The Outlook
The fresh perspective born of a metamorphic journey is a salve; a revelation. So foundational to an understanding of self is this reincarnation, as it consumes and leaves one open to new experience. So reads the arc of Max’s most recent album, Sojourns. Released in June 2022 and preceded by the single Sempervirens, both gush with influence new and old and broke new ground within his artistic idiom after firmly establishing his layered and melodious brand of introspective writing on his previous EP Vestiges (2019). Through Sojourns’ cascading arc, one can glimpse the formative moments of guiding turbulence and variety of influence from Americana to Electronica. They emerge and pass effortlessly like waves on the open ocean.
With his creative home rooted in new-age folk, Max views and explores the world through many lenses, imbuing song and lyric with a wandering spirit and intangible freeness. Steeped early on in the thoughts and sounds of greats like the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, and Marvin Gaye, their influence still finds its way out, mixed with flirtations of philosophy, the punk movement, and thoroughly-lived existential realizations.
These works are brought to life with the help of friends and collaborators in his group Max and the Minimums, which consists of members from groups including Starpainter, Bailey Kate, Rainbow Patrol, and Fawns (Joel Gray - guitar, Richard Charlton - bass, and Chris Morden - drums). His music has been featured on CBC’s Key of A, CKUA, and across Canada on campus radio stations.
Max is based in the gap between the Great Plains and the Rockies in Southern Alberta, and currently spends most of his time in Lethbridge, Treaty 7 Territory.