News
"Crazy to think it’s been two years into this Lionel Boy project. This was the first song I wrote for the EP, and to think it was all for fun, a joke even. Funny how things work out when you’re having a good time. I’m blessed to have such a great team helping bring all this to light. Thanks for listening and tuning in. Got a lot for ya in 2021." - - Lionel Boy
Premiered by Pitchfork, "Weekends" is a collaboration between LA's Classixx & Local Natives. Another collaborative single will come shortly.
“These two songs were made as a collaboration in the true sense of the word,” Classixx said in a statement. “We met the Local Natives guys at a wedding in Mexico and immediately connected. They’re such a vibrant live band and it was important to us that their musicianship and vocal harmony came through. The tunes were a group effort and it was a privilege to work on them together, it felt like being a part of a small community.”
Read more at: Under The Radar / The Line of Best Fit / Flood Magazine
"Maas originally set out to create an acoustic record, then planned to mix the folk feel of Leonard Cohen with the textures of the Wu-Tang Clan; there are echoes of those previous directions in the samples, drones, stiff drums and occasional picked guitar, but the vibe is more Joe Meek producing The Madcap Laughs." - Uncut
"Having upheld the Texas tradition of the 13th Floor Elevators-style lysergic emanations with The Black Angels, Alex Maas has gone deep into himself for a beautiful solo debut..."[Luca] combines considered, personal songwriting with a late-'60s edge of hazy paranoia, most of it informed by the joys and responsibilities of fatherhood." - Mojo
"Throughout [Luca], ghosts of pre-rock crooners, dustbowl troubadours, torch singers and bobby-sox balladers converge in a backwoods cabin thick with the fug of good grass..." - Shindig
"Alex Maas possesses one of the most timeless voices in Austin music and now you can really hear it....his voice pierces vintage pop landscape."- Austin Chronicle
"Leaving behind the fuzzy guitars of his band Black Angels, Alex Maas picks up his acoustic for his first solo album, Luca...'The City' is especially intimate. "The enemy is always just outside the gates," says Alex of the track. 'Be ready for anything.'" - Brooklyn Vegan
"The first time I heard "This Time Around" (by Jessica Pratt) I was mostly confused by it. Not because it's a confusing song, but because it made me feel so many things at one time, that I couldn't properly process anything about it. So I sat with it on loop, for what in my memory feels like 3 or 4 days in a row, and tried to grasp my feelings about it more completely with each individual listen.
I got to Berlin in August and I had a couple days in a beautiful studio out there near Gorlitzer Park. After tracking 3 or 4 demos I had the idea to cover "This Time Around" - it just felt like the right time. The recording you hear, as far as the acoustic guitar and vocals go, is all one live take because that's the way it felt best for me, when I got home to Toronto, my friends Kyla Chalmers and Leland Whitty (BADBADNOTGOOD) were kind enough to lend their playing to finish it off.
I'm trying to think of how to describe what it feels like to sing someone else's song and have it feel like something honest and personal to me. I'm starting to think that if I knew how to describe that, I wouldn't have recorded it and I would have just written about it in my journal or something. I think I understand a little better now, why songwriters (and musicians in general) have been playing each other's songs for so long. I think it's because there are just some songs that are better off being replicated in full, to pay full homage to, instead of being imitated partially." - Jonah Yano
"It's easy to get lost in the mix. I check myself often and ask "are you happy yet Lionel Boy?"
Buuut then I realize I'm just tripping and talking to myself again.
Side note: I did finish recording my first full length where we can all listen to me, talk to me, together. 2021" - - Lionel Boy