Don't Lose Touch

Maxim Soria…

I can’t say I ever expected I’d write something about this about someone who’s been such a big part of my life.

I met Max in November 2005, I paid for my own flight and worked for free for Valencia on a tour with Tokyo Rose on what was my first ever tour as a Merch guy.

I then went out with Hit The Lights in spring 2007 on a tour with Valencia and I still feel like I didn’t know him all that well… He was just a funny dude, with a great laugh.

That all changed working for Valencia in Spring 2008. The guys bought me a flight and we went on the ‘Long Hair, Don’t Care’ tour with We The Kings… Max quickly changed the tour name to the ‘long drive, hate my life’ tour… Typical Max.

Because of the length of the drives and our similar humour, I just remember sitting there for hours talking shit on every single band on the planet… ‘What’s (insert band) gonna do in 2008? NOTHING!’ haha! We’d go on for hours and hours, annoying every other guy in the van. He wanted to start a ‘Max and Ollie’ show where we just talked about terrible bands, and that was his humour. He was so funny, 24/7. Whether it was moaning about the drives, screaming at George about something in that high pitched ‘God dammit George!’ voice or just laughing himself silly, he was just a great guy to be around.

I remember at the start of the tour, we got the new merch and Max had ordered 300 hoodies… Which in spring is just a bad, bad call… Max insisted we’d sell them all and he’d prove us all wrong. We went the entire tour maybe selling 2 a night and every night someone would moan about having so many boxes of hoodies. It finally got to the 2nd to last day of tour at Bomboozle. It rained all day and we sold all but 6 hoodies, well over 250 of them and I just remember walking back to the van and Max was just sitting on the back bench of the van just smiling to himself. He believed we’d sell them and we did… So he just made fun of everybody! We didn’t hear the end of it for a week!

I don’t think I’ll ever forget the lasting effect Maxim Soria had on me as a person. He was always there to offer advice and always laughing, I just remember him laughing at everything, even during his moans.

Valencia have always been a big part of my life and they are my family. I feel truly blessed that I’ve shared large parts of my life with them.

It’s quite right to mourn losing Max, I cried my eyes out for hours last night, and I’ll continue to cry for him. However, at the same time, we need to celebrate his life, one of the most unique and best people I ever met.

I’ll never ever forget you Max. You will always be my brother, and you were a brother to George, Brendan, Shane, JD, Mundy, Ryan, Quinn, Scoot… The list goes on and so it should. Anyone that met Max became a better person for it.

Rest in peace my brother. I love you.

My Top 5 Pop Punk Albums

This is in no real order, it’s too close to call!

MxPx - ‘Life In General’

At 16 years old, one of my best friends lent me his copy of ‘Life In General’ and my life was changed forever. I’d never heard a band play so far but so melodic at the same time. The album had the coolest cover I had ever seen. I just remember listening to this album every day for at least 3 years straight. I couldn’t even pick a stand out track! I remember going to see Less Than Jake on Wednesday 25th October 2000 and you can imagine my delight when I found out that night that MxPx were the main support. It’s by far the most important album I have ever listened to, and one of the most important bands in my life.

If I had to pick a stand out track it would be ‘Sometimes You Have To Ask Yourself’.

Audio Karate - ‘Lady Melody’

I remember seeing this band support The Ataris while promoting the first album they released ‘Space Camp’ and my friend Matt was a huge fan, so I made sure to pay attention when they were playing and they were good. They didn’t blow my mind, but they were a good live band, which some good songs. That changed when they release the brilliant ‘Lady Melody’. All I can say is this is a masterpiece of an album, it’s like what ‘Pet Sounds’ was to pop music. Every song is great, the production is amazing (Bill Stevenson is a god) and I just love it. I listen to this band every day without fail.

Stand out track - ‘Lady Melody’

The Ataris - ‘So Long Astoria’

The thing about this album for me is that the words don’t rhyme. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is. Every song tells a story, and some of the stories are amazing. I think it’s mostly about girls, but whatever… I like girls. Kris Roe truly is one of my favourite songwriters of all time. I remember hearing ‘Takeoffs and Landings’ on a sampler a few months before the album came out and I’ve never been so excited for the release of an album. The artwork was so cool, and I think it was all kinda of based on ‘The Goonies’ to an extent, which is another reason I love this album. It’s a real shame they sort of lost their way after this album because this album was everything I loved about The Ataris for a long time. ‘Blue Skies…’ and ‘End Is Forever’ were really good albums, but ‘So Long Astoria’ was there best album in my opinion. They released a crappy album after this and I had chance to see them play at Groesrock but turned it down due to the fact I hated the new stuff they had… Turns out they played all their hits and killed it… Oh well!

Stand out track - ‘The Hero Dies In This One’

New Found Glory - Self Titled

‘Holy shit’ were the first words out of my mouth after hearing this album for the first time. There is a time and a place for certain albums and in 2001, this band blew my mind. 12 tracks and every one is brilliant in it’s own way. I remember seeing them play the 200 cap Roadhouse venue in Manchester that year and they were incredible. It was also the first time I’d ever heard a band use half time the way they did… I think every band after NFG stole ideas from them, and it’s still the case today… 10 years on! It’s impossible to skip one song on this album. Maybe the best feel good Pop Punk album of all time.

Stand out track - ‘All About Her’

Blink 182 - ‘Self Titled’

When I was 15-16, you were either a Green Day kid or a Blink 182 kid… I was so into this band for a large part of my life… Maybe 5-6 years and I loved everything they did… The songs, the lyrics, the look, the jokes, I loved it all! Alot of people always say ‘Enema Of The State’ was their best album and they might be right… But for me, Self Titled changed everything. It was the album I thought they could never write and record! A ‘serious’ Blink album? No way! Fuck that! Well, they did it and it’s their best work in my opinion. Start to finish, it’s just so good. They challenged themselves to try something different, and I’m not even sure if it’s a ‘Pop Punk’ and if it was, then they re-wrote the rule book. I’m glad they are back but they will never top this album. FACT!

Stand out track - ‘Down’

And that is that!

JP4

Apparently that picture is a fake/joke. Very upset!