Leaving a successful career of acting, MAX dived right into music working with Flux Pavilion, Hoodie Allen, Lil Uzi Vert, Gnash, and Whethan. Â His songs and intimate music videos showcasing love and his private life of marriage is obsessed by millions across the nation.
Photography and interview: Lauren Engel
How has New York influenced your perception of things?
New York influenced every bit of my music and personality. Because of how surrounded you are from so many different cultures and so many incredible magnificent humans whether it’s the construction guy at the end of the block or the Tire Guys. I feel like you’re surrounded by so much kindness but also realness.
Tell me about your parents
I call my parents the hobbit family they’re both little tiny humans. They were lawyers but retired and now my dad is the most social guy in the world. You would know his story if you were the cab driver, you gave him a drink in the bar or he met you randomly on the street. He will be determined to find a way to help you with your life. That’s the amazing and beautiful thing about him. My mom is a badass to the tenth degree. A lot of my friends are always intimidated by her which she always thinks is really funny but when you get to know her she’s the most loving and nurturing mother but you don’t want to mess with her because if you get on her bad side she will mess you have. It was cool because it influenced everything we had growing up because with my mom I went to NYU for three months and I didn’t want to stay. I wanted to continue doing music. It was something my dad was really afraid of. He eventually accepted it, but my mom, she’s always been about commitment. If I was going to commit to that then I would commit myself entirely to it. It doesn’t mean you have to do one thing your entire life but if you are doing something then you have to give everything you have to it. My mom does wills and estates, my dad does mediation and corporate law, but now he’s trying to make TV shows and live his dream which is rad.
Where did you get your creative side from?
They’ve always been very creative, especially my dad. We make a joke that he should have a TV show where he explains his ideas. He should just explain new ideas that he has today and that should be the show not his actual ideas. The creative juices and diction came from a combination of growing up in New York and from them being so willing to let me try new things. I think, that let me feel that I can always do what my heart really desired and that’s what enriched all of it.
Have your parents always been supportive?
They’ve always been so supportive. I started doing theatre when I was a little kid and I started doing music. They always told me that I just should go for it. They’ve definitely had their fears, like when I dropped out of NYU my dad was really afraid because he wanted me to live the college experience. He always believed in backup plans, the plan B. It’s something, that I’ve had to explain to him. He’s so afraid of music, he’s been so supportive as of the last few years but he’s afraid that it’s a skeevy industry, you’ll get screwed over and nobody will care about you and you will never make any money and I don’t really care about any of those things but it’s funny because he’s starting to get over to it but my mom has always believed in going for it. I think the support on dadÂŽs side has been growing. He’s always there but he’s fearful. I think that fear is good to instill the reality check of it all, and how it can all be gone tomorrow and that has to instill the hard work and you have to work just as hard at the peaks as you do in the rough moments.
Was there a pivoting moment where your dad became more supportive?
I think he started to realize maybe I’d be okay in a few moments. Honestly he’s still scared everyday. Even with the story of “Lights down low” right now he’s supportive and it’s beautiful. He’s either the most supportive of it and the most excited or the most afraid that it will all be gone tomorrow. There are certain milestones that he realized maybe he can do this, like the Fall Out Boy tour was really helpful for that. Definitely the song doing what it’s doing right now has helped him. He’s just a worrier that something’s going to happen and it will all be gone.
“I invest myself a lot in other people and especially in a relationship.”
Describe the house that you grew up in
I grew up in a loft in Hell’s Kitchen. I got married there, my mom’s lived there for 43 years when it really was Hell’s Kitchen, that’s why I rep it wherever I go. It was big, it was a furniture factory so all of the original wood is there, splitters a lot as a kid. I learnt how to take the splinters out with tweezers from age six on. All the furniture has a cozy, antique vibe. It’s very squishy but also these MOMA art paintings everywhere and just big wooden pieces. They have the original.. they would keep all the original pieces from furniture pieces they would make back in the day. The actual shelving where they would keep all the keys and all those different things was all over my house. I had lots of parties there on my roof and lots of good times. I went to school five blocks away. I would just come back and hang out after school. It was a very nurturing environment.
Do you have any siblings?
I don’t have any siblings. Now that I am married I have two younger brothers. Emily has ten siblings total out of all the different families. Now I feel like I’ve gained all these wonderful siblings. I have two younger twin brothers. I grew up only child, only child syndromes. I still don’t do my laundry. Emily does that. I’m not really a functioning human. I can only sing and dance around and wear clothes. There’s nothing else I can do very well. I’m very lucky to have this amazing partner to keep me alive and make sure I treat her right and she dresses me very nicely to.
“I don’t even need to be remembered but the energy that we’re trying to bring to the world continues to resurface itself throughout people’s lives.”
Then do you feel like you’re closer to your parents?
