I really like finding new-to-me bands, especially when they are heading to Maine — such is the case with the trio of Annalise Mahanes (vocals), Cal Tucker (bass) and Michael Monahan (guitar) better known as IMY2.
These rockers will perform on Sunday, May 26, at the Sandy River Music Festival in Farmington and to that end, I scored a chat with Annalise on the 1st of May — she called me from Nashville and filled me in about her band’s history and what folks can expect from their 5 p.m. show.
Q: I’ve been binge watching your songs on YouTube and I was wondering if you guys have ever performed in Maine before?
A: No, we have not; it’ll be our first time being in Maine at all.
Q: I think you’re going to enjoy yourselves and I always tell people who are coming to my fair state that to get here you go to New York City and turn left.
A: (Chuckle) Thanks and I think we’ll definitely enjoy ourselves, we’re very excited about it.
Q: How long have you guys been together?
A: Well, we became IMY2 in 2019 and at that time we were actually living in Germany and we were making music over there for a little while, that’s when we started IMY2. We were brought back to the states in 2020, we all know what happened then.
Q: Yeah, that’s when COVID-19 made an appearance.
A: (Laughter) And that’s what brought us to YouTube, prior to that we were just playing live shows and playing college towns and making a living that way. But once the pandemic happened we were like, “Well, what are we going to do now — how are we going to make a living?!” And so we played through the internet.
Q: What I saw there really grabbed my interest. The three of you certainly put on a very compelling show, and I think folks up here will be pleased by what you are presenting. Now, what do you have out as far as albums go?
A: Well, we have been putting out a lot of singles and we just announced that we’re going to have our first EP called “Far From Perfect” and that comes out on May 23. So that’s very exciting to be able to play that one out on the road and and play some of those songs for everybody.
Q: Did you have anything that you released over in Germany?
A: Well, in Germany mostly we were doing a lot of cover shows over there and that is where we started recording a lot. We also did some recording in Italy. We were also doing a lot more pop-influenced music at that time.
Q: When you returned to the U.S., did you do original music in addition to your covers?
A: Yeah, in 2020 we started releasing our own music, we did that for a little while and we were doing more pop stuff, but then started leaning more into our rock roots. Both of my band mates, Cal and Mike, are from Pittsburg and they grew up playing rock and roll together, they love the Beatles and all that kind of stuff. We also started working with another producer in L.A. and so we’ve been releasing that new music since, I believe, 2021. Since then we’ve been working real hard and working towards releasing that EP, that’s been a journey in itself: just trying to gather who we feel that we are, our sound at the core, and create a collection that reflects that. So that’s what “Far From Perfect” is, it’s the reflection on who we really are and the sound that we feel identifies us the best.
Q: Now that COVID, we hope, is in our rearview mirror, have you been doing a lot of touring around the U.S.?
A: Yes, we have. We tour a lot in the Southeast area, that’s our bread and butter, the live show, that’s really where we are the most ourselves and what we do best; so we’ve never given up going out on the road, it’s like our favorite thing to do.
Q: Where are some of the places you’ve performed?
A: We’ve played all around — we’ve played in Vegas for convention-type things, and we’ve got upcoming shows on our way up to Maine: we’re going to go to Cincinnati and play at the Hard Rock there, and we have a show in New York City on our way up, before we turn left to go to Maine.
Q: Is there any genre that’s been an influence on you three?
A: Me and the boys are old souls, we love classic rock and all that, that’s really where we find most of our inspiration, there’s good new music, too, don’t get me wrong, but the classics are classic for a reason, you know?
Q: Do I ever!! When checking out YouTube in preparation for our chat today, I noticed that you do covers — how do you pick the songs to cover?
A: Well, a lot of it comes from songs that we feel we’d like to take a stab at —songs that we love, but we also try to keep in mind what other people love and might want to hear us try. We also view our covers more as tributes not really a competition because all these songs are classic for a reason and many of these songs don’t need embellishment because, at their core, they’re incredible as they are. So mostly we try to do songs that inspire us and songs that we’d love to learn from.
Q: How so?
A: Doing covers is a learning experience, you get better a little bit every time because you’re learning from the greats.
Q: That’s very true, for sure. Well, here’s my final question for you: Is there anything, Annalise that you’d like me to pass on to the folks reading this article?
A: Well, first of all I think this show is going to be a great time, we’re going to bring our best and do our very best, we’re really excited about sharing the new music with the people for the first time. Some of the songs that we’ll be playing we’ve never played for a live audience, so they’ll have a little extra treat. It’s really exciting to be coming up to Maine — most of our touring, as I said before, has been in the Southeast and the West, but we’ve never had the opportunity to come up North and make new friends. We really pride ourselves in our live show and I feel the best way to get to know IMY2 is to see a live show because that’s where we are at our peak.
Lucky Clark, a 2018 “Keeping the Blues Alive” Award winner, has spent more than 50 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.