- 3 months ago
Max McNown joins B96 backstage at Lollapalooza.
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00:00Joined by Max McDowell, Lollapalooza.
00:02Hello, hello.
00:022025. I think we were just jokingly doing some vocal warm-ups.
00:06Yeah.
00:06I'm curious what vocal warm-ups you'll be doing today before your show.
00:09I don't do any like that.
00:10None of that kind of dictation.
00:12No, none of that.
00:13Tip of the T.
00:14Unique New York.
00:15Yes.
00:15Unique New York.
00:15Oh, I can't even say that.
00:17No, I do some really stupid sounding vocal warm-ups for every show.
00:22We're playing about 140 shows in the year of 2025.
00:26Wow.
00:26We've already played almost 100, I think.
00:30And then we got the headline run coming up.
00:31But my vocal warm-ups, everybody used to make fun of them in my crew.
00:37And then now they just know that it's just part of life.
00:39And so they just don't even make comments anymore.
00:41But it's like we got a...
00:43That's one.
00:47And then...
00:48That's another one.
00:50And you just do it on a scale.
00:52Going up all the way as high as you can go.
00:54And then all the way back down.
00:55And I do that before and sometimes after every single show.
00:59Have you, in terms of your vocal range, tried to be like, you know what?
01:03That's not a note I'm going to try to hit in some of my songs.
01:06I've...
01:07Yes.
01:07Yeah, absolutely.
01:08When I'm writing a song, I'm actually...
01:11I'm probably a little too conscious of that.
01:14Yeah.
01:14Sometimes I think I choose melodies that might be inferior just because I'm not completely confident in hitting a note.
01:22But then when you've got a proper warm-up...
01:25The thing about when you're writing a song is typically you're not warmed up.
01:28Yeah.
01:28You know, you're just writing songs and you're just belting all day.
01:30And so your voice feels like it's not capable of doing certain things.
01:33So there have definitely been notes that I've stayed away from.
01:37Obviously, in this newer album, there's a lot of falsetto.
01:39So it's kind of a new thing that I've been experimenting with.
01:42And it's definitely nerve-wracking on stage.
01:45It's nice to have backup vocalists to help me push that falsetto.
01:49But yeah, I've just kind of...
01:51When you're not warmed up, it might be deceptive whether or not you can hit a note.
01:56And so I try not to let that affect choosing the right melody for my songs.
02:00Wow.
02:01That's really cool.
02:02And you just played an after show last night.
02:04Kind of a pre-show for Lollapalooza.
02:05Yeah, for me.
02:06And you were at Reggie's?
02:07Yeah, correct.
02:08Such a cool venue in Chicago.
02:10Yeah.
02:10And Hollister was...
02:11I'm partnered with Hollister, and they designed the interior to kind of be a Max McDowell night.
02:16So there was like a photo booth and cool posters and like a neon sign above the stage.
02:20And they did a great job.
02:22And it was just such a fun show.
02:23Reggie's Rock Club's pretty iconic in Chicago.
02:25I'm wondering, now that you've been here, have you tried the iconic Chicago foods?
02:29Have you tried an Italian beef or deep dish pizza?
02:32I haven't tried Italian beef.
02:35Is that...
02:36Well, I don't even know what that is.
02:37It's...
02:38I mean, honestly, just like imagine a hoagie, like French bread cut with like soaked beef
02:42inside of it, thinly sliced.
02:44That sounds incredible.
02:45In the show The Bear, they work at like an Italian beef restaurant.
02:46Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:47Of course.
02:48That's what we'll have to send you, but not before your show.
02:50No, no, no.
02:51I think I would like pass out on stage.
02:53I don't know.
02:54I'd fall asleep.
02:55Everything we eat in Chicago is meant to be eaten, and then immediately after go to bed.
02:58Well, yeah.
02:59I've got a funny story about that, actually.
03:01Is it Giordiano's?
03:03Giordiano's.
03:04Giordiano's.
03:04Yeah.
03:04So that's, according to my resources, that's one of the main deep dish spots.
03:11Yeah.
03:12And for Christmas last year, I was gifted by my booking agency a ship.
03:16There's like that shipping company that does restaurants, and they ship long distance, like
03:21famous restaurants.
03:22Totally.
03:23And so they sent me two pizzas from there, two deep dish pizzas, one pepperoni and one
03:27cheese.
03:28And I remember I ate both of them in one sitting.
03:31Wow.
03:31They're both full-sized pizzas.
03:34I ate both of them, and it was heavenly going down.
03:37And I'll stop it right there.
03:39And ever since, I have, I mean, it was truly one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten,
03:46but my body was super upset with me after.
03:47And so I've been scared to dip back into the deep dish.
03:52I feel like before you eat a deep dish pizza, you got to like talk to it, introduce yourself,
03:56make friends with it, because it's about to wreak havoc on your bowels.
03:59You're going to have a connection.
04:00You're going to have a connection for sure.
04:01Some weddings in Chicago, they do, that's the midnight snack is they will bring deep dish
04:05pizza at midnight for everybody.
04:07I was curious about post-wedding meals.
04:10Yeah.