I definitely feel like I am way more open to my parents than a lot of friends of mine who have had siblings growing up. I told my mom everything, I told my dad everything. I told my mom everything especially. I think that it definitely threw some people off. She would know when I smoked weed for the first time, she knew. It doesn’t mean that she was all about it. I think that’s another thing because I would have the parties in my house and they were the type of parents that would rather be in the house than me wandering off and not approving of it. I think because of that I made a lot of mistakes early on and learned from those because they allowed me to make those kinds of mistakes. I only got my drivers license when I was 22 years old because I’m from New York. Little things like that, some of the adult things I probably should have gotten going earlier on. It didn’t happen until later on which my wife reminds me of which is cute.
Were you homeschooled?
Didn’t do any homeschooling. I was very lucky, the schools I went to were pretty small. In my elementary and middle school growing up there were like twenty kids in my class. Small school environment, it was a performing arts school and it was fine for people who were working already doing shows. They’d allow me to miss school whenever I had a movie or show. That was really helpful. It was a lot of kids who were also musicians, they all felt the same feelings of missing so much school in that social environment. Because of that, it created this social environment of understanding which was pretty awesome to have. But when I did the show, 13 growing up it was all teens in the cast so we had on set homeschooling with the fifteen people who were in the cast. I pretty much had the same experience in all the schooling funny enough.
“I think that fear is good to instill the reality check of it all, and how it can all be gone tomorrow and that has to instill the hard work and you have to work just as hard at the peaks as you do in the rough moments.”
How would your classmates describe you back then?
I think my classmates would describe me as very energetic little bean. I was a monkey. I had a lot of wonderful friends growing up. A lot of my friends were girls because especially with schools I went to I think it was like 75% girls, 25% guys. I definitely accepted a feminine energy very early on. It was something that I didn’t really accept as much until I got married. Now my wife encourages me to get chrome nails and live my life. It’s awesome. I love her.
Were you scared of putting yourself out there on the internet at such a young age?
I was very insecure kid as many are. I would make videos and put them on YouTube and I’ll never forget that back in the myspace days in middle school one of these girls stole my myspace password and I was freaking out and I was telling the teachers.. I was such a little shit. I feel like the internet instilled an insecurity but it also makes you acknowledge it. I need to accept my insecurity of being a small human. Now I relish in it, I love it. Airplanes are easier…so many great things.
“..it’s so hard to say no to opportunities and things of any success is hard to say no but it’s so important to if that’s not where your heart it.”
Did you have mentors when you started?
Growing up I had one mentor, his name was Memo. He is from Guinea and I was in this African drumming group when I was in middle school. He’s my spirit. He always was with me and his love for music and his love for people was so pure and so beautiful. He kind of instilled the faith in humanity, faith in music that I try to carry everywhere and he always had a smile. He was very accepted and he spoke pretty well but it was still a bit of a language barrier and because of that it was incredible to find different ways to communicate rather than just language. I carry him in the human experience in every way and in music and whatever else especially coming from such a different place of music.
How did you realize you wanted to do music over acting?
I had a few acting moments. I done a few TV shows and movies that were wonderful experiences but I knew deep down that it wasn’t what I meant to do all the time. I did a movie recently about a year and a half ago. It was a really cool movie called “Sons of God”. I played this young gay orthodox Jewish boy who takes his own life. It was a really juicy dramatic role but in doing that I played stuff on Nickelodeon and it was always fun but I wanted these juicy roles and to get this juicy role and not be as excited as I should have been was sort of a pivoting moment that somebody else should have this role because I’m not as appreciative as I should be. That’s how I decided that music is what I want to focus on fully and I’m so glad I did. Those moments in your life…it’s so hard to say no to opportunities and things of any success is hard to say no but it’s so important to if that’s not where your heart it.
“No matter where that goes you always have to come back to that initial feeling of why you do what you do and why you create what you create.”
How has the music you made a few years ago to now say about you as a person?
I think the music I made a few years ago I was always craving the hit song, connecting with people. I think that there’s a moment when you write to try to appease or you try to make something big or successful. In doing so there are some things that I am proud of but a lot of songs that could have been way better if I just committed to what the message or goal was that I was going for. I feel like now with songs like Lights Down Low that it’s a song that I wrote for my really really awesome wife and I didnÂŽt think about how it can be on the radio. I just wanted to create something special for someone I love. Ironically that’s the one on the radio we get to perform everywhere and talk about. It’s a big lesson that no matter where that goes you always have to come back to that initial feeling of why you do what you do and why you create what you create. Why do you want to do it. Is it because you want a big plaque on your wall or because you want a lot of money or is it because you want to do something that means something to people. That was a big crucial moment for me realizing the kind of music that I want to continue to make and not let it be tainted by any idea of fame or success.
Do you ever get stressed because so many people look up to you?
