Max Savage - Maxband Interview
After talking about it for ages, Maxband began when Brooklyn musicians and longtime friends Max Savage (Parquet Courts), Patrick Smith (A Beacon School), Tim Nelson and Eric Read decided it was finally time to start making music together. After enlisting mutual friend Doug Schadt (Maggie Rogers, Ashe, Wet) to produce and mix, their official debut release, Top Of The Stairs EP was born.
Tell me about growing up in New York. What was your childhood like? When did you first begin to fall in love with music? Was this something that was relevant growing up in your household? Do you have any siblings?
I actually grew up in a suburb of Dallas, TX called Irving, and moved to New York in 2010 for college. I’m not sure how to describe my childhood, except as “average”, or “typical” - I did little league baseball and played in bands with friends. My parents were always playing music in the car and in the house, and my dad has a sizable jazz record collection, so I was exposed to a lot of stuff from an early age. I have an older brother, Andrew, who plays in Parquet Courts with me.
What would you and your friends do for fun growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When and where did you see your very first concert? When did you realize you wanted to spend your life pursuing music?
My favorite thing to do with friends was simply to jam. There were a handful of bands that we could all agree on - Bad Brains, The Strokes, Nirvana, so we spent a lot of time listening to that stuff and trying to cover their songs. I liked hardcore punk a lot, but wasn’t always able to get my friends into it. Andrew played in punk bands when he was in high school, so I’d go to his shows. My first “big” show was probably seeing Belle and Sebastian at the Grenada in Dallas. That was in 2006, so I would’ve been 14. When I was 8 or 9, I got really into Weezer’s Blue Album, and decided I wanted to play guitar and write songs. I tried so many times to pick up the guitar, but always found it extremely difficult. When I was 10, I got “Is This It” on CD and realized I could be a drummer, so I spent many years focusing on that, and it wasn’t until after college that I gave guitar another chance and finally started to figure it out. Now I play guitar in Maxband and am still figuring it out.
When and where did you play your very first gig and what was that experience like for you?How did you guys initially meet each other and what led to first forming the band?
My first gig was at the seventh grade talent show. I was very nervous. Maxband formed simply because I wanted to start a band with my friend Tim. Then Tim reached out to his friend from high school, Patrick, who played bass. Finally, Patrick ran into his former bandmate, Eric, at a party, and Eric joined as our drummer.
Tell me about writing and recording the band’s debut cassette release “Perfect Strangers” that was released back in 2018. What was the overall approach and vision for this album? How did the deal with Gentle Reminder come about? Would you mind walking me through some of the songs that are featured on the album?
We wrote some of the cassette together, and some of the songs were brought in more fleshed out. We recorded the instruments on a four-track at our practice space, and then recorded the vocals on Logic. We didn’t have a particularly concrete vision beyond simply having something to show off at the merch booth. My friend Doug introduced us to Reese, who runs the label Gentle Reminder, and we were really excited that a label wanted to put out the tape. It’s been so long and I’m trying to remember which songs are on it so I can elaborate more... They were some of the first songs I ever wrote, and I remember feeling nervous about showing them to the other guys. Patrick had already been writing on his own for a while, and his songwriting was really tight and competent.
In May of ‘21 you guys released your rad follow up “Top Of The Stairs”. Tell me about writing and recording this record in a much different space and place in life compared to the previous album with Covid and all. What have you guys been up to more recently? Anything going on this spring/summer?
We started writing/demoing the EP in early 2019, and I remember we were frantically trying to finish before the summer, because I got married that year, and also moved to New Hampshire for my wife’s grad school. Living so far from NY was the first major obstacle for the band, but we made it work and ended up recording the EP at the end of that year. We initially released it via streaming at the end of 2020, but yes, it was in the middle of Covid and there wasn’t much else happening, so I think that helped bring more attention to an EP that might have otherwise been more overshadowed. Surprise, we’re about to release our first full-length! We recorded it in February and just finished mixing and mastering it. Stay tuned for more.
