- 2 months ago
Max McNown continues to climb the charts, thanks to some strong songwriting, and his willingness to go all in, from barista to artist. The singer recently stopped by the Hard Rock Hotel New York to talk with Mike Adam about his music, inspiration, and the “theatrical” way he left his job at Starbucks to pursue music.
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MusicTranscript
00:02this is your odyssey check-in with max mcnown we are at the rockstar suite in the hard rock hotel
00:08new york my man uh the song firstborn daughter it is so beautiful and i feel like you got those
00:15lyrics that are personal but also universal i mean how did the whole thing come about tell me
00:20well thank you i i'm i'm excited because that's kind of the new song that i'm that i love talking
00:25about because it's just now kind of raising its hand in the social media world and people in the
00:30shows are starting to sing it uh so it's been really fun to watch what shape that has taken
00:35uh i was just talking earlier today with somebody i forget who it was it was this morning um and
00:42i
00:42was talking about how each of the songs so better me for you and firstborn daughter specifically and
00:49done for for that matter they're all written about my wife yeah uh but they're written about certain
00:55aspects of her in unique ways from one another yeah that resonate to an entirely different target
01:01audience and so now we have some mingling of people that are brown eyes and firstborn daughters
01:05yeah yeah but it's so fun writing songs that are so specifically about my wife that a bunch of people
01:11hear and make their own it's such a beautiful thing that music can do right it's like it was not
01:16the initial intention to write a song that made firstborn daughters feel heard or seen
01:24but it's doing that and i'm so grateful for that because that's one of the reasons i'm even in
01:30music in the first place is to try to help people feel less alone and whatever they're going through
01:34or struggling with who they are you know that that's the whole goal yeah and so watching firstborn
01:38daughter and seeing all the comments of people that are like nobody's ever complimented this specific
01:43thing about being the first one to live life in your family as a kid and right and all the
01:48good
01:49things and the struggles that come with it uh it kind of sheds light on that experience and so
01:53it's been really fun to watch that thing yeah you're you're doing it right man so i was i was
01:58stalking you like hardcore oh yeah awesome bro we both worked at starbucks at one point
02:05barista or shift supervisor oh excuse me i i feel would i have been your boss you would have i
02:12was
02:12but listen i was just on the bar dude because i didn't like talking with yeah there was some snooty
02:17people oh for sure with them you were just slaying drinks just left and right and i didn't have to
02:22talk to many people so you were like a goody two-shoes so you never like sabotaged anyone's
02:27drinks or anything oh we wouldn't have gotten along no no but i did actually and i don't think this
02:35can
02:35get me in trouble all these years later maybe it can but uh i definitely had certain people where i
02:41knew
02:41they liked it sweeter than what they would say it was almost like this mental break where they
02:47didn't want to tell me that they wanted eight pumps of syrup okay okay and then they would give
02:50it back to me and say it's not sweet enough and so after a while i was like i'm just
02:53gonna put
02:54double every time and and they never they was just they loved you like read them yeah i was like
02:59okay
02:59if you're gonna bring it back every time i'm just gonna put more pumps than you're asking bro i was
03:03the opposite end of the spectrum i had some terrible regulars and i was like you know what i love
03:07that today you're not getting the good stuff i never did and then i never purposely did a decaf but
03:13but that is a diabolical move and i respect it i respect it so was that the last job you
03:19had before
03:19things popped off yeah so how'd you quit like would you um i put in luckily i had wonderful
03:26relationships with all of the managers that i ever had um and the final store i worked at was in
03:32redmond oregon neighboring bend and uh i put in my two weeks i was trying to do both because i
03:40wasn't 100
03:40sure that this was even going to work and right right i didn't know where it was going and i
03:45started to i took my first trip to nashville and i was gone for you know 30 or so days
03:51yeah and then
03:52i came back and started working again and it felt so much had changed and it felt weird and i
03:56felt
03:56like i wasn't being the worker that i want to be when i'm just like dipping for so long and
04:03so after
04:04that first trip and i knew that there was a second one coming of a longer length yeah i just
04:08said you
04:09know it's i think it's time so i put it's so scary though yeah like taking that full leap because
04:13especially with starbucks you know you work x amount of hours and you get the full health insurance
04:19health care yes bro yep it's scary and you took that leap and you didn't turn back huh yeah yeah
04:24there's a video of me uh i wanted to be theatrical for some reason and i jumped out the drive
04:30-through
04:30window and that was how i exited starbucks for the last time i love that yeah and actually
04:35when my co-workers i i made so many wonderful friends that i'm still friends with to this day
04:40from starbucks and my co-workers were so encouraging they were part of the the push to have me go
04:48pursue
04:49this right yeah and so before i left before i jumped out the drive-through window that day uh they
04:54asked
04:54me to sign their starbucks cups just in case someday you know because they believed in me and before i
04:59believed in myself at all you know so it was uh it was a really cool moment and and starbucks
05:05is great
05:06i had a great time were you always a great songwriter or were there things like what what was the
