Alex Maas Luca Vinyl

Everything changed for Alex Maas in 2018. That was the year his first child was born'a happy and healthy baby boy'sending The Black Angels' vocalist and multi-instrumentalist into a flurry of emotions he hadn't felt before.

There was the joy, of course, and the sheer awe that comes with creating new life. But to a lesser degree, there was also the fear: What world is his son going to grow up into, exactly? And how can Maas protect him from the dangers within it? 'When you have a child, you face your own mortality in a lot of ways,' says Maas, a Texas native who's lived in Austin for decades. 'The world is definitely messed up, but there's a lot of good in the world too.