MAYVE

Great goddess, I love punk/pop, make me happy, summertime is here, let’s go swimming, I have no problems, I am still young and fun music. Mayve has this sound down. This is the coolest, poppiest song in all the good ways I’ve heard since Palm Trees and Power Lines or Sugarcult.

Mayve is made up of friends Nick Micheline (vocals/guitar), Michael Gusman (guitar) and Joseph Rene (percussion). Formed in 2012 as an alternative band, Mayve can attribute their ever-evolving sound to numerous lineup changes. After three years of scattered touring, the trio have finally found home, evolving from their alt-rock roots to settle on a refreshing, new indie pop sound.

I really love this song, because I so need a summer pick-me-up. I wish people would realize there are great indie pop bands out there, and Mayve hits all the right notes by being original and still slightly hauntingly familiar. Thank you, Mayve, for renewing my faith in indie pop. - Audio Fuzz

Today’s song is “Hearts On Fire” by Mayve. Mayve is comprised of friends Nick Micheline (vocals/guitar), Michael Gusman (guitar) and Joseph Rene (percussion). This is the debut single off the band’s upcoming EP Animals. Inspired by artists like Imagine Dragons, Hunter Hunted and The 1975, this New York based trio embraces a blend of traditional sunny 80’s synth-pop and modern-day indie rock to create their own delightful and exciting musical brand. - Eat Sleep Breathe Music

“Hearts on Fire”: I’m starting to feel like a broken record with all of these dreamy tracks I keep posting to this blog. Apologies for the genre bias – I’ll try to do better in the future. But “Hearts On Fire” is so happy sounding I guess I’ll keep on being biased for the time being. For fans of Passion Pit, Neon Indian, and the poppy side of MGMT. Dare I say I hear a hint of psychedelia? - Tuned Up

Of all the bands, however, I think Mayve had to be my favorite. A simple trio from Long Island, their indie pop sound was familiar and refreshing. I had heard them before, and even since listening to them after the fact, I actually enjoy them more live. On recordings they sound a little more generic, fitting into the category of bands like Magic Man and Walk the Moon. But live, Mayve was a whole different story. Each member carried his own, but it was frontman Nick Micheline that really stole the show for me. Especially when he brought out an extra drum and incorporated playing while also singing and upholding the guitar, I had to be impressed. It was also a fun touch when he and fellow guitarist, Michael Gusman, beat down simultaneously on the drum during one song. It was at this point that I was ready to demand more people pack the venue—Mayve is one of those bands who deserve a large, heart-pounding, feet-jumping crowd. I can only hope their popularity continues to grow. - Music Creates Us

Lights dim over the three friends that create New York born and raised band, Mayve, as they started to play their charming indie pop songs. Nick sang relatable lyrics of love and about growing up in serenading tracks as the band built up the set with catchy tempos. Their approachable music and show presence is no mistake as the band has authentic roots. Before every gig, Mayve members walk around the venue’s town to just simply “be friends”, as guitarist, Mike, puts it, before they enter each venue to play. “More like brothers…” Joseph, Mayve’s drummer, laughs as the band agrees that their friendship makes the band genuine and keeps their love of performing alive. - No Fear Of Missing Out

I was on vacation in Las Vegas last week. It was pretty great. It was nice to escape the cruel 50 degree beginning of June we'd been having in New York City for sun, poker, and great shows. And one of the great parts of being 26 and in Sin City is that there are plenty of clubs/bars to party at til the sun comes up. I've never been much of a clubber but put enough screwdrivers in me and I'll bust an embarrassing move or two out on the dance floor. And all I could think about as I listened to "Hearts On Fire" by Mayve, which we're premiering today, is how much I want to dance the night away to this track in the near future.

I listen to so much music that I appreciate more than I enjoy every day, and the sheer, visceral dance-hall delight of the opening synth/percussion of "Hearts on Fire" is remarkable. Taking the ear-burrowing synth melodies of Passion Pit with the vocal haze of Neon Indian, "Hearts On Fire" finds the sweet spot between synthpop bombast and chillwave. It shouldn't really be doable, but Mayve makes it seem effortless. - Baeble Music

Long Island, NY indie-pop band, MAYVE, have been striking up conversations everywhere with their newly released debut EP, Animals. Ready to take 2016 by storm, the native New York five piece – comprised of Nick Micheline, Michael Gusman, Joseph Rene, Kyle Murphy and Matt Emma – deliver a fresh sound to a rather ubiquitous genre.

Like most music writers, I get tons of submissions a day but it takes something really special to capture my attention and MAYVE has it all and then some. There’s nothing I love more than fresh, emerging talent and a heavy dose of synthpop. MAYVE’s Animals EP captures the essence of both of those things while still managing to give you more than you bargained for.