04:11I was thinking just hit Taco Bell when I'm, when I get married, just like Taco Bell show
04:15just like, just Crunchwrap Supremes.
04:17This is a good plug for Taco Bell.
04:19Yeah.
04:20Loves Crunchwrap Supremes.
04:21Yeah.
04:21Yeah.
04:22On, uh, on occasion.
04:23Right.
04:23It's like a recreational.
04:24Yeah.
04:25I mean, Hey, listen, I'm thinking about weddings with your songs.
04:28Cause better, better me for you.
04:30Yeah.
04:30Better me for you.
04:31Tell me about calling it better me for you instead of brown eyes.
04:34Well, we, that's a great question.
04:36The last, it was a last second decision to put parentheses, brown eyes.
04:40And the reason we did that was because better me for you was the final wrap up of the chorus.
04:46You know, I know that I got to find a better me for you.
04:48So that was kind of the no brainer.
04:49It's like, Oh, we're going to name it better me for you.
04:51I started teasing it online and I started kind of taking, uh, inspiration from Benson
04:56Boone and the way he dives at the camera and does backflips and rollerblades and stuff
04:59like that.
04:59So I started to kind of try to get creative with those transitions.
05:02And I just, the most logical point to jump at the camera is I didn't know you'd have
05:08brown, like right on brown.
05:09Right.
05:10And so I started posting that and they started to do super well and people started to call
05:15it brown eyes and they were commenting, you know, like when is brown eyes out?
05:18I want to, I would love to listen to brown eyes, even though I put in captions better
05:21me for you.
05:22And so I actually had a talk with my manager, my manager brought it up and he was like,
05:26should we call it brown eyes?
05:28And I was like, I think better me for you is just a better title.
05:32Like just calling a song brown eyes is just so general.
05:35It's so generic.
05:36You know, there's some competition there.
05:38Yeah.
05:38I think there's probably like brown eyes, 5 million songs.
05:41And so I ended up, I said no at first.
05:46I was like, no, I want to stay.
05:47I want to keep my integrity.
05:48Like I chose a name and I'm going with it right now.
05:51And then we looked on all of the streaming platforms and specifically Amazon, Spotify,
05:57Apple music.
05:57And we searched Max McNown.
06:00And when you searched Max McNown for like months, it was Max McNown brown eyes.
06:04Wow.
06:04And then if you search brown eyes, it was brown eyes, Max McNown.
06:08And if you searched better me for you, nothing came up.
06:12So nobody was knowing before the song was released that it was called better me for you.
06:16Nobody was searching it.
06:16And so we knew when people look up brown eyes, they're going to expect to find that song.
06:23And so we last minute, it was like weeks before it came out.
06:26Wow.
06:26And we just threw a parentheses on it and said, better me for you, parentheses, brown eyes,
06:30just in case anybody's wondering which song is the brown eyes song.
06:33And so it really was a last second decision.
06:35And I think it was one of the most important decisions we made because I think, you know,
06:40algorithms rule everything.
06:41And to have it so simple and so easy to find is a game changer.
06:44People's attention spans are like nothing these days.
06:47Like on TikTok, the average viewership of my videos are like under a second.
06:52If you make it over like three seconds, that's a viral video.
06:55And so that's the world we live in now.
06:57And so I knew if somebody looked up Max McNown brown eyes and it didn't come up with better
07:01me for you or they were confused on where the brown eyes song was, then they would probably
07:05just give up.
07:06You know, I don't think people are really like invested that deep to find it.
07:09And so I think that was a huge decision.
07:11I mean, it's just cool because you, you created a song that I don't know if I've seen it yet.
07:14If you've seen it yet, I know that's going to be a first dance song for so many couples.
07:19It already has.
07:20Yeah.
07:20I've had, I've had videos sent to me.
07:22I mean, you truly have created, it gives like me pink sky, Zach Bryan vibes.
07:27And I love that you have that Chris Stapleton type of vibe where it's like, this could be
07:31pop music, indie folks.
07:32Yes.
07:33You could fit into so many genres.
07:35Yeah.
07:35We'll have to have you back here for Windy City Smokeout next year, it sounds like.
07:39Well, I always, I always say I'm a Oregon suburban kid, kind of a granola kid.
07:44Do you know the term granola?
07:46Yeah.
07:46Like a granola person?
07:47Yeah.
07:47In the Northwest, we have a lot of those people.
07:49It's the campers, the hikers, the kind of nature freaks.
07:53And that's a little bit of who I am and how I grew up.
07:56And I was raised on a ton of country music.
07:58So I always say I'm an Oregon folky suburban kid with a huge country music influence and
08:05upbringing.
08:06And so whatever that ends up making, as far as genre goes, I think it changes with every
08:10song.
08:10But Better Me For You is exactly that.
08:11It's like, it could be pop, it could be country.
08:13And actually, we're thinking of taking it to pop radio eventually.
08:17Yeah.
08:17Yeah.
08:17We'll have to give you some play on B96, my man.
08:20Please do.
08:20Playing today, the T-Mobile stage in a couple hours of Lollapalooza, Max McNaughton.
08:25We're excited to see what you do, man.
08:26Stoked.
08:27We're already loving what you've done.
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