On the Road with Aaron Maine of Porches

The touring members of synth-pop group Porches have developed a unique pre-show ritual over the years. About 15 minutes before they took the stage each night on the North American leg of their recent Shirt tour—in support of their new album of the same name—a kind of force overtook the group.

Frontman Aaron Maine describes it as “a little monkey ritual.” First, bassist Otto Benson would start shaking his knees vigorously. Then, drummer Max Freedberg would jump up and down on the couch as guitarist Dan English crawled around the floor. Maine was usually barking and howling up until the moment it was time for Porches to take the stage—but he stresses that the ritual was never the same thing twice.

“We’ve never even really talked about it,” Maine says. “It always just sorta happens.”

It’s those small moments between friends that Maine has come to appreciate most during the band’s time on the road: trying to walk through a Taco Bell drive-thru, throwing a football around a Walmart parking lot in Arizona, holding hands before a show, and, of course, getting to play music onstage every night. Shirt is a far cry from the lo-fi bedroom pop of Porches’ earlier recordings, featuring more bombastic production and swerves in genre—so for the accompanying tour, Maine ditched the backing tracks and auto-tune from previous tours, leaning instead into a rawer sound.

“This record is loud and emotional—I’ve seen joy, fear, confusion, laughter, love, anger, tears and all sorts of looks in the audiences’ eyes every night,” Maine says. “I don’t know what people expected, or what I even expected, but that’s what has felt the most liberating to me.”

Ahead of Porches’ upcoming tour dates in 2025—including a solo run in Europe this spring, followed by some summer dates opening for Wallows—Maine shared some shots he captured on film from life on the road this past winter.