05:12hardest
05:12for you lyrics melodies arrangement like um definitely instrumentation the arrangement um i'm still not
05:20a great guitarist i i can play acoustic well enough to keep rhythm on stage and i know uh more
05:25than i knew
05:26years ago but um just being self-taught the whole reason i started guitar was because i knew very
05:31well that that was my weak point i couldn't it's very difficult to write a song without any chord
05:36structure you know it's almost impossible you know you can try um but it's very difficult and so
05:42i started to learn just simple chords because i was watching zach bryan and tyler childers kind of
05:46write beautiful poetry over a very similar chord progression yeah in each song and i and it made me
05:52realize that you don't have to be a shredder in order to write music you just need to have a
05:56foundational knowledge of progressions that you can use and the melodies take care of themselves
06:02that's kind of what separates because there's only what uh how many notes eight eight notes
06:08on the entire you're asking no matter how bad you are i'm way worse so you're asking the wrong person
06:13like music theory is not my thing yeah but i do everything by feel but there's only a certain
06:17amount of notes yeah that are even possible um and so it's more about the melody yeah and the
06:23lyrics that for me yeah carry the song and and i uh to talk about where it came from real
06:30quick
06:30i feel like i've always been uh my mom always would joke when we'd go on hikes i was the
06:38one in the
06:38very back picking up sticks and making little bow and arrows and looking at the trees yeah i've
06:42i've always loved nature i've always been drawn to beauty of creation and art um and my dad gave a
06:49speech at my wedding and my producer jamie kinney who produced night diving costs of growing up and
06:54this next record that's coming out jamie watched the speech and he turned to me after it and he goes
07:00that's where you get your songwriting because my dad has spoken to me the way he can use analogies to
07:08help someone understand a difficult thing they're going through is incredible and i've grown up with
07:15that my whole life and he used to sing songs and change out the lyrics on the fly with our
07:19names in
07:20them so my dad's been very musically talented and creative uh throughout my life and those analogies
07:27are basically what songwriting is yeah it's finding ways to relatably explain things that you're going
07:33through in life and emotions and experiences that you're having um in a song you know in a different
07:40way than people may have heard before and so i grew up with that and that's why i feel like
07:44it's it's kind
07:45of ingrained in me because you're coming out with these songs that are so personal and uniquely you
07:51do you like songwriting by yourself or in a collaborative space so i like it in a collaborative
07:57space i wrote my first few songs by myself having somebody to tell you if something just is kind of
08:05stupid or really just out there what's important to me is that it comes from my heart and my notes
08:10page you know like i'll i'll be writing stuff all the time into my notes page it gets really eclectic
08:16just whether it's poetry a single word you know my song saint helen's alpenglow was based off of me
08:21walking into the room and saying i saw this word somewhere and it's the most beautiful word ever it's the
08:26orange hue that a sunrise or sunset casts upon a mountaintop i'm like we can fit that in a song
08:32let's figure out how to write a song that represents the beauty that that word holds within it yeah and
08:37that's how that song started so my notes page is all over the place but it's very very important to
08:43me and that's why i'll never take outside rights for the rest of my career you know i'm never going
08:47to take a song written by someone else to be a hit and given to me because that's not me
08:53you know i want
08:54i want me in my heart and what i want to say to make its way into every bit of
08:59music that i put out
09:00and so the collaborators that i use are those that now uh know me very well and i and i
09:07love going to
09:08the writers that know what i will and won't say yeah and are able to not impose their opinions or
09:17their
09:17artistry on me but look at what i am trying to say in my artistry and to lift that up
09:23yeah and so
09:24co-writing is amazing it's kind of like an editor for you know a magazine or even uh a book
09:32right it's
09:33like you can write it all out on the page but it's really nice to have somebody that kind of
09:37checks
09:37yeah yeah through it so are you bouncing some of these raw lyrics then off your dad are you get
09:43are you
09:43giving things to him i bounce my songs off my dad okay um my dad hears every every song that
09:50i write
09:51before it releases yeah uh and there are some that he loves that actually don't end up seeing the light
09:56of day so i don't yeah i don't hold again it's so personal to me and especially with this next
10:02album
10:02we had roughly 40 to 45 songs written wow and we handpicked the 17 um that meant the most to
10:10me that
10:11i felt represented what i wanted to say yeah um so at the end of the day i am very
10:16particular
10:16but i love hearing advice my siblings all hear the songs my parents hear the songs my wife hears the
10:22songs everybody hears the songs before they come out but at the end of the day it's my decision if
10:26it
10:26makes it on the album yeah up to this point have you had a chance to meet any of your
10:31idols get advice
10:33from any of your idols absolutely um noah khan would be first and foremost and you love him
10:39yeah yeah he's he's definitely lyrically the way that he writes is so unique yeah and in a world
10:47where you where the cheap benefit seems to come from writing what has been written yeah yeah and kind
10:56of making people hear a song that they feel like they've already heard before yeah that's a very common
