New York City artist Porches, the long-running project of songwriter and producer Aaron Maine, has released a new mixtape titled MASK, offering one of the most intimate and unfiltered glimpses yet into his creative process. The release arrives alongside the announcement of a new run of headline shows this June, with performances scheduled in New York City, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and additional cities across the US.
The mixtape includes the previously released single “HABIT,” which arrived earlier this year accompanied by a visual directed by Rebekah Campbell. Most recently, Maine also appeared alongside Kim Petras on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, performing her track “Jeep,” a song he co-produced and co-wrote, further highlighting the wide creative reach he has cultivated beyond the Porches project itself.
With MASK, however, the focus turns inward. The mixtape strips away polish and perfectionism in favor of immediacy, spontaneity, and emotional texture. Recorded primarily on a four-track tape machine, the project captures rough edges and imperfections as essential parts of the music itself rather than flaws to be corrected.
Speaking about the release, Aaron Maine explained, “I recorded MASK on my four track last spring (2025) in the basement on Wooster Street in New York City. I mixed it straight off the tape machine. I was inspired by how impossible it is to really edit anything on the four track, and I feel like a special spirit was captured in these recordings by embracing their imperfections. I wanted to share them in their rawest form to keep that energy I felt intact.”
That philosophy runs throughout the mixtape’s sound. The recordings feel hazy, immediate, and emotionally exposed, leaning into the lo-fi warmth and unpredictability of analog recording. Rather than meticulously sculpted production, MASK prioritizes atmosphere and feeling, allowing songs to unfold with an almost diary-like intimacy.
While Maine handled the writing, production, and mixing himself, the project also features contributions from longtime collaborators. Max Freedberg appears on drums and piano on the title track “MASK” as well as drums on “DO THAT,” while Jenna Pascale contributes cello arrangements to “CAROLINE” and “EVERYONE GOES TO HEAVEN.” The mixtape was mastered by Michael Blumenfeld, preserving the rawness of the recordings while giving the project a cohesive sonic finish.
MASK arrives shortly after the release of Shirt, the sixth studio album from Porches, which earned praise from outlets including Pitchfork, FLOOD, and Exclaim! upon its release earlier this year. The mixtape also follows the sold-out 10th anniversary performances celebrating Pool, the breakthrough Porches album that helped establish Maine as one of indie music’s most emotionally distinctive voices. Those stripped-back performances in New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco revisited the deeply personal songwriting and dreamy production style that first defined the project.
Over the last decade, Aaron Maine has steadily built Porches into a singular creative world rooted in poetic vulnerability, eclectic production, and emotionally immersive songwriting. Whether working through synth-pop, indie rock, lo-fi experimentation, or stripped-back confessionals, his music consistently prioritizes atmosphere and emotional honesty over convention.
With MASK, Porches moves even closer toward the raw core of that identity. The mixtape feels intentionally unfinished in the best possible sense — not incomplete, but alive, capturing fleeting moments before they could be overworked or refined away.
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