Alex Maas

Out of Austin, in May 2004

The Black Angels formed in Austin, Texas, in May 2004, taking their name from the Velvet Underground's 'The Black Angel's Death Song'. Alex Maas has been the lead singer since the first rehearsal, and over the years his credits on the band's records have run to bass, organ, guitar, percussion, flute and Mellotron. The other founders still with him are guitarist Christian Bland and drummer Stephanie Bailey. Jake Garcia joined on guitar in 2016, and Misti Hamrick came in on bass and organ in 2024.

The band's debut, Passover, came out on Light in the Attic in 2006, followed by Directions to See a Ghost in 2008. They moved to Blue Horizon for Phosphene Dream in 2010 and Indigo Meadow in 2013, then to Partisan for Death Song in 2017 and Wilderness of Mirrors in 2022. Alongside the records, Maas and Bland helped build the scene that grew up around them: with Rob Fitzpatrick and Oswald James they co-founded Austin Psych Fest, the festival that was renamed Levitation in 2015 and now runs its own label and live-session series.

Luca, and a different kind of record

Maas's first solo album, Luca, was released on 4 December 2020 through the British label Basin Rock. It is named after his first son, and in an interview with Louder Than War published on 26 November 2020 he said that somewhere between sixty and seventy per cent of the songs were written within nine months of the boy's birth. The record was made during the pandemic while he was at home with his family, and co-produced with Brett Orrison.

The people around him on the album were familiar. Christian Bland played guitar, Jake Garcia and Bryan Richie of The Sword handled bass, and various session percussionists stood in for the parts Stephanie Bailey would normally take. Maas described his method as letting the music come first and the words emerge from it: 'The song tells you what it wants to be.' He was frank about how hard it was to hold the arrangements back, saying that not everybody has to be playing.

Reviews recognised the shift. Glide Magazine, writing on 4 December 2020, noted that the reverb on his voice and the whirling synthesisers survived from the band, but that 'the tempo and dynamics are turned down significantly', with steadily strummed electric guitar and muted percussion in place of the Black Angels' weight. The review singled out 'Slip Into', '500 Dreams', 'What Would I Tell Your Mother', the lead single 'Been Struggling' and 'American Conquest', and judged the album a success that stayed 'different without being too different'.

A live document from Bastrop, and a Christmas song

Because the album arrived when touring was impossible, the first public performance of it was a film. In late 2020 Maas took a small band to Bastrop, Texas, and recorded a Levitation Session in two old buildings: Astro Records, a century-old former German tailor's shop, and the town's Opera House, built in 1889. Bryan Richie, Jake Garcia and Rob Kidd played with him. Levitation issued a limited vinyl edition on 23 July 2021 with twelve tracks, mixing Luca material such as '500 Dreams', 'Slip Into' and 'American Conquest' with three previously unreleased songs. Maas said the session represented 'what a tour on this record would look like had we not been in a pandemic'.

After that he went back to the band for Wilderness of Mirrors, and his next solo release did not appear until 19 December 2023, when Innovative Leisure put out the single 'X MAAS (Take Me Away)', mastered by Orrison. He explained the song bluntly: 'I've never written a Christmas song. Christmas has a very dark side that not many people take into account. The holidays are as painful as they are beautiful for most people.' He said it was written for people who fall in love at Christmas and for those who want to escape the season entirely.

Where he stands in 2026

The year has been shaped by an anniversary. Passover turned twenty, and The Black Angels marked it with the Passover 2026 Tour, playing the album in full alongside material from the rest of the catalogue. Dates ran through May and into June, including New Orleans on 13 May, Atlanta on 15 May, Raleigh on 17 May, Philadelphia on 21 May, Detroit on 26 May, Chicago on 28 May and Omaha on 31 May, before the band crossed to Auckland, New Zealand, on 6 June.

On 27 February 2026 the Austin public radio station KUTX published an episode of its series The Hole Story with Maas as the guest. It had been recorded on 10 July 2025 at the Hole in the Wall bar in Austin, and he played four songs: 'The City', 'Honey Bee', 'Bombs for Julia' and 'Icon'. He talked about how parenthood has changed his writing, performed a new piece put together with his young son, and mentioned the arrival of a newborn daughter. The station framed the episode around the Passover anniversary.

The solo side has been quiet on record since the 2023 single, though not idle. A listing for his September 2026 Minneapolis appearance on the First Avenue website stated that new music was due in August 2026. No further detail about a title or a release was found, so what that new music is remains to be seen. Maas is also part of MIEN, the collaborative project he co-founded with members of The Earlies, Elephant Stone and The Horrors, and the same venue listing notes that he composes for film and television.

The Altın Gün tour

On 24 March 2026 the Dutch-Turkish band Altın Gün announced their first North American tour since 2023, running from 6 to 26 September in support of their sixth album, Garip, released on ATO Records in February. Alex Maas was named as support on every stop. Pre-sale tickets went on sale on 25 March and general sale followed on 27 March.

The route opened with two nights at The Pearl in Vancouver on 6 and 7 September, then Seattle's Showbox Sodo on 8 September, Portland's Crystal Ballroom on 9 September, the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco on 11 September and the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles on 12 September. From there it turns to Minneapolis on 15 September, the Vic Theatre in Chicago on 16 September, Toronto's Danforth Music Hall on 18 September and Théâtre Beanfield in Montréal on 19 September, before an East Coast run through Big Night Live in Boston on 22 September, Brooklyn Steel on 23 September, Union Transfer in Philadelphia on 24 September, the Howard Theatre in Washington on 25 September and the Roxian Theatre outside Pittsburgh on 26 September.

What the shows are like

The two sides of his year could hardly be more different in scale. The Black Angels' Chicago show at Thalia Hall on 28 May 2026 ran from ten past nine until ten to eleven, an hour and forty minutes, with L.A. Witch opening. The set of twenty-one songs began with Passover in its running order, from 'Young Men Dead' and 'The First Vietnamese War' through 'Black Grease', 'Manipulation', 'Empire' and 'Bloodhounds on My Trail' to 'Call to Arms'. The band then dropped the volume for an acoustic 'Mistress Brown (Fighting in Iraq)' and an acoustic introduction to 'Ronettes', before closing with a run that took in 'Bad Vibrations', 'Firefly', 'Entrance Song' and 'Molly Moves My Generation'. The Atlanta show on 15 May followed the same shape.

As a solo act he is the opener, playing a shorter set before a headliner whose own music is loud and rhythmic. The best guide to what he brings is the Bastrop session and the KUTX appearance: a small band or a stripped-down set, songs from Luca and newer material written since his children were born, and his voice carrying the room rather than the amplifiers. Reviews of the Altın Gün dates had not been published at the time of writing.