Maxim Baldry talks Terra Twin’s “trashy” new EP, mental health and balancing ‘The Rings Of Power’ with music

nme.com:

Terra Twin frontman and The Rings Of Power star Maxim Baldry has spoken to NME about his band’s “muscular, trashy” new EP ‘Static Separation’ and balancing music with his acting life.Baldry, who plays Númenórean warrior Isildur in The Rings Of Power, formed Terra Twin from his bedroom in New Zealand, whilst shooting season one of the Amazon Prime Video fantasy epic back in 2020.

The London-based indie quartet (completed by guitarist Lewis Spear, bassist Jonny Thwaites and drummer Alex Wadstein) have today (September 5) shared the EP’s jagged, thumping lead single ‘The Recogniser’ – their first via Leeds-based label Dance To The Radio.“We wanted to elevate our sound and make it a bit more muscular”, Baldry told NME of ‘Static Separation’, which is due out in February 2025. “We’re still keeping true to our Americana and country influences, but we wanted to make it muscular, loud and a bit more trashy.“It’s definitely a shift from everything we’ve done before, which was a little bit more Big Thief-y.

We’re going into a space that feels authentic to us, but a bit more crunched.”Describing producer James Dring [Gorillaz, Jamie T] as a “dreamboat to work with”, Baldry elaborated on the production behind the EP. “He did a few records with Courting, who had this compressed, trashy sound on ‘Guitar Music.’ We naturally gravitate towards quite melodic stuff, and I wanted to juxtapose that with some loud, distorted guitars.

James totally understood what we were trying to do… he [brought] out the authenticity in what we were doing.”Check out our full interview below, where Baldry spoke to NME about the themes underpinning the EP, his formative London gig experiences and what Isildur might think of Terra Twin.NME: Hello Maxim.