What is your name? Right now it’s Max Valley. ?
Where are you from? Home, indescribable in this world… ?
But physically and illusionarilly (yes that’s a new word ? it’s Montreal in the province of Quebec, Canada.
How long have you been making music? I composed and recorded my first piece at the age of 10; It’s a short piece using a funny “bubbles” sound on the synthesiser over a little drum machine beat;
I was fascinated with synthesizers at the time even though I didn’t have much musical knowledge other than playing the recorder (flute).
How many songs /albums have you released to date? I have 10 albums under different artist names:
Max Ichiban (My first album)
Max Tani (electronic instrumentals)
Max Kingen (political songs)
Max The Tape Recorder (5 albums so far, more underground and experimental)
Max Ai and Max Valley (the latest).
Can you tell us about your latest release and the background and inspirations behind it? The latest album is under Max Valley and mostly contains love songs in the pop, soft-rock, ballad and dance genres, sometimes inspired by personal experiences;
There’s also a few more political songs on it that can be inspired by my studies of the social, legal and financial sides of the current societal system in which people live around the globe;
“The first man on Mars” is inspired by the “Mars One” project where they want to send a group of men/women on Mars within 10 years;
Though I have nothing against the project itself, I even find it fascinating, I just hope that the applicants know what they’re getting into, as it’s a one way ticket only.
How have you ended up in the music industry? At first I was composing and recording demos for singers, but it’s difficult to find singers that would fit well into my own style, so after a while I began to keep the songs for myself and record them professionally.
What do you think of the music industry in 2014? Things are rapidly changing with the advent of streaming devices such as Spotify and others, I’m not sure how things will be in the future, the artists get paid for every streaming (listen) of their track, even though it’s not a big amount it could still become interesting.
Who do you think is the most influential artist? It depends which period of my life; As a teenager Neil Peart of Rush was my idol, and I still think he is one of the best drummers out there; Also John Stamos from the American sitcom “Full House”, as a teenager I wanted to be, do and look like him; Being a multi-instrumentalist himself I think he’s the one who influenced me the most at the time on that side of things;
Today I don’t have one artist in particular that I can say has a lot of influence on me, though I’ve become interested in the life of John Lennon a lot in the recent years, mainly his political side, though of course his music was great also.
Who have you collaborated with so far in your career?
As a solo artist I have not really collaborated with anyone yet as I like to touch everything that has to do with producing an album from start to finish, composing the songs to recording all the instruments multitrack, then mix them and do the final mastering (though I’ve had musician friends doing solos on some tracks from previous albums as guests);
It doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to collaborate with anyone, but I like to be in control of my own creations.
Dead or alive, who would be your dream collaboration? I have a lot of admiration for Per Gessle of Roxette, I like his style of pop song composition.
What was the first album you bought? I grew up with many albums and singles that were either given to me by my parents or family, but the first one I would’ve bought out of my own pocket was probably Madonna’s “True Blue” as a young teenager, at the time Madonna was revolutionising the pop music scene and she was my favourite singer (you can actually see that on the cover of my 4th Max The Tape Recorder album which is a drawing I did when I was 13 years old ahah! ?
What’s your favourite song at the moment? I have “Summer of ’69” by Bryan Adams stuck in my head right now…?
Who is the most influential artist now, and 10 years ago? I’ve been fascinated by the lives of John Lennon and Elvis Presley lately, however 10 years ago, hmm…
He’s an artist in his own way, not musical, but Vic Beck has been considered by myself like a mentor doing conferences about the consciousness of our own identity as men and women out of the “Monopoly game” as he describes it, and it surely had great influences on what I did at the time (the Max Kingen album which is very political), and still today.
If you had to sell your music collection tomorrow, what album would you leave in your draw? I made my own first vinyl record a few years ago which contains 2 remixes of songs from the Max Ai album, plus a bonus track unavailable anywhere else, I wish I could at least keep one copy of it, pleeease? ?
But by another artist, hmm…
I have a bootleg of the first Beatles album on (fake) Vee-Jay Records, I found it at a garage sale a few years ago; While the real one would sell for over a thousand dollars in I’m not mistaken (on the real Vee-Jay label), this bootleg has certain charms: the guys that did it didn’t care so much about the sound, they were probably in it to make a quick buck, so when you hear the songs it sounds like they used a microphone to record the original Beatles album already worn out, and it actually skips at 2 different places, it’s not the actual bootleg record that skips, it’s the one they played to make that bootleg ahah!
How do you think you differ from other artists? I have a certain sound that I can’t think of anyone else would have something similar, especially in the Max The Tape Recorder albums;
These albums are also sometimes very experimental, with some of the experiments probably never been done before I think, like on the 2nd album I used a turntable and a guitar pick up both as microphones.
What is your favourite saying? Perfection is not of this world; Therefore what I seek in what I do is impeccability, meaning I did the best I could with flaws corrected as much as possible if any (unless they’re part of the idea itself).
What other hobbies or interests do you have? I like watching tennis on TV, especially Eugenie Bouchard who I’ve been following a lot lately, first top 5 player ever from not only the province of Quebec, but in Canada also! Go Genie! ?
Do you have any tattoos or piercings? No, I don’t.
Tell us more about your new project? Listen to my latest Max Valley album for free on Spotify:
The album speaks for itself! ?
What’s in the pipeline after this project? I have a few ideas on paper for new Max Valley singles, and I’m also working on the 6th Max The Tape Recorder album.
Thank you for your time and may you carry on making dope, fresh music.
Well thanks!, for sure.
