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INTERVIEW
I meet Max outside of a record studio in New York City, He’s smaller in person than you’d expect. He’s wearing a light blue shirt and dark blue jeans, cigarette in hand, he gives a nod of the head and a smile. We shake hands and move into the bar at the newly finished 4th Street Studio’s. “What you having” he asks, I order a glass of water and we receive our drinks and head to his own personal recording space (After all It is his studio). We take a seat at the sofa he’s had put into his room. “How’s it going, did you find the place well.” he asks. After exchanging pleasantry’s we begin to talk about how he came to form The Junction, “It was weird I was sort of learning to play guitar but I wasn’t really dedicated to it, I was more into writing and singing, but my friend Robin was pretty great at it. I’d never thought about forming a band until he picked up a guitar at a party asked me to sing along and he started playing Atlantic City by Springsteen, We’re both massive fans of Bruce Springsteen so we knew the songs well enough, anyway I woke up the next morning lying next to Robin and his then girlfriend and all I could remember from the night before was performing that song, I was just so inspired to just give a music career a go, We didn’t get many gigs for the first year or so, so it was frustrating but then things started to happen and we were getting gigs regularly.”
When talking about The Junction and those early years he was regularly smiling and laughing and indication that he enjoyed that period a lot. We then go into how he formed Junction Records and 4th Street Band. “We had a couple of shitty offers for a record deal but they just wanted chart success and radio play, so we thought fuck that. We stayed unsigned from late 2004 - 2007, but we had a lot of money saved up so me and my friend Lucy Tyrell decided to create our own little record label and sign The Junction to it, I had know idea that it would become a pretty big label but I’ve been lucky. Myself and Lucy decided to form a side project band which we called 4th Street Band, we were the only two acts signed to Junction Records and it was a struggle financially.”
We continue to talk about his music endeavours “ It was always difficult to juggle time between The Junction, 4th Street Band and Junction Records!. I had about fifteen songs to choose from for The Junction’s debut album and I thought and still do think that Heartbreaks & Outtakes is so much better then Love, Blood. Obviously the latter charted much higher than our debut and to be honest I have know idea what made me release Love, Blood And Anything Above, it truly is a terrible album, I’m not really proud of it at all, I was disappointed by the charting of our debut but I think we just didn’t have the resources we have now. I was amazed by the 4th Street Band live album’s chart position, I wasn’t expecting it at all, I knew there was a small demand for an album by a small selection of our fans but it’s sold over 1 million copies and it charted at Number 8 in the USA and that just gave me the fire in my belly which I kind of lost after the two Junction albums. And as soon as I listened to the Live Anthology Vol 1 album I knew right then that I wanted to return to touring with 4th Street Band and I guess that, subconsciously I knew that the tour I was preparing for with The Junction would probably be the last in a very long time.”
We begin to diverse and talk about his social life and what he’s like as a person.
“I’m probably the hardest person for Juliette to live with, I can’t really sit still for more than 20 minutes, I like to be active and that’s why I didn’t take time off from music when The Junction finished, there would have been a period from April to August where I’d be doing nothing and I couldn’t have that so I found out about the Marc Rolan project and they were happy enough to have me on board so hopefully that will keep me busy for a bit but at the moment I’m just working on improving the record label. Even on holiday I’m not a big fan of laying on a beach and getting tanned, I prefer to be more active, I’ll see sights or I’ll find something to occupy myself. Juliette and I have arranged for a holiday to Hawaii in June which we’ll be going to alone because we’ve basically been parents since November and that’s been a tough thing to deal with so it will be nice to have a holiday without any worries, But we’re also gonna be taking a trip to Spain with my two sisters and my younger brother because they also deserve a holiday after what they’ve had to deal with.”
We begin to talk about the night his parents were killed at their family home, “It was one of the worst things to happen but it could have been so much worse because my brother and sisters were living there at the time but they weren’t at home when it happened thankfully. It was a dark time for me, and I still don’t have any idea’s as to why anyone would break into my parents home and murder them for seemingly no reason, It was the worst thing for me because I’ve never had to deal with death before it happened and the circumstance it happened in made it much worse. I was a wreck, I also had the responsibility to look after my siblings but admittedly the first two weeks I wasn’t doing a very good job and I have to thank Juliette so much because she was so helpful, she was basically a stand in mother for my kid brother and my two sisters and she couldn’t have been more helpfully, she also helped me keep my head above the water, the first two weeks nobody could really talk to me, I wasn’t eating and I wasn’t leaving the house I was a mess but after two weeks I started to pull myself together and realise that my family needed me now more than ever, It has helped bring us all closer as a family and it has showed me whats important, My younger sister Katie’s life is great at the moment, she’s at NYU and she’s in a relationship with a great guy who looks after her, my other sister Jennifer is doing great things at high school and she’s gonna have an amazing career and my younger brother Michael is gonna be whoever he wants to be, he’s the funniest kid I’ve known and I’d expect him to be on a stage of some sort in the future, You’ve just gotta look at the bright side of life when something so tragic happens and I’m always gonna be hurting but you’ve gotta get on with life and make them proud.”
A teary Max wipes his eyes and we finish our chat and make our way into another room where he’s set to play a couple of songs for me. |
