The C2C Sit Down with Max McNown
The now Nashville-based, singer-songwriter Max McNown has already been on a storied musical journey. Taking control of his future, overcoming personal challenges, and drawing inspiration from his brother who was bravely fighting cancer, McNown packed his bags and drove from remote Oregon to Southern California. From there, videos of him busking on a pier made an impact online and eventually grew into a legion of supporters on TikTok.
His acclaimed debut album “Wandering” was released in April 2024 which was followed by his “Willfully Blind” EP later in the year, which landed as McNown made his AmericanaFest debut, and as we saw another major resurgence of his breakout hit single “A Lot More Free”. Since the single’s release it has recently achieved RIAA Gold certification, earned McNown a top spot as #1 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart, peaked at #1 on the iTunes singles chart and #1 on the TikTok Breakthrough USA chart, climbed the Canadian Hot 100 chart, and was placed on Spotify’s Hot Country and Viral 50 global playlists.
Starting off 2025, McNown has begun the next chapter with the release of his sophomore album “Night Driving” (which is out now via Fugitive Recordings x The Orchard x Columbia Records) and an upcoming first trip to Europe to perform at C2C: Country to Country in London, Berlin and Rotterdam, which Max was very excited about when he spent some time with us over Zoom.
His acclaimed debut album “Wandering” was released in April 2024 which was followed by his “Willfully Blind” EP later in the year, which landed as McNown made his AmericanaFest debut, and as we saw another major resurgence of his breakout hit single “A Lot More Free”. Since the single’s release it has recently achieved RIAA Gold certification, earned McNown a top spot as #1 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart, peaked at #1 on the iTunes singles chart and #1 on the TikTok Breakthrough USA chart, climbed the Canadian Hot 100 chart, and was placed on Spotify’s Hot Country and Viral 50 global playlists.
Starting off 2025, McNown has begun the next chapter with the release of his sophomore album “Night Driving” (which is out now via Fugitive Recordings x The Orchard x Columbia Records) and an upcoming first trip to Europe to perform at C2C: Country to Country in London, Berlin and Rotterdam, which Max was very excited about when he spent some time with us over Zoom.
Hey Max, thank you for taking the time to hang this morning, we’re really excited to have you over in a few weeks and I’m actually going to get to see you in Berlin next week, firstly at the beautiful Passion Church for The Bluebird Café show. It’s one of the most stunning buildings that I have ever been in and the German audience really are on of most attentive crowds you will encounter so that will be really fun with Charlie Worsham, Dasha and Isaac Gibson from 49 Winchester up there with you. How do you feel about playing in a round setting and especially for one to be your first show in Europe?
“Yeah, it's a good question. I haven't had too much experience in writers rounds, my beginnings were street performing and I never traded off with anybody. It was very low key, playing on my own, by myself for people that maybe wanted to hear it, maybe didn't, so that’s all of the experience I have. I Have done one writers round with Whiskey Jam and other than that, I have zero experience, but I'm really excited just to meet the artists that will be with me there because I haven't had the chance. Everything has been so go go go in this career right now and especially lately I haven't gotten the chance to mingle with other artists to kind of ask questions and learn from other people that are doing it. I've kind of just been doing it my own land, my own lane, which has its benefits, but I'm really excited to perform alongside some artists that are seemingly unrelated to me, but we all share a career and the dream, which is going to be my favourite part of being in a writers round. I have heard that the venue is beautiful and the crowds there are very attentive, which I have an interesting experience with. I just played my Nashville show and Nashville has a lot of industry people and a lot of people that are there to just listen and I wasn't prepared for how quiet the first crowd was and so I went in thinking, oh, they hate me, then after I was just like thinking about it and talking to people where apparently, like they're just attentive. So that's a new type of crowd, I'm very used to the US crowds and the Canadian crowds that just scream every single word of your songs, you know? It's going to be interesting to have an attentive crowd that's listening to every word, because I write my music for that type of crowd because I write very lyric centred songs, but I'm going to have to go on with the mindset that they don't hate me, they just want to hear the words. I just wanna really realise that I'm like in another country because I've been US pretty much my entire life and I've only been out of the country once or twice so, it is going to be quite the experience.”