Oo that’s a really good question. A lot of times unless we meet certain people what we’ve done is part of our live. The greatest honor is when someone is inspired by something that I’ve done. It’s really cool when people know the little things about Hell’s Kitchen or whatever else I try to rep everywhere. It’s so beautiful when they really are as invested as we are. In that way it is a pressure but it’s a pressure to not cave into anything, do anything that I’m not believing in or not proud of. That’s the greatest part of the pressure is that they are there because they are passionate about what we’re doing and that has to be authentic everytime.
Did you always try to keep a clean image?
I think that I’m definitely a smiley human, so the clean image came naturally for a lot of ways but a little bit was a bit too put on like the places that I associated myself with–Nickelodeon or whatever else came with the territory. Now I don’t ever want to be afraid to…I am a happy person and I’m not going to be necessarily tweeting things about..I have dark moments but that’s not all I’m going to be putting out there and I think that in that it’s clean it allowed me to be able to authentically say the moments that aren’t so clean in life. Saying that it’s cool to be happy and it’s cool to have songs that are about enjoying yourself and falling in love and whatever else. In doing so it’s also important to acknowledge that sometimes we feel at our lowest and want to hurt ourselves or don’t believe in ourselves and I think that’s something that came with having the clean image already and I say fuck fuck fuck and that’s okay because that’s who I am.
“I want to write about the things that are authentic to our life and hopefully those are authentic to people’s lives too.”
What inspired you to be so open about things like the pregnancy scare?
Ooo yes girl (laughs). I’d say just Emily in general made me so inspired to be open about it. We were secretly married for so long because we were afraid for a bit that a lot of people say oh if you’re open about not being a single guy in your twenties nobody is going to listen to your music and that kept happening over and over again. It’s a strange stigma. The second that we said you know what, that’s not who I am, that’s not who we are, we’re open about it and people embraced it rather than the fear of them running away that inspired everything else. Let’s be transparent about everything. We’re having a pregnancy scare, I want that to be a song because I’m not going to write about going to a strip club if I’m not going to a strip club. If I am, tight about it but I want to write about the things that are authentic to our life and hopefully those are authentic to people’s lives too. Hopefully that’s what connects them with us.
Did you know that you would bring in so many female fans especially with how you embrace love and getting married?
Totally. Actually what’s really beautiful is we love having open female fans. There’s this stigma that happens with certain young female fans with some of the ages that they have to act too cool or something. You can’t be open about being into love, maybe they don’t want to give over to having the idea of love. It’s the most beautiful when someone is like that or someones gives over to the idea of love. My wife and I fight sometimes and we throw pillows around and I break things but we also figure it out every time. We want to be a positive image of a relationship that’s healthy in an industry that probably doesn’t really encourage that. It’s even more cool when grown men are into it too. We’re like yea! You’re in the army and you dig this love story and you’re going to get married to “Lights Down Low. That’s the coolest thing ever! We’re really excited to be a part of people’s lives in that way.
Where do you think you got your inner love and care from towards relationships?
I think that definitely a huge part of my idea of love has come from my parents. Seeing how they’ve always been real with me and how they are as a relationship. That definitely instilled a lot in me. I think that that has been really helpful because they were always so honest about the hardships in their relationships and the love in their relationship. That gave me an ushy gushy feeling of it. I’ve also always been really into relationships and love and investing yourself in other people. I invest myself a lot in other people and especially in a relationship. And Disney movies and all that.
You haven’t mentioned this in previous interviews. Are you religious?
I would say I’m not very religious. I was raised Jewish and my mom is Christian. I was talking about Emily about how I want to raise our kids. I think that belief is so important and that’s in any way, whether it’s in a religious way or in a spiritual way which you hear a lot. I definitely believe in different moments in the universe that things happen for a reason. I’m very religious about the universe. I’m not necessarily religious about a particular religion.
Do you think your personality has changed since you’ve gotten married?
I think that I’ve been the most accepting of my personality after getting married. I’m still insecure in certain ways but I’ve accepted so many more of my insecurities that make me and make people who they are because of my wife and getting married and feeling like I don’t have to impress anybody anymore. I got my lady, I got my wife, I’m ready to just go into the world and be the most myself I can be whether that’s chrome nails or saying baby all the time or wearing ridiculous things. It’s just fun to be authentic to that?
What do you want to be remembered for?
Oh wow, what a wonderful question. It’s interesting because I’ve grown up with a lot of death in my family. My dad’s family especially had eight aunts and that was a larger older family and my great aunt just died recently at 108 which is really cool. It made me realize that everyday that’s a big part of it too of want to be remembered just for never holding anything back, giving people the courage to not hold anything back and also for love. This “Lights Down Low” and getting to marry people at our shows and seeing people invite the music into their lives in such a real life is all I want to be remembered for in that way. I hope to be a part of people’s lives with the music that I make and what we’re doing. I hope that it’s something that continues an energy in their relationships and families to come. I don’t even need to be remembered but the energy that we’re trying to bring to the world continues to resurface itself throughout people’s lives.
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