11:01thing and noah khan just my favorite line that i quote from all the time is from growing sideways
11:06the song growing sideways and it's the first line of the song and it says so i took my medication
11:10and
11:11i poured my trauma out on some sad-eyed middle-aged man's overpriced new leather couch and i hear that
11:17and i go you can write anything you can write anything in a song like like the the weirder and
11:24the more
11:24unique it is to you the better in my opinion yeah and so that's where all that inspiration comes from
11:29my songs wouldn't look the same as they do without noah khan and i had the privilege of playing his
11:34uh
11:34out of the blue fest in cancun um and i was able to sing paul revere which is
11:41my other favorite artist is gregory allen isikov and so they collaborated on paul revere so when i
11:46got asked to do a song i sent my selection and paul revere was number one and they they gave
11:52me paul
11:52revere so i sang that with noah um i met thomas rett a few days ago i've always looked up
11:56to him he is
11:57just the way he carries himself on and off the stage family man faith forward uh beautiful songwriting
12:03and an incredible voice uh and he gave me really good advice right after my set sometimes the crowd
12:11especially when you're opening there will be some nights where you're like oh it felt like this whole
12:16crowd knew my stuff yeah yeah and then there are nights that maybe that crowd was primarily for someone
12:21else and and you are just trying to earn as many fans as possible that's what that night was for
12:26me
12:26um and so when i finished up the show i came backstage and i wasn't discouraged but i you know
12:31i was just thinking i'll i kind of wish that went a little better you know and thomas rett came
12:36up to
12:37me and he congratulated me on the set he said it was awesome and uh i was telling him i'm
12:43like honestly
12:43it's it's pretty new to me to be playing direct support for an hour and 15 minutes you know like
12:49i'm
12:49i'm two years into touring yeah so this is this is all happening really fast and i'm learning
12:55how to fill that space you know i don't i basically what he told me was what he noticed is
13:02that when i
13:03was out there he didn't feel as though i was trying to be cooler than i am i was not
13:08uh i i seemed to
13:10represent the humility that i i try to stand for and he said most importantly you can tell that you're
13:16on
13:16that stage because you love music and you love people and i was like that's it when i go on
13:22the
13:22stage i don't want to try to prove that i'm the best singer i don't want to try to prove
13:26that i'm
13:27the best guitarist songwriter whatever i want to have immense gratitude a really good time and just
13:34pray that that gets reciprocated by the crowd you know and so when thomas said that to me i was
13:38like
13:38that made this entire show this entire trip everything worth it because i look up to him so much
13:43and to hear that oh yeah bro and you you are fairly new to the game right and you're doing
13:49these long sets did you early on did you find yourself getting fatigued were there things you
13:55needed to change oh my gosh when i first started singing i had one vocal lesson before touring for
14:02the first time yeah and that vocal lesson is still one that i listened to before every show
14:08but even then i've learned so much about how to preserve my voice you have to preserve it on and
14:15off the stage it's not just how you sing on stage it's your vocal warm-ups beforehand and something
14:20that's new to me right now after postponing a few shows due to sickness uh is the cool down yeah
14:26i never
14:27did cool downs and i've started to do them and i realized that i wake up in the morning feeling
14:31way better and less groggy and so there's there's so much that you have to do you want to eat
14:35healthier
14:35like a lot of grease and dairy is not great for acid reflux and there's a lot of things that
14:41you
14:41learn throughout throughout touring and um even just on stage when you when i was first starting
14:46out every single show was the craziest adrenaline dump yeah that i've ever experienced yeah and as
14:52it gets more and more normalized i've played over 300 shows at this point and so as it gets more
14:58normalized i realize how important breathing is yeah keeping composure for sure you can still put
15:05emotion and put energy into a song without screeching and yeah yeah from your chest on every
15:12single note and that was something that i had to learn because i was just shredding my vocals right
15:16at night in and right out that's your tool man yeah um before we wrap who's a artist like uh
15:23before
15:23your generation before your time that you want to be a fan of but you feel like you haven't dedicated
15:30enough listening to because truth be told like i love i love the beach boys but i really only know
15:36their hits like i feel like i haven't listened deeply yeah to their albums do you have somebody
15:42like that's a super unique question i love that um johnny cash oh johnny cash like i know uh like
15:50totally folsom prison blues i know his cover of hurt um walk the line burning ring of fire you know
15:58i
15:58know those but i have not dug deep enough into his discography to be able to say that i'm like
16:04a
16:05full-out yeah johnny cash fan yeah yeah i feel fraudulent right when i say it you know totally
16:10totally because he's had an influence and and honestly i think the hurt cover in the music video
16:15of hurt is the best music video ever made in my opinion um but i don't feel like i've done
16:21a deep
16:21enough dive yeah to be able to call myself a full yes yes johnny cash fan you know i love
16:26that max thank you
16:27so much man congratulations on everything you are just exploding right now everything you touch has
16:32been really wonderful thank you i appreciate you having me this is a blast
17:02you
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