00:00Hey, I'm Max Ray. I'm Montel Jordan. And you're watching Life Minute TV.
00:12The iconic hit turns 30 this year and it's getting a whole new iteration. And this time,
00:18the R&B great who made it, Montel Jordan, is joined by breakout singer-songwriter Max Ray
00:24on the revamped version now called How We Do It. The duo dropped by the Life Minute studios to tell us
00:36all about it. This is a Life Minute with Montel Jordan and Max Ray. I was in London, it was over
00:42a year ago at this point, which is crazy. And it was a Friday night. Really? It was a Friday night?
00:47It was a Friday night. All the nights it could be. And of course I was in the studio. I wanted to flip
00:53a song. I was listening to 90s classic R&B hits, of course. It's my favorite. And the iconic song
00:59came on. So I decided to flip it. Little did I know that you would actually catch wind of this
01:04and of course hop on it with me. I first heard it just through her label that reached out to me and
01:13said, hey, we got this amazing artist and she loves you, loves your music. She did a twist on your song.
01:19Would you take a listen to it? I heard the song and then got to meet her and her mom and
01:25just the, we have a lot of things in common and faith and music and it just seemed like the right
01:31thing to do. It is 30 years young, the 30 year anniversary that the original This Is How We Do It
01:46was released. And so in this 30 year tradition of I knew that when I first heard the song,
01:52because it was Slick Rick, who was a hip hop icon to me, that I took the song and was able to
01:59take a hit song and it becomes a classic. And so now for a next generation, we're hoping that
02:05that it kind of strikes the same fire and does the same thing. I shot my part in London
02:11and a lot of amazing, beautiful places. And then of course, Montel was so gracious enough to
02:15I green screen not in London. No, but
02:19but it feels the video definitely gives the feel that we are there together and now we're here together.
02:25And so I think you got a really, really good high quality product that people will enjoy.
02:30I think that music is a part of the soundtrack to our lives. So if you have a good memory in your
02:36life, there's probably some music attached to it. If you have a tragic memory in your life,
02:41there's probably music attached to it. And so music gives you this strange form of time travel back
02:47through emotions and what you felt, what you smelled, all of those different things. And so if you can
02:53strike music at a time that resonates with something that people are going to, not just a couple of
02:59people, but if you can hit that right chord of what the world is navigating through, that's, I think,
03:04the marker or the template for a timeless song. For me, without question, life. I mean, I think I've
03:12doubled the life that you've lived so far. And in my life, I marriage and children and grandkids now,
03:21like for me, just the beauty of life. And those are the things that kind of inspire me to take
03:27real life stories and finding a way to say them differently because love has been used. There's
03:32not a note that hasn't been played or sung. It's just finding the creative way to resonate and
03:38reverberate the, you know, for a time such as this, that music kind of translates into what people are
03:44looking for right now to help them heal.
03:46I'm a really authentic person. So just what I'm dealing with in life, or if I even, when I was
03:52even younger and I didn't have love yet, other people who are around me, sometimes you drop on
03:56conversations. I'm like, that's a good line for a song. But of course, my inspiration, no matter
04:01what comes from Jesus too, because, oh my gosh, my creative, my brain, sometimes I come up with
04:06things. I'm like, that was not me. Definitely, definitely.
04:13I grew up in a musical family. My mom's a singer. I get my voice definitely from her and a lot of
04:18inspiration there. My dad was a, you know, wannabe producer would record in the studio and put me in
04:23front of a mic when I was two singing my ABCs or, you know, different hymns from church. And I just
04:27started so young. Just family, really, for me.
04:30For me, a student of music, gospel music, growing up in church, that was kind of my foundation of
04:38soul music and gospel music before venturing into R&B and hip hop. So anything for me from the
04:45Isley Brothers, the Gap Band, Temptations, you know, all the way to the sound that came out of
04:52Minneapolis with Prince and Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, all those. I have Stevie Wonder, too many to name.
04:58I'm a student of music. So all of those people, to me, are what I even listen to today.
05:09I think I'm different now. To me, there was a time when music defined who I was. Like if I had a,
05:17if I didn't have a song out or I didn't have something happening, I didn't know who I was. And
05:21so stepping away from music to have a faith journey, I honestly feel like God showed me who
05:28I was outside of music. And I learned I'm a son, I'm a husband, I'm a father, I'm a friend,
05:33I'm a giver. I'm all these different things if I never pick up a microphone. And so now that I'm
05:38picking up microphones again, it's because music doesn't define me, I define music. And I think that's
05:45probably one of the biggest things that I learned. I think she's building an amazing audience of
05:50people that love her. And me, I want to be able to perform because I want to and not because I have
05:57to. And for me, that's the sweet spot, you know, of life. I think that not just touring, but I have
06:06tons of different things that, you know, writing books and children's books and marriage ministry,
06:11I got lots of things that I want to do. But music definitely still is in the works for me.
