- 6/12/2025
Max McNown joins Emily West to talk about his rise from social stardom to playing shows across the country.
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MusicTranscript
00:00hey it's Emily West with new 1027 here at the Hard Rock Hotel New York City with
00:07Max McNown hello hi thanks for coming and you have a lot of success right now but you haven't
00:14even been doing this that long so we'll go back not too far but when you started you left home
00:20your dad gave you a guitar you learned a couple chords and you started busking correct yeah San
00:26Clemente Pierre Southern California just played the three or four songs that I knew on a loop over
00:32and over again with the very small amount of chords that I know you stand out there for hours
00:37I see I see the people in Penn Station doing it every day it seems like such a tough job it was
00:42typically two hours hour and a half to two hours would be my my goal because I was working I was
00:48working at Starbucks so I'd work all you know from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. and then I'd get off usually I'd try
00:55to work out and then I'd go to the pier and just perform for a couple hours and then that was
01:00always a little bit of extra extra funds on top of my my Starbucks paycheck all right well Starbucks
01:05what's the worst drink to make uh frappuccinos if you order a frappuccino even if the worker is acting
01:13as if they love you they really hate you deep down inside good to know all right so maybe you were
01:19highly caffeinated when you were busking but what did you what you learn yes what did you learn from
01:25that and take away uh the friend that got me to busk uh framed it like this the worst case scenario
01:35nobody cares and the best case scenario nobody cares and I have taken that into shows I've taken that
01:41into so many areas of the musical career where it's like I have a job that I'm going to do my best
01:49best to do and how it's received is not it's that's out of my control so that's that's what I
01:57took away from it it was you know people are people are going to walk by and some people come up and
02:02they tell me that I've blessed their night and and they're so grateful that I'm there and then
02:07some people just walk by they don't pay attention don't say anything and that that's fine I've never
02:12gotten any hate though so that's good well I think that's a great outlook you don't put too much
02:16pressure on yourself so so you started uh singing on socials started getting your your music out a
02:21little bit uh doing covers and then you got some response and thought hey let me put my own stuff
02:26out yeah yeah once a day was the the switch that I flipped in my head it was just post once a day
02:32and if you do that consistently uh everybody says that's kind of how you grow and so it was kind
02:40of a war of attrition it was a post once a day and and honestly for several months that wasn't
02:45really working very well and then I started doing reaction videos on this website called Omegle which
02:52is dead now but uh I did reaction videos and I kind of did something different than what other people
02:57were doing I noticed that sitting down in front of the camera and singing just wasn't catching
03:02people's attention like the attention spans on social media are less than one second
03:06so it wasn't working and uh the reaction videos got people involved and it got people kind of
03:13to know my personality a little bit more I would always introduce myself to the person I was about
03:18to sing to and uh yeah that was kind of where it all began with with social media yeah you found
03:26your own path you found your own way yeah something that separated me yeah that's kind of what you have
03:31to do you got to find something that makes you you I remember when I was deciding after living in
03:36California and busking and uh getting a little bit of a social media presence going I was deciding
03:42whether I should just send it move to Nashville or move to Bend Oregon and and kind of hone in on
03:48what makes me Max McNown which is my northwest roots and so I decided to move to Bend with that same
03:53thought was just if I go over there and I try to be like every other person then what makes me unique
04:01I'm not the best guitarist in the world I'm not the best vocalist in the world but I am the only
04:04max in the world you know and that's that's what you have to play on another great positive outlook
04:09now you said uh one of your favorite artists Noah Kahn I loved your cover of stick season thank you
04:13what did you learn from him and what do you take from him when you write your own music
04:16the best way I can phrase it is his writing shows me that you don't have to be afraid
04:24to write something weird like I always I always uh reference this song a song called growing sideways by Noah
04:32Kahn and the first line of the song there's no prefacing this it's just so I took my medication
04:39and I poured my trauma out on some sad-eyed middle-aged man's overpriced new leather couch and
04:45nobody else writes like that like he just he writes in such a unique way and so specifically
