something like, ‘I have a Les Paul so don’t think less of me.’


EF: Well, I didn’t want him to judge me because I always judged kids with Les Pauls as kids with rich parents that could never play instruments.


P: How did the idea of a rock band first come about?


MMc: I remember exactly what we did. We were jamming and doing jazz stuff and just different original jams. I think the first or second practice with Nick, I taught the band ‘Soggy Slip-ons’… Our first show kind of cemented it.


Nick Bush [NB]: There is a venue in Algonquin [Ill.]. that I used to play at every other week with my other band in high school. Just by playing there I asked, ‘Hey I got this other band. Can we play there?’ They said ‘Yeah.’ We threw a raging party.


MMc: That was a bonding experience.


P: Where did the band name come from?


NB: We played our first show as Max Martini and The Gangsters of Love.


MM: That was the show in Clearwater. So then we [needed] to come up with a name that wasn’t laughable or a joke … We had this long band meeting at Mertz.


MM: It was like a two-hour dinner. We ate really fast then everybody presented their favorite ideas that they had thought of. You had to have justification and why it applied to us and why it worked as a band name. We worked it down, down, down until we had a couple.


MMc: That was at the same time at the same meeting as the fortune cookie incident.


P: Can you elaborate?


NB: So I went up to go get a fortune cookie and I said, ‘Alright guys, whatever is in this fortune cookie we are using as name,’ or something along those lines. So I open up the fortune cookie and the fortune said, ‘You have musical talents, let them be known.’ So I didn’t know what to do. I was confused. So it didn’t end up contributing to the name at all.


MM: Well, we were almost ‘The Fortune Cookies’ because of it.


P: The fortune cookie makes an appearance on your album.


MM: Well, Nick Bush still has it. And it’s on our MySpace.


P: How do you guys classify yourselves?


MMc: We are definitely independent. It’s definitely not going with other things. We do whatever we do because most of the songs we perform are originals of mine. And I get a lot of my influences from indie bands. But we can’t deny we have a heavy jazz influence because we used to be a jazz combo. Max and Nick Bush bring a big jazz influence to the group. And Nick C brings a lot of jam band influence to the group. Evan brings a symphonic knowledge when he is coming up with riffs and stuff.


MM: What I love about Evan is that he plays the clarinet. No, seriously though.


NC: I feel the exact opposite way about Evan.


MM: No, but what’s great is that I have never met anyone that thinks more like a guitarist than Nick. And I have never met anyone who thinks less like a guitarist than Evan. And that is why we can have two and it doesn’t sound ridiculous: because Evan plays like he plays the clarinet.


MMc: I don’t think we can fall under one term really. The closest would be indie/jazz/rock band.


P: You guys recorded one group of songs. Is there another album coming down the pipeline?


MMc: We are going to do a full-length professional recording. It’s going to be self -released because we are not on a label.


P: You all attend Loyola as full time students. How difficult is playing regular, decent gigs and going to school full time?


EF: It’s the best of both worlds. Some lack of sleep.


MMc: It’s busy, but a good busy.


MM: I guess the hardest part is the four of us … we’re a combo besides Mapmaker. So we play and practice. It just builds because there are not too many musicians at Loyola. We play a lot, even more than Mapmaker.


NC: And I have a whole other band I play in besides this.


P: How is it playing music in Chicago? Has it affected your style at all?


EF: We are not trying to be something like what we’re hearing. We are trying to be us.


P: As a band has it helped your gigs?


NC: We get to play in the greatest city in the world, second to LA or New York, and those are ties.


MMc: Even in LA and New York I have heard stories of there being too many musicians for the amount of gigs they have. I have heard everyone goes there trying to get famous and trying to play. Here in Chicago it’s, like, doable.


P: It sounds like those cities are over-saturated.


MMc: Absolutely. What is great about Chicago is that it doesn’t have a specific music scene. So I don’t know if we could succeed in, say, Seattle, because we don’t look like the Fleet Foxes. But we could potentially make it in Chicago, because Chicago is so open to everything.


P: Can you guys tell me about the MMW show and tell me what MMW is?


MM: MMW is Medeski, Martin and Wood and they are a jazz jam trio.


NC: I know this guy who does booking at The Rave in Milwaukee [Wisc.] So they [Medeski, Martin and Wood] were coming through and I shot the guy an e-mail asking if we could play.


P: Is this a pretty big show?


NC: Well, it’s definitely a bigger show. But we are going to be playing kind of side-stage. The actual show could be up to like 5,000 so whoever shows up before then will hear us play.


MMc: We are trying to get a show at the Bottom Lounge for January. It’s not confirmed for certain, but it is in the mix.
- Loyola Phoenix