Sixteen years into his recording career, Alex Maas remains both one of Austin’s best known vocalists and perhaps its most underrated singer.
He isn’t so much the “voice” of the Black Angels as their set of spinning pinwheel eyes, transmitting hypnosis through ominous intonations.
He isn’t so much the “voice” of the Black Angels as their set of spinning pinwheel eyes, transmitting hypnosis through ominous intonations. Amid the transcendent psych band’s radiating, homegrown sonics, the native Texan’s microphone work rarely dominates the mix, existing rather in coequal contribution with instrumental melodies and rhythmic rapture. As such, he’s revered for his “vibe” as a frontman.
That changes with Maas’ solo debut Luca, which materialized last month on Los Angeles label Innovative Leisure. The 10-track grab bag of ancient folk, bass-heavy antigravity bops, and vintage pop imbued with mellotron and strings gives unprecedented focus to a voice that’s sweet and eerie, unorthodox yet timeless.
“One thing is I’m not competing with fuzzy guitars and loud drums,” assesses Maas of his singing on Luca. “With this record, it was very intentional to have the vocals up front and not have a ton of effects. That’s something I’m used to because I create a lot at home, but I’m not used to letting the world hear that side of my voice.”
Prompted to think back through his life, he pinpoints the moment he realized dominion over the sound coming from his larynx.
“My dad had a plant nursery when I was a kid and one way he made it a destination was having peacocks and African crowned cranes,” he explains. “I remember, as a little boy, I would try to mimic the sounds of these birds. I think maybe a light went off in my head then that I had a good ear, even if it was just imitating peacocks.”
Maas also flashes back to singing along to the 1993 debut from Irish alternative rockers the Cranberries and being able to blend his voice with Dolores O’Riordan’s high melodies. You can hear a hint of the latter on Luca‘s “Shines Like the Son (Madeline’s Melody).”
“No matter what I ended up doing in life professionally, I would’ve ended up singing,” Maas states. “It always made me feel a certain way as a child – almost magical, like it’s the closest thing to flying.”
Strong When I Hold You
The night before our interview, I laid outside in a hammock listening to Luca on a portable speaker and watching my 9-month-old son sleep on a glowing screen. That’s when I had a Twilight Zone thought: What if I could look into the baby monitor and see my kid’s future? Moments later, in a case of cosmic coincidence, “500 Dreams” came on, Maas singing in the dark:
“When you wake up, I’ll be looking at you smiling at me/ When you grow up, I’ll be thinking about you, thinking about me/ So sleep for your momma and me.”
His wife Michelle became pregnant around the same time he began recording the new album. On July 15, 2018, they welcomed Luca into the world.
Parenthood’s a head-change. Maas says it provided him with a new set of eyes, “an innocent perspective,” to view life though. Those thoughts heavily informed the namesake album, particularly its author’s most beautifully naked and honest composition: a love letter to his son called “Special.”
“When you’re a parent, you’re singing to your kid all the time,” he relates. “I remember holding Luca and that song just came to me. It’s all the things you never thought about before: ‘What are you going to be like? Who are you going to be? Whatever it is, it’s going to be okay.'”
Meanwhile, the thread of paranoia within Black Angels’ music flashes on Luca with the gun violence vision “American Conquest.” It predated Maas becoming a father, but now occupies new hopeful context: “The world is bizarre and scary as shit, but you just have to be positive and think you’re bringing someone into this world who could potentially change it for the good.”
Maas admits one friend predicted parenthood would paralyze his productivity as an artist.
“That awe I had with me when I wrote this record, I’ve never been more inspired and creative in my life,” he exclaims. “When you first have a child, you’re full of feelings that are so innocent and beautiful. You need to preserve them. I’m so glad I made them into songs.”
Bringing it Home
In the beginning, our subject envisioned the entire LP sounding like “The City,” a stark, spacious, dystopian folk tune that closes Luca. Then he realized the songs wanted to be bigger. So he and co-producer Brett Orrison made room to experiment, utilizing combinations of extracurricular instruments and production techniques.
“Brett and I are total brothers,” he says of the local Spaceflight Records operator, who mixed front-of-house for years on tour with the Black Angels. “We’ve traveled the world, worked on scores and documentaries, and produced bands together, so our communication is really good. We can go wherever we want creatively and never worry about being judged.”
Energized by Luca, Maas reconvened right away with his flagship act. The Black Angels assembled at Orrison’s studio and tracked a forthcoming full-length. The Austin quintet hadn’t cut a full-length all locally since 2008’s Directions to See a Ghost.
Fittingly for an album named after his son, Luca represents new life for Maas as an artist.
“Everyone has those ebbs and flows with creativity,” he says. “I have that fresh and magical feeling. Being a parent? That must be it. It’s been such a great spark and I feel lucky that it’s coming at this time. I feel like I’m two-and-a-half years into my musical and everything’s wide open.”
Find Luca on Alex Maas’ Bandcamp.
This article appears in January 1 • 2021.