MAX is an all-rounder. Maybe that is why he is always busy. Colour Vision, his first full-length album in four years, was released in September last year and its deluxe version was released in March this year. This album was made based on the singles released from 2019 with as many as seven singles on it, including “Blueberry Eyes (feat. SUGA of BTS)” and its music video co-released with the album. Just like the album title, all of the singles have colorful and stylish music videos. But that’s not all. He released a new digital single “WASABI” on July 22 and announced his North American tour from October to the end of the year. He also worked on collaboration projects between his schedules. It seems that there is high demand for this talented artist. 

MAX was a child actor. He gained nationwide fame in 2012 as a teenager in the sitcom series How to Rock on Nickelodeon, a cable channel for children and youth in the US. Teen sitcoms on Nickelodeon or Disney Channel were the cradle of teen pop stars in the 2000s. That was how Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and Ariana Grande gained popularity and rose to stardom. In How to Rock, MAX portrayed Zander, a charming transfer student talented at singing and dancing. Unfortunately, the program ended in less than a year as the boom in teen TV sitcoms was diminishing by 2012. The representative sitcoms Hannah Montana on Disney Channel and iCarly on Nickelodeon ended in 2011 and 2012, respectively. As internet platforms such as YouTube where users make and upload contents were emerging in full swing, the landscape of pop culture which used to be led by TV was starting to change. 

This transitional period when the world of the internet was shifting from the unilateral offering of information in the initial phase to contents created by users and social media is known as “Web 2.0.” It is no exaggeration to say that MAX was at the center of this paradigm shift. He was a high-teen TV star as well as an active singer-songwriter who would play musical instruments and sing songs wherever he had the chance. The video clip where he sings a medley of Maroon 5 together with Victoria Justice, who was also a Nickelodeon star, on Kurt Hugo Schneider’s channel drew global attention with its surprisingly good structure beyond expectations for an individual Youtube creator’s video clip. During the period of Web 2.0 when legacy media was fading and new media was rising, he experienced both worlds while still a teenager. 

Web 2.0 induced participation of diverse people by expanding the roles of the internet. Such engagement meant not only the uploading of their contents but also the raising of their opinions as well as the challenges to the existing paradigm where several people had to gather to make something happen. There were also meaningful movements within the pop music industry. Amanda Palmer, an indie rocker, raised more than one million dollars through Kickstarter crowdfunding to cover her music production costs in just 30 days. Palmer was an artist known for genuine communication with fans through her blog, and her fans responded by opening their wallets to show their support. From this case, many artists saw potential. The number of musicians utilizing crowdfunding has increased steadily, and even big name stars of the 20th century used such platforms, including TLC’s Kickstarter project in 2015. NWL, MAX’ first album released in 2015, was also funded via Kickstarter. Crowdfunding can be compared to “guerilla concerts*” (*A variety show broadcast in South Korea in the 1990s where a singer decides to stage a performance without prior notice and promotes the performance on the street on the same day. Success is decided by whether the audience gathered at the venue of performance until the set time is above a certain threshold. It was a program about popular musicians’ power to mobilize an audience.). During the month of the project period, the singer and his or her fans participate in fundraising by all means and observe the achievement rate with nervous hearts. Through this process, MAX built a strong bond with his fans. And it has become part of the foundation of his love for his fans. 

With his first major studio album Hell’s Kitchen Angel released in 2016, MAX demonstrated that it was possible to succeed with candid stories of his own. Starting from the first track on the background of Hell’s Kitchen, in his hometown of Manhattan, New York City, his love songs sincerely portray romance in daily life. Maybe the reason why his sensual lyrics or uniquely sexy vocals do not feel awkward is because his music sounds like himself. Like the sitcom role he played in his teens, his songs feel like those of a boy who loves music, grows up just as he is, and sings to the person he loves. The biggest hit song of this album “Light Down Low (feat. Gnash)” was a song for his then girlfriend and now wife Emily. It is said that he proposed singing this song and they got married soon thereafter. Like this, he reflects himself in his songs while refining them for others to sympathize with.  

MAX has done collaboration projects with several artists. As a great vocalist who infuses life into songs and also as a songwriter actively engaging in music creation, he is a popular collaborator who many artists want to work with. If you listen to his featuring songs, you can understand how sincerely he participates in the joint projects. He even goes all out and shows enthusiastic acting in music videos. The most popular songs to Korean audiences would be “Burn It (Feat. MAX)” among the mixtape D-2 by BTS’s SUGA (a.k.a. Agust D) and the rap featuring SUGA, like he was returning the favor, in “Blueberry Eyes (feat. SUGA of BTS)” on MAX’s Colour Vision album. Since it is not common for an English-speaking singer to feature a foreign language, especially Korean, there were certainly concerns that his featuring would end up being a one-off event simply to attract attention. However, MAX lipsynced the part with his wife Emily, who was also in the music video, by learning SUGA’s Korean rap verse and even performed it live several times. As such, he has won the hearts of those who work with him and the fans with his sincerity.

I would like to introduce several of MAX’s songs that are perfect summer listening for Korean audiences who want to get to know him better.

1. “Satisfied (feat. MAX)” - Galantis 

This song was released in 2018, and MAX is featured and credited with co-writing the song by Galantis, the Swedish electronic duo popular for “U&I.” The retro mood starts with a funky bass line before heightening and pleasantly exploding with the chorus. This song will make you feel the summers before COVID-19. 

2. “Yet To Come” - BTS

Before his collaboration with SUGA, MAX collaborated with several idol stars. He contributed songwriting on the album by Australian teen pop star Cody Simpson in 2013 and offered songs for albums by Yuma Nakayama of Johnny’s Jr. in Japan and also TVXQ’s album released in Japan in 2015. His name is also in the credits for “Yet To Come” on Proof, BTS’s anthology album released in 2022. Their collaboration work was all the more natural as MAX himself was also a teen star and he is friends with BTS and knows the team well. It is not clear how he participated in this song, but I guess the relaxing melody and emotional harmony, which are definitely MAX-style, were his contributions. 

3. “Acid Dreams” - MAX, Felly

Colour Vision is a great album where all the songs are good to listen to. In “Acid Dreams,” his voice sounds more relaxed, and as a result, more fresh.  

4. “Bite My Tongue” - Party Pupils

Party Pupils is a future funk duo that MAX formed together with producer Ryan Siegel. Just like with other genres that feature a lot of electronic music, future funk is particularly familiar to internet communities. Vaporwave, which contributed greatly to the inception of future funk, was a kind of play culture where Western internet users took the city pop music of Japan in its flourishing era and reconfigured it into aerial or dance tunes in the 2000s. It seems that the modern interpretation of the retro mood is one of MAX‘s areas of interest. 

5. “WASABI” - MAX

This is the latest song released on July 22. Released with the news of the upcoming October tour, the song raises fans’ expectations to meet him at the performance. You can listen to MAX’s sweet but strong vocals on this song.