“The comforting ache of the summer holidays…“. That hits the mark. The image that is being presented to me while I’m on my way to the interview with Paul Smith, frontman of Maxïmo Park and jumping jack / dervish / human bouncy ball (if I may be so bold to borrow the term from a friend), fits this opening line of The Kids Are Sick Again perfectly. I’m being surrounded by lightly clad people, who, armed with blankets and cooling bags, are cleaving their way into Hamburg’s Stadtpark in order to render homage to the northern-German sunbeams. In addition to this already idyllic view there are musical scraps in the air, which sound remarkably like a soundcheck taking place in the open air theatre. That’s it. The tepid summer air carries Books From Boxes to my ears and there you go: the smile on my face can only be dispersed with difficulty. After waiting some time in the “backstage BBQ area” I finally meet a genial, good-humoured Paul, who, as one knows about him, knows how to twist one around his finger by applying his talkative temper and his cute Geordie accent (I’ll only say the way he pronounces “a double bluff” in I Want You To Stay – that throws an Anglicist into raptures...) Read here what he reports about the gig in Japan, the writing of songs and his former job as a teacher.
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