Opening track, “Talking To Myself” shares the struggles of introverted loneliness as one’s demons continue to haunt them into submission while opening notes of “Higher” is honest to its title, taking the listener higher with every note while giving off some serious Runner Runner and Acceptance vibes.

EP high note is by far “Hearts On Fire,” touching on the subject of young love and everlasting youth, making even the most indifferent of hearts believe again, especially with a line like, “We close our eyes just to drown out the noise but all our thoughts glow in the dark.”

I wasn’t expecting to lose my shit with these guys but “Magic” hit me right in the feels. A chorus of, well, pure magic, I was transported back to when I’d spend nights at a family friend’s house in Center Moriches, NY staring at the stars, wishing for a certain someone to come my way. Unfortunately not all love stories end the way we wish but the memories of my unwavering patience and love are something I will carry with me forever, now with this track attached to it.

Perhaps the best track to end an EP on a good note, “West Coast” comes barging in with a glittering synth intro – taking you to a place of pure anticipation as we await a full-length from MAYVE – while still packing a serious punch, hinting at the struggles of starting over someplace new. It’s quite evident that there’s more to be said and we’re dying to dive into it all. - The Daily Listening

Mayve, a 5-piece indie pop band hailing from New York, New York, create sweet and catchy songs you don’t want to miss. These bright young guys are excited to attack 2016 and continue to grow their fanbase and popularity in the US. Throw a few of their tracks into your “New Year, New Me” playlist and pleasantly party on through January and the rest of the coming winter!

As songwriters, the young musicians are proud of crafting a sound combining 80’s grooves and synths, modern pop elements, and relatable lyrics. Ultimately, Mayve capture an uplifting spirit, empowered by both the dark and the light elements of the transitionary period the band went through creating their own personal soundscape. Just last week, the band released an impressive EP titled Animals, recorded with the help of Rocky Gallo, ex-chief engineer of the famous Cutting Room Studios.

The band is ready to set the indie scene ablaze this year. They’ve already received a shout out from Baeble Music for their 2015 single titled “Hearts on Fire, and have earned the accolade of “best underground album of the week” from The Nerdist. Don’t miss jumping on the bandwagon before these guys blow up, I can hear radio play and national performances in their near future.

I’d love to see these guys perform next year at Utopia Fest in Texas! The band has high hopes of earning a spot at festivals like SXSW and Lollapalooza in the coming years. Stay tuned, big things are coming Mayve’s way. - Festifind

Interview:

How did you all get your start in music? How did the band form?

We all started playing music at very young ages. Throughout middle and high school, we were in various bands playing all different styles of music. While playing shows all over Long Island, the five of us ended up meeting and becoming close friends. Even back then we felt it. We knew there was a pull for us to be playing together. We had too similar of a mindset not to. The only inconvenience was that some of us had gone off to college. Luckily, the other three stayed together and really formed the foundation of the sound we have now. We knew it was inevitable that we would create music together, and as soon that opportunity arose, we grabbed it and haven’t let up yet.

Who are some of your biggest musical influences?

We listen to all sorts of music, but some of our biggest influences are The Smiths, Miniature Tigers, Talking Heads and Genesis.

You just released “Animals.” What was the recording process for that like? Who did you work with? What do you hope this album accomplishes?

Recording “Animals” was incredible. Being able to work with Anthony Gallo at Virtue and Vice Studios was a truly great learning experience for all of us. We stayed sequestered in Brooklyn for a week to focus solely on crafting the EP. We needed it to live it up to the potential we knew it had. The five songs you hear on “Animals” are a product of that commitment and they mean so much to us. They come from a transition period within the band. Almost a rebirth. We wanted to shine a light on something that we had experienced while growing up with a hope that it would be engaging for listeners. What’s the point of our music, or any music really, if you can’t find something to connect to it? We fully believe that we accomplished that very notion.

What has been your reaction to the reception so far?

We’ve been completely floored by the feedback so far. It feels like everyday we are hearing something new. People seem like they are really connecting with it and enjoying everything we put into it. It’s a truly affirming experience for all of us to see our hard work pay off in such a way. We couldn’t be more grateful.

Can we expect to see you guys hitting the road in the near future/coming months?

We’re playing MOVE Festival in Albany in April, and we’re hoping to make a weekend run out of that. From there, we hope to continue playing shows all over New York and the Tri-State area, as well as continuing to play Long Island. Playing shows and getting out in front of people are our main focuses for 2016.

If so, how will you prepare your show so it elevates your music to a different level from the studio version?

We are all still in awe from the positive responses we’ve been receiving and we want to surpass everyone’s expectations in a live setting. Our plan is to make our shows a much more immersive experience. We don’t want the fans just to enjoy the show, we want them to feel like they are a part of it. Through creative lighting and a connection forged between us and the audience, we hope to construct an atmosphere that sets us apart from the usual show experience. No idea is too big.

