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.