Images: A. P. Kim for ESSENTIAL HOMME.
Styling: Terry Lu.

Aaron Maine sits coiled on a couch, the bleached- blonde hair he sported on the cover of his third album as Porches, The House, now back to its natural brown. It’s a particularly cold day in New York, one that elicits the very kind of painting Maine’s lyrics draw.

“I think that I’ll stay inside / If you don’t think that they’d mind / I can’t let it find me,”

Maine sings on “Find Me,” his deep-throated crooning in perfect juxtaposition to the industrial- sounding electronica that solidifies The House’s first single as the new winter dance track. This contrast is, in fact, fitting of Maine himself—he is both quiet and commanding, dainty and rough, vulnerable and powerful. He is complex and honest, qualities that have made Porches such a successful and relatable project for Maine; often speaking bluntly about anxiety, depression, and solitude—issues he confronts when creating music. “The practice of writing and making work is like a therapy or a meditation to me, and that generates a lot of happiness, peace of mind, and self worth, so I think I rely on the physical practice of making work for the cathartic aspect,” he says, his red painted fingers gracefully playing with the chain-link bracelet hanging off his wrist. “It’s kind of like a journal entry that goes public, which is an interesting part of the process each time.”