Paul Smith was unsure whether Maxïmo Park would ever find an audience.
As the band celebrate the 20th anniversary of their Mercury prize-nominated debut album A Certain Trigger, the 46-year-old frontman reflected on the early days of the group, with an expanded reissue of its first record including B-sides, demo recordings, radio session tracks and alternative edits of songs from the original 2005 release.
Paul told the NME: “I did wonder if there was room for ourselves in terms of a wider audience. I’ve always had complete faith in the music, but songs like Apply Some Pressure or Graffiti – they were fairly abrasive and quite harsh on the ear (for mainstream consumption.) But we got played on Radio One and reached so many more people who then got hold of this band that were a little bit unwieldy or eccentric.
“We were outside the circle – we didn’t come from London where bands play in bars every night with music industry people there. We were doing things in a different way.”
First released in May 2005, A Certain Trigger propelled the Newcastle band into the UK Top 20, cementing their reputation as one of the most distinctive acts of the “indie sleaze” era.
Mixing jagged guitars with lyrical storytelling rooted in northern life, the album established Paul as a literary frontman in the tradition of Jarvis Cocker and Morrissey.
To celebrate its anniversary, Maxïmo Park will embark on a 12-date UK tour in February 2026, supported by fellow mid-2000s act Art Brut.
Paul said: “When we play next year, we’ll end up playing pretty much all of the record every night, although not in order. You want to do it backwards really, that’s what I always say. I don’t want to sound big headed, but I think most of the songs have held up.”
Recalling the group’s rapid rise, Paul spoke about touring alongside Arctic Monkeys in 2006 on the NME Awards Tour, just as the Sheffield band were releasing their record-breaking debut.
He said: “People have tried to rewrite history with that tour, but all of the shows were really amazing. Somebody came up to me one time and said, ‘Oh, people walked out when you played’, but I was on stage and they didn’t.
“We filmed the last one at Brixton Academy and looking back, I was like, ‘Wow, we were on fire’.”
He added: “I don’t really care about anybody else when I’m on stage. A kind of zeal comes in, and we’re preaching the gospel of Maxïmo Park. It was clearly a very interesting time; their first album became the biggest-selling debut of all time so there was definitely weirdness around. But every night we put on the best show possible and I felt so good about that.”
Paul has fronted Maxïmo Park since their formation in 2000.
Over six studio albums, the band have scored multiple Top 20 hits and built a loyal following through energetic live performances and Paul’s poetic lyrics.
Their debut, A Certain Trigger, remains one of the defining British guitar albums of the 2000s, earning a Mercury nomination and helping to launch the careers of many northern indie acts that followed.