06:16Yeah, same here. I'm finally getting to my heart what I love, which is R&B, pop,
06:20music. So a lot of new music will be coming my your way, really. And I'm really excited about it.
06:32I want to I want to record something with Stevie Wonder. Oh my gosh,
06:37Bruno Mars for me would be number one. That's a good one. That's a good one.
06:41Certain things are are taught and then certain things are caught. So for me, I haven't necessarily
06:48been taught specifically anything from him, but I've caught so many different things from him.
06:56And one of those things I think would probably be to think forever, like when it comes to music and
07:01things like that. When you are thinking forever in your writing and your your composition, it's not just
07:08about right now. So even with a song like with Max saying it's Friday night. Okay,
07:13as long as we'll be in existence, there will be a Friday night. Right. And so you're not just saying
07:18something like a pager or something that doesn't exist anymore. I've listened to my cassette right
07:23now. Those are things that existed at one time. But I think when you are thinking forever, you can say
07:29something like a Friday night and know that as long as people have Friday nights, you have a song that
07:33a song that that is relevant. So that's one of the things I learned. Stevie gave, you know, to me,
07:37taught me or I caught from him. Think forever. Love that. Career highlights.
07:44That's a that's a great question, because it causes me to literally pause and think through.
07:49I've I've I've I've got an honorary doctorate. This is how we do it. The original song sold seven
07:57million copies certified. I got a Grammy last year. But ultimately, of all of those things,
08:07I mean, I celebrated 30 years of marriage last year. And so to me, when it comes to family,
08:14it comes to marriage, it comes to helping other people with their marriages, that to me is the
08:20most fulfilling part of my life. Biggest advice for a couple is to recognize that humans didn't
08:27create marriage. I believe God created marriage. And so although humans can redefine marriage to be
08:34whatever they want it to be, they're redefining something that was already defined. And so if you
08:40go back to the original form of what a marriage can be and what it should be, that's where it becomes
08:47most healthy and most beautiful and most fruitful, because that's what it was designed to be. And so
08:53it's not just about a husband and a wife or a spouse and a spouse is really about what does this
08:59marriage reflect. And as a faith person, I believe humanly, if you can see a good marriage in the earth,
09:06that's how you know God exists, because he could take two very, very different people and place
09:11them together the same way he functions, you know, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the way they function
09:17together. I think marriage is a reflection of heaven on earth, or at least it should be. When it comes to
09:23marriage, I think if you, my wife and I would say, if divorce is an option for you, you have too many
09:31options. And that's a tough one, because people like their options. But for us, that's how we made
09:38it to 30 years going on 31 years, it's not an option for us. And so to me, that's a life rule to
09:44live by. And also what I said a little earlier that what you do doesn't define who you are, who you are
09:51should define what you do. Yeah, that's beautiful. For me, I mean, being young, and of course, in this
09:57generation of social media, and how toxic it can be. And cyber bullying is a really big thing.
10:04And, you know, all of that, for me, it's always trying to stay authentically true to myself in a
10:09world that tries to, like their Snapchat filters, trying to make you feel like you should be different.
10:14I think, especially my generation, we crave that authenticity, we can sniff it out, we want people
10:22to relate to. And so for me, like a big thing, I'm always like, is this honoring one to God, or is this
10:27honoring to myself. So when I ever choose something to do, I make sure that it's aligning both ways.
10:32And that's what I always keep my mantra in my brain. I would just say what you just said right
10:37there is not just key for you, but the people that you influence. I think it's important to be
10:45the you that God loves the most. Because we can all have different versions of ourselves, we can have
10:52the version of us when we're with these friends, the version of us when we're with these friends,
10:56when we go to church, when we go to club, like we're different versions of ourselves. And I think
11:01we truly come into alignment of who we really are, when we say, no matter where I am, no matter what
11:07situation, I'm going to be the Montel that God loves the most, I'm going to be the Max that God
11:13loves the most. And when you show up as that person, I think that people either love you,
11:20or don't know what to do with you, or don't know what to do with you, because that's the most authentic
11:23that you can be.
11:34To see more of this interview, visit our website lifeminute.tv. And don't forget to subscribe to our
11:40our podcast, Life Minute TV.
Comments