Who are some writers/producers/artists that you’d love to work with in the future?

We’re still, relatively speaking, in the beginning phases of being a band, but there’s a ton of talented people we would love to collaborate with. Some people we would be honored to work with are Brian Eno, Nile Rodgers and Max Martin. A dream maybe, but hopefully one day.

What has been the biggest “pinch me” moment of your career so far?

Every day following the release of Animals has been its own “pinch me” moment. It’s nothing short of unbelievable. If we had to pick one particular moment though, it would have to be receiving an honorable mention from “Nerdist” in their “Top 5 Underground Albums of 2016.” That was a complete shock to all of us. It felt like a real game changer.

Looking forward to the future, how do you hope to pave the way for your career?

Our hope is to create an all-encompassing visual and auditory aesthetic. We want people to be able to hear our music and become completely engrossed in the culture we built around it. This is an ambitious task, but by pushing ourselves further than we’ve ever even imagined, and strengthening our bond with our fans, we think this is a possible and achievable target.

What differentiates you guys from other “bands”?

The desire to do just about everything we can ourselves. We have a very strong DIY mentality that allows us to set our own goals and use our ingenuity to reach them. We also hold ourselves to our ever-increasing high standards. The five of us feel compelled to constantly top ourselves. We want to make a statement and we know that means thinking big. We want to be more than a band, we want to be an experience.

What’s something interesting about you guys individually?

Nick: A couple of years ago, I was practicing with my friend’s band because their bassist couldn’t make it and I broke my elbow. I was jokingly trying to do a guitar flip and ended up falling and landing directly on my elbow on a concrete basement.

Mike: I once went to a shaman to find my spirit animal. It was wild.

Kyle: Matt and I were voted most likely to be in a boyband in high school.

Matt: It was quite the honor.

Joe: One time while playing drums in my old band I fell asleep mid song…

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

As a band, we are very forward thinking. How can we grow in new, and even unfamiliar, directions? We don’t want to give away too much, but we will say that we have a lot lined up for these next couple of months. Stay up to date with us on all of our socials and definitely try to catch a live show. We hope to see you soon. - Pop Culture Daily

At Thursday Review, we’ve been a bit behind on our music reviews, especially the ones which give readers an opportunity to catch the latest in indie, alt, and indie pop—a category which we consider one of our specialties (second only to those long-form retrospectives the great milestones; the 40th anniversary, for example, of Bruce Springsteen’s classic Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ).

We like new music, we like alt sounds, and we love indie pop. Our recent discovery of MAYVE, a Long Island-based indie-pop-dance group, has rebooted our desire to share our thoughts about the state of the indie sound.

MAYVE’s most recent EP, Animals (released in early January) is something impossible to dislike. Indeed, it is instantly infectious and irresistible for its combination of insistent vocals, its punchy, snappy dance-rhythms, and its generous layers of guitars and synth instrumentation.

The percussion, synthesizers, and vocals, especially, evoke nearly everything an astute music lover would find likably familiar about the explosion of post-disco sounds of the 1980s and early 1990s, without wallowing in pure nostalgia—despite evocative lyrics intent on precisely that mission: a voyage of discovery and rediscovery. These five ethereal but rhythm-laden songs share a powerful thread in their DNA with bands like the Killers (in a recent interview, drummer Joe Rene mentions the Las Vegas-based band as one of MAYVE’s influences), U2 and Howard Jones (in their late-80s, early 90s incarnations), and the more recent recordings of Chvrches and Passion Pit.

MAYVE also draws on some of the most pleasing elements of what we like about the alt and indie sounds of the aught years: bits and pieces of Savage Garden found in “Higher” and “Talking to Myself,” echoes of Coldplay heard in both “Magic” and “Higher,” and wisps and whiffs of alt sounds of Walk the Moon, Atlas Genius and Capital Cities (three bands with a deep interest in 1980s nostalgia and musical revivalism). Several of the songs bear a striking but entirely pleasing resemblance to the debut CD from St. Lucia (aka: Jean-Philip Grobler), When the Night. That is meant as compliment: MAYVE’s sound is simultaneously rich and uplifting, as well as introspective without being angry or regretful. In fact, a single word which could fairly sum up the sound: joyous.

MAYVE is made up of Nick Micheline on vocals, guitars, and keyboard; Mike Gusman on guitar and backing vocals; Kyle Murphy on guitar and backing vocals; Matt Emma on bass; Joseph Rene on drums. The band’s guitars form a full, rich texture which projects the sort of wonderfully seamless sound one should reasonably expect from the best of indie-dance-pop.

The fact that the band hails from Long Island seems counter-intuitive to me, for their indie sound seems steeped in non-regional diction; when I think of the alt sounds which emerge from NYC and its environs, I think of a long, robust lineage that stretches from Springsteen to The Strokes (all good stuff). But MAYVE’s harmonies and richness of sound seem to transcend all that, and create a pleasing merger of dance synth and pulse-prodding guitars.