04:53uh but also broad and so that's always the goal for me now it's like how can I be so personal to
04:59me where I can put so much emotion into this song but write it in a way that others feel they relate
05:07to a piece of it and so that's kind of I mean I take that I mentioned that in the start of most of my
05:13writing sessions that I have I'm like look Noah Kahn's one of my greatest writing inspirations
05:18um he writes weird sometimes and he writes uh kind of ongoing sentences that flow into one another
05:27and it's not as like start stop start stop poetry you know it's more like a river uh of sorts like a
05:36weird river it's a weird river of beautiful lyrical genius yeah so you did a lot of covers um but
05:43how did it feel when a superstar covered your song a lot more free kelly clarkson on her talk show I
05:51mean millions of people saw this yeah that was out of all things I've done in my career thus far
05:57that was the one that blew me back the most um especially because my management kept it secret
06:04from me until she did it and so I learned about it through a story share from a random fan
06:09um but that I always talk about how I struggle sometimes to stop and smell the roses because it's
06:15so go go go in this career um and that was one of those moments where I was just like wow where am I
06:22what is happening you know it's all happening this is real uh and I had the most family and friends
06:28reach out to me about that than anything else that was like everybody was just their minds were blown
06:33well you know you made headlines uh several months ago I actually talked about you on the radio
06:38thank you so you're welcome so you were set to play bowery ballroom here in this city um and another
06:46big artist wanted to take your spot one of the greatest of all time Paul McCartney how did you feel
06:53at first before you knew it was him and then after you heard it was him at first they were like hey
06:58a big name wants to play here wants to play a private show here like uh they they called him
07:05a stadium act wants to play a private show here and I was like man is Morgan Wallen about to kick
07:10me out of the bowery ballroom right now for like a private show and I have nothing against Morgan
07:13Wallen but I was just wondering like who is this massive act that's about to kick me out and when I
07:19learned it was Paul McCartney honestly like a bunch of weight was lifted off my shoulders it became
07:24kind of a it's a hilarious story to tell and and I've been able I've been fortunate enough to be
07:29able to talk about it um in a lot of interviews and it's like man if you would have told me two
07:35years ago that I would be playing a venue and Paul McCartney would want to play it so I would
07:39move to a bigger venue and then sell that venue out like it's a win-win-win all around and I have
07:44no hard feelings only love at least no I didn't no I we had the shows I was so go go go and I played
07:52my show and I was out of there that night on the bus so did he send you any merch did you get
07:56anything no you just got a good story yeah a great story great story yeah and those are valuable
08:01very valuable so you have got an album coming out night diving July 18th um I'm sure it's got a
08:08deeper meaning which I'll get to in a second but do you go night diving I have it sounds terrifying to
08:14me it's it's it's one of the weirdest experiences of my whole life and that's why there was a song and
08:21later an album uh based around it you have to it's definitely a metaphor but I also have gone
08:30night diving before uh specifically in the Bahamas okay um so how do you feel when you do that it is
08:39it's the act of night diving is willingly going somewhere where there could be danger you're you
08:47fear it a little bit but it's also when you dig into you know the ocean like that at that time of
08:56night you see things and you find things that you never would have seen in the daytime and so that's
09:02kind of the larger symbolism uh it's kind of digging into parts of yourself that aren't so bright
09:07and realizing that you find a lot of beauty when you're honest with yourself and you're and you're
09:12facing the things that don't always come out easy in the light well it sounds like a lot to uh dive
09:18into yeah so when the album comes out um but you just got back on tour from Australia New Zealand and
09:26do you do you have more uh dates coming up I do I have we're playing 120 shows this year uh and that's
09:33not counting radio shows and and like some private shows so it's it's like 140 shows this year um and
09:41we've gotten quite a few done but we have a lot more coming and a lot that haven't been announced
09:45yet so uh we're going back to Australia for one show my first headline festival in Bloomsbury
09:52Queensland um there's so there's so many that I I forget is there anything else you want to share here
09:59you're not sure no not all right well we cannot wait uh to see what you have coming up and so
10:09excited for you max mcnown thank you for coming to uh here hardware hotel new york city for a new 1027
10:15thank you for having me appreciate it
10:18you
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