Interview With MAX

‘We are currently riding in Cali
then we are flying to Aus’

The multi-talented pop-soul-R&B singer/model/actor and dancer MAX will be heading to Australia for the first time this September and we got the chance to have a chat with him before the tour kicks off next week.

Your heading down to Australia (playing in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane) for your first headline tour next week – that has to be exciting right? Are the nerves kicking in?

Umm yeah i wouldn’t say that i am nervous per say. I’m excited. I love playing in new places because its something that effects your writing and your vibe. You sort of experience new culture when you experience a new place that has heard your music in different ways like for instance on YouTube or on Spotify. To play a show in New York is way different then playing a show in Ohio or playing a show in Brisbane. It’s always more of an experiment and seeing whats the common thread between all situations and seeing what we can find in a show environment that connects with everybody thats always one of my favourite things to experiment with.

And yeah its our first time coming to Australia at all which is really cool that we are headlining – usually we will open for somebody to get into that region first but we are delighted to come over to Australia and do a show and we’re excited for whoever is showing up and hope its the first of many many trips.

Is this your first international tour as a headline act?

No I’ve done some other ones. I’ve played a couple of Asian shows – Manilla, the Philippines and Hong Kong. We just did our first show in london recently and its super exciting; we’re just starting to do way more international shows especially since we’re playing our new song ‘Lights Down Low’ which is finding its way into different ears and different parts of the world which is really the most wonderful and humbling thing to happen and because of that its cool that we get to experience new places and bring our show to these places.

Now you have over 1.4 million subscribers on YouTube today and I just wanted to mention that when I first heard of you and your music it was on YouTube just over two years ago when you created a cover of Carley Rae Jepson’s single – I Really Like You, with US band Against The Current. Do you think individuals come across your music through your covers?

I think yeah definitely especially when i was doing a lot of covers, which is awesome to hear how you first heard of me; it’s always awesome when people discover my style during the covers and to then hopefully and maybe check out my album or different original content from there. I think its definitely one facet of where people discover which is a huge reason why i started doing covers.

The cover stuff (which is awesome) but also a little bit of a box in its own. It’s fantastic to acknowledge covers and create covers and to then get out of its sort of its own little niche world which is hard to do some of your own original stuff from there.

Do you find that putting your own twist on covers and releasing them through your social media sites helped you transform as an artist?

Sure I mean yeah I definitely always try to do our own style to whichever song we’re covering you know cause its always something and somebody else’s work. Especially as a songwriter you’re covering a song – you’re paying respect to that original song. It’ll never be your baby. It’s sort of putting your own spin on it – on somebody elses baby – their own world and creation, so whenever i would do it at times it would feel like it would probably be a safer move if someone was to do the song in its original style and sing it but for me i always feel like its very important when you do your covers to give it your own style and to know that it will never be what that original version was. It’s so important to just be respectful of that.

You are signed to DCD2 which is created by Pete Wentz; what is it like for you being under a labels wing?

It’s been really incredible and Pete has been a great mentor and getting to to tour with Fall Out Boy and writing a song off my last album called 10 Victoria’s Secret Models (which we’ll play live while we’re in Australia of course). I wrote that with Patrick Stump who is the singer from Fall Out Boy and just learning from them and getting to be part of shows with them and kind of getting the ropes taught to me in that way has been absolutely incredible. And of course I’ve been really lucky with my label situation because Sony and DCD2 have been great label partners because they’ve really listened especially with the song ‘Lights Down Low’ which is a song that is really special to me because I wrote it for my wife and I proposed to her with it. The fact that I get to go around the world and state my love and for individuals to do so, no matter where they’re from or their sexual orientation; we get to do that because they (the label) get the song out there on Spotify or Pandora or hopefully on the radio soon in Australia and earlier on the radio here in the US. It’s incredible to have that and thats something I would never be able to do on my own and I’m grateful that they are a vehicle to get it out to peoples ears and where i could never do personally.

What should fans expect from these run of shows?

I always try to bring as much energy as possible to shows up on stage and for people to sort of get lost in that space as well. We’re excited because its our first time there and its going to be very intimate shows and i cannot wait to meet everybody and get to hang and see all the faces and be able to do something – sometimes you know when we play shows like when we open for Fall Out Boy and Wiz Khalifa and whoever else, it’s an incredible feeling but its also something where we cant do certain aspects of our show that we do in intimate environments. So im excited that not only to give as much energy as we can but to also have moments where you know theres no microphone and i can play the ukulele – we play different songs and for just those in that intimate crowd. I’m so excited for that because theres something really special about those smaller crowds that theres a certain community and energy you get from them.

I’ve heard from quite a few people that a lot of the venues we are playing on this tour are sort of different and out there which is cool because we always love those bizarre and wonderful environments so I’m excited to see them.

Lastly, do you have anything else you wanted to say to your fans over here in Australia?

I’ve just always wanted to encourage anybody who has ever listened to my music and to those who supports us wherever they are in the world, it’s incredible that anybody over there is listening to my music and any place in this world where I’ve made a song in new york and its being heard in Australia is sort of one of the most amazing things about creating music and so thank you for listening whether you downloaded it legally or illegally i don’t care, as long as you’re listening that’s what matters to me. And showing up to these shows means the world cause if more people show up to these shows, it means we get to come back more and more and i thank people always for support because everybody works hard for their money and using any of that time or money to support our journey and our careers is so appreciated. And additionally we always want to encourage people to be themselves and be in the most authentic ways and hopefully our vibe and our energy we hope it encourages people to be true to themselves in a time in the world where sometimes its scary to be yourself. So I hope that I can always be that guiding light to hopefully help people to be true to themselves.