Three of the songs in particular deserve special attention to the indie music lover: “Hearts on Fire,” “Higher,” and “West Coast.” But taken together as a whole, all five songs are top shelf; there are no duds on this EP, an important tool to distinguish (in my humble view) the difference between a band able to craft one solid radio winner and three or four or five fair-to-middling tunes. In this sense, MAYVE has hit a home run with Animals, an EP that most listeners will find hard to put away, at home or office, in the car, or in their ears.

MAYVE is “indie” in the true sense, not in the broad-stroke, sometimes misused nomenclature: they write, record, and distribute their music (for now) outside of the purview of record labels or dudes in suits. That’s a good thing, certainly, but keep a close eye (and ear) on this band, for they are very likely to become tomorrow’s Big Deal in alt and indie sound. - Thursday Review

Fresh on the scene MAYVE are making some waves. The bands beginning as a three piece was spotty, but as they added members, they solidified their sound and then created the much talked about EP Animals.

The 5 song EP was recorded with the former engineer of the Cutting Room Studios. The highly blogged tracks Hearts On Fire & West Coast have been compared to the likes of Passion Pit. Making no apologies, the New York 5 piece carries the torch of 80s U.K. synth-pop.

With a new EP planned for a summer release, you can check out these indie rockers Music Hall Of Williamsburg in Brooklyn on April 29th.

Jesse.robert.hermann@gmail.com,

mayvemusic@gmail.com - Kings of A&R

At My Music, My Concerts, My Life, we get a large amount of unsolicited requests to review new bands. We've always said "no." We want new music discovery to come to us the old-fashioned way—word of mouth. For some reason when MAYVE contacted us and asked if we'd review their new EP Animals, I said "yes." Without even listening to the band first. It's hard to tell if it was a moment of clarity or a change of heart but I was prepared for this to be either good...or a very large mistake. What I wasn't prepared for was what I heard.

First, let's backtrack a little bit. MAYVE is a 5-piece indie pop band hailing from Long Island, NY. The band is Nick Micheline doing vocals and keyboards, Michael Gusman and Kyle Murphy on guitar, bassist Matt Emma and drummer Joseph Rene. I know nothing more about them other than what they look like.

Which is more than I knew when I first listened to the opening track on Animals. I was at work and was planning to wait until I had undivided attention to apply to my first listen. Then I just said, "Fuck it" and hit play.


I found it very hard to believe that this was a new band. An unknown band. As a matter of fact, had I heard MAYVE in passing, I'd have assumed they were on the local adult alternative station. That is a slippery slope these days. Adult alternative can be faceless. It's easy to sound like a similar product and get lost in the shuffle. That or get labeled as a cheap imitation. This is not the case with MAYVE. Sure, you can hear influences and similarities. They could be of the same ilk as The Griswolds or Coasts yet they're not quite the same. Being a child of the '80s, I heard something familiar—it was the mix of guitars and synth. It was the harmonies. It was combining the dance sensibilities of '80s new wave with the energy of today's pop alternative. Not only did my ears perk up but a co-worker peeked her head around the corner and immediately asked who I was listening to.

I listened to the EP three times straight. From there I moved to the car to pick up my 15-year-old son from wrestling practice and listened to it there. When he got into the car he asked if I was listening to the FIFA 16 soundtrack. When I said "no" he was intrigued. We listened to it again and again.

Every song, although containing a common thread, was unique. Even the slower "Magic" was uplifting.

Everything sounded so familiar without sounding like a replica. Nothing is more comforting than a new twist on familiar nostalgia. It was almost like unearthing a lost record by a favorite band. An old shoe that fits comfortably.

What does strike me as odd is that this band is relatively unknown. And that somehow their DIY, low-budget recording sounds polished and fresh. They have the look and sound that people want but why is it that people don't know about them? They are deserving of a voice—let us be their voice!

I dare you to listen to "Hearts on Fire" and not smile.

You can't do it. Their music makes you dance. It makes you feel good. It's a sunny day or a first kiss. Take a good look at these guys. They are the face of today's indie pop and you're about to see them soon.

What I am curious about is their live show—can they match the energy of their music on stage? I'm hoping for the chance to catch them live and report back to you this year. Tell me, what is better than discovering a new band that you love before they hit the big time? Nothing really. I've learned my lesson—to give new music a chance. Sometimes all they need is a chance. You won't regret it. I didn't.

Animals is available on Spotify and Apple Music. Give it a listen and support these guys if you are in the NY area. - My Music, My Concerts, My Life

Photo Spread/Festival Story (pages 39-47) - Decorated Youth Magazine

Click Link To View Photoset. - Black On The Canvas

"Hearts on Fire" Featured in MTV's Are You The One - MTV