Q&A: New Lungs breathe anew at MAHA Showcase

Editor's note: This story was also published on hearnebraska.org. The reporter is working as both an intern for Hear Nebraska and a reporter for the Daily Nebraskan.

If Nebraska's music scene were the universe of "Star Wars," Tim McMahan would probably be Emperor Palpatine. He has been the publisher and editor of the online music magazine Lazy-i since 1998 for chrissakes. That's the same year Google was born. 

No, he's not evil nor is he a putrid color of green, but for this spry, young journalist, McMahan — a member of Hear Nebraska's board of directors — is a shadowy blogger with a reputation that could seemingly make or break any band yet to achieve notoriety outside of the state. So when he says, "(Danny Maxwell) can now count himself among the top Omaha front men, all he needs is a pair of leather pants," well, Maxwell's new band New Lungs had better start shopping.

Maxwell's other band, Little Brazil, and his post as bassist within the Landon Hedges-led group wasn't quite enough for him, and judging from McMahan's praise, Maxwell has taken well to the spotlight. But you wouldn't know it if you asked him, which the Daily Nebraskan had the chance to do.

New Lungs will play the MAHA Music Festival Showcase in Omaha at the Waiting Room on Wednesday at 8 p.m. The festival itself will take place Aug. 13, and its crew is throwing preview shows like this one with MAHA performer Noah's Ark Was a Spaceship to build hype and give away tickets, T-shirts and merch. Maxwell is just happy to be asked to join in on the fun, he says.

Daily Nebraskan: I suppose before we start I just want to ask about your ringback song. It's classical music, which kind of goes against what I hear your band is all about, punk rock and being loud, you know.

Danny Maxwell: (laughs) Yeah, I get a lot of people making fun of me for that. Before that, I had another ringtone on there, and I just didn't want to pay for it anymore. So that's their default ringback. I should probably change it sometime.

DN: OK, that makes sense. Anyway, to start off, tell me why you started New Lungs.

DM: Well, I guess Corey (Broman) and I had played in bands before, and I just wanted to get back to that. I hadn't played guitar for such a long time since I've been playing bass in Little Brazil. Then we asked Craig (Fort, bassist) to play, and it worked out. We've only played three shows, but we've been practicing since October or November.

DN: How is the reception you've been getting from audiences so far?

DM: Really good. We've been really excited and lucky enough to play shows like (the MAHA Showcase). It's been great so far.

DN: Good. Now, Lazy-i called you one of Omaha's best lead men. What do you think it is about you that might give you that title?

DM: Oh, I don't know. I think he was just being nice (laughs). He said I had an earthy howl, which is funny. But I don't know why. I have no idea. I'll just say he's being nice.

DN: All right, but you said you've been in bands before with Corey? That must help with New Lungs' growth as a new band.

DM: Yeah, Corey and I played in a band before that, right when I started playing with Little Brazil: This Just In. And we were in some bad high school bands like the one I played with Corey and Landon (Hedges) in, but that was a short-lived thing.

But yeah, even when we started doing this, I had a couple songs prepared, but it's been weird. Corey and I have been messing around and something comes together out of nothing. When we've sat down and actually tried to write, we've found difficulties, but the last three songs we've done were just someone was playing something and it turned into a song. And we're going to go at things from a different perspective, too, with whatever we do next.

DN: OK. Tell me about your years in Omaha's music scene, how it's changed and where you think it's going.

DM: Wow, um. It's changed a lot as far as the venues and the music, the people, everything. Now it's funny because I always thought of myself as a little guy, the little brother. Now I go out and feel like an older guy.

I feel like the styles and the bands are kind of becoming staples. I think the way venues are set up now, despite the ones that have been taken away from us, there's a lot of opportunity.

DN: Since you're a new band, do you have any recordings posted that would give people an idea of what you sound like?

DM: The five songs we're playing right now are all we have, and there aren't any recordings. But we've recorded practices on four-track, and we do hope to get something more formal recorded this summer.

DN: OK, and what are some of your other goals for the band?

DM: As far as my role, I'm just singing and playing guitar. But I don't know, not that there's any boundaries with Little Brazil, but we're open to everything at this point, so we're incorporating instruments with triggers, whatever we might want to try. We might write around a sample or something. We might write something on synthesizer and loop it. But yeah, I think it's open to a lot of unorthodox writing styles, but that's my take on it.

DN: That's it for questions then. Is there anything else you want to add?

DM: We're just going with whatever happens. We weren't looking to play a bunch of shows when we started in April, but I don't know, we're booked all the way into August now. It's moving fast, and we're trying to still write. That's the next thing, write more songs, get recorded this summer and have something ready in the fall, maybe on cassette.