Local band Mae gets back on its feet, No thanks to label

Mae can now cover Alice Cooper's "Welcome to My Nightmare" and do so from the heart, and for an encore, the band can sing some major-label blues.

The storyline is somewhat common these days in a struggling record industry: An indie band gets signed to a major label, the personnel at the label who believe in the band get fired, the album is released, then without a champion at the record company, the band falls through the cracks.

Such appears to be the case for Norfolk-formed rock band Mae.

After two albums - "Destination: Beautiful" (2003) and "The Everglow" (2004) - were released by independent label Tooth & Nail and sold a combined 250,000 copies, Mae signed a two-record deal with Capitol Records.

"Singularity," the band's major-label debut, was released on

Aug. 14 and entered the Billboard 200 album chart at No. 40, its peak position.

National media praised the album.

Brian Mansfield of USA Today, for example, gave it a three-star rating and wrote, "Virginia rock quintet Mae connects with Capitol Records to make a play for the big time. They may be too smart for their own good, but they make up for it with a fetching sense of melody and rhythmic shifts that recall Anberlin and Jimmy Eat World."

But at what appeared to be the high point of its career, the band's hopes were quickly dashed. Instead of Capitol providing the favorable winds to fill Mae's sails for years to come, "Singularity" was all but dead in the water.

"We fell into that major-label trap," said singer/guitarist Dave Elkins. "After five-plus years with us touring in a van while steadily growing, this idea the future was going to continuously be brighter - for the first time that definitely was not the case. Everything you dreamed could happen was now absolutely not going to happen."

In little over a month after the release of "Singularity," Rob Sweitzer (keyboards) and Mark Padgett (bass) departed the band, leaving Elkins, Jacob Marshall (drums), and Zach Gehring (guitar) to fend for themselves. The trio also felt abandoned by their label.

"It was a turning point where everyone had to look in the mirror and ask, 'What is the potential right now?'" Elkins said. "As far as Rob and Mark go, supporting their families - whether it be financial or emotionally - because they had responsibilities at home, I think they needed to prioritize them."

The remaining members of Mae still had a new album to promote and a scheduled tour. They didn't have to look far to find two replacements for the tour. Robert Smith (keyboards) and Josiah Schlater, a guitarist who could play bass, both of the Virginia Beach emo band Tokyo, were eager to hit the road. The twosome will not be full-time members of the band, however.

"The first few shows we did on this tour with Motion City Soundtrack and Anberlin were a little rough, but it wasn't because of the new members; it was technical difficulties that opening bands run into," Elkins said. "By about the fourth show we locked into something that was pretty amazing. As we toured the country this past winter, people were telling us they thought this was the best Mae show they had ever seen."

In addition to American dates, Mae also toured Japan and Australia.

Mae is headlining a tour that is scheduled through the end of April.

The band has taken over the duties of managing its career, overseeing every expense. They've even hired MSO, a highly respected entertainment public relations firm, at $2,500 a month, to promote their tour dates. They're traveling again by van, forgoing the costly mega tour bus. And as for the second album they're contracted to release with Capitol, they want out of the deal and think the label might just see it their way.

Elkins said he's seen no evidence the label has any interest in supporting them. Furthermore, the next album is to be financed through a fund.

"Within a fund, which is what we signed for our second record, there's a guaranteed amount of money to be spent, and whatever money's not spent goes directly to the artist," said Elkins, who indicated the band might record the album as inexpensively as possible and pocket the rest.

Elkins sees the writing on the wall for the way music is promoted. He points to Radiohead and others who've made their music available for free to fans. Mae plans to take a break from touring this spring and most of the summer to record new material and release one song at a time over the Internet, he said.

"With all the innovative ideas in the music industry right now, we're thinking we just give it away for free from here on out and find different ways to connect with our fan base that doesn't rely on a management company or a company that changes staffing every six months and doesn't have any idea we're on their roster or radar.

"We want to try a whole new approach to the way we run our business."

Jeff Maisey, (757) 222-3934, jmaisey@pilotonline.com