Hopefully it's not strictly a business trip and you can set some time aside to see some things whilst you’re in Europe
“We’ve scheduled a few extra days in London for that reason exactly because I find myself going from show to show and sometimes not enjoying as much as I wish I could in the environment that I’m in. So, I am very excited to have a couple days at the very end with zero shows, just exploration and it's going to be a blast. I’m excited to ride the tube, I hear everyone calls it the tube and apparently that’s how everyone gets around over there.”
Living in London, nobody drives through the city here. It’s one of the big differences here, that whilst we complain about our public transport system a lot, we are more reliant on it. The other thing is the architecture because in Europe they don’t tend to knock buildings down every forty years like tends to happen in the States and here if a building is three hundred years old there is the attitude of don’t touch or breathe to hard near it.
“Oh my gosh, that’s right up my alley. I love architecture, I've always been fascinated by it, one of kind of my early dreams in my elementary life was to someday be an architect and design buildings. Especially on the west coast, because even on the on the east coast of the US, like in Boston and then in the south, in places like Tennessee and Kentucky, you have these buildings that are several hundred years old and that's incredible to me because on the West coast, in Oregon specifically, our buildings don't go back that far. So, to go to Europe and see things that will have been standing there for like a thousand years will be like WOW. I cannot wait to experience that.”
It’s been a wild ride that has led to this trip. You grew up in Oregon, then you were singing on the beach in California, a couple of songs take off on TikTok so you head to Nashville and all of a sudden you're talking to me about heading over to play a show in a church in Germany.
“It’s absolutely been a wild ride, I l don’t lay it out like that often enough to really think about it because in a lot of careers but I have found specifically in this music career that there’s not like an objective victory. It's like every victory is just the next one and then the next one and the next one, you have to keep climbing so, you don't stop and think too often about everything. One of the first people that ever saw me street performing who told me to sing Zach Bryan on the Southern California pier, her name is Jaime and she just came to the Nashville show a couple days ago which is surreal to be like you watched me when I had no music out, wasn't even singing Zach Bryan songs, I was just playing three chords on the beach and that that's how you knew me. Then now you're watching me in a sold out show and it’s across the country. That type of stuff is very important to think back on and really appreciate because it's easy to lose track and lose touch of the blessings that that I've had in my career so far.”
“Yeah, it's a good question. I haven't had too much experience in writers rounds, my beginnings were street performing and I never traded off with anybody. It was very low key, playing on my own, by myself for people that maybe wanted to hear it, maybe didn't, so that’s all of the experience I have. I Have done one writers round with Whiskey Jam and other than that, I have zero experience, but I'm really excited just to meet the artists that will be with me there because I haven't had the chance. Everything has been so go go go in this career right now and especially lately I haven't gotten the chance to mingle with other artists to kind of ask questions and learn from other people that are doing it. I've kind of just been doing it my own land, my own lane, which has its benefits, but I'm really excited to perform alongside some artists that are seemingly unrelated to me, but we all share a career and the dream, which is going to be my favourite part of being in a writers round. I have heard that the venue is beautiful and the crowds there are very attentive, which I have an interesting experience with. I just played my Nashville show and Nashville has a lot of industry people and a lot of people that are there to just listen and I wasn't prepared for how quiet the first crowd was and so I went in thinking, oh, they hate me, then after I was just like thinking about it and talking to people where apparently, like they're just attentive. So that's a new type of crowd, I'm very used to the US crowds and the Canadian crowds that just scream every single word of your songs, you know? It's going to be interesting to have an attentive crowd that's listening to every word, because I write my music for that type of crowd because I write very lyric centred songs, but I'm going to have to go on with the mindset that they don't hate me, they just want to hear the words. I just wanna really realise that I'm like in another country because I've been US pretty much my entire life and I've only been out of the country once or twice so, it is going to be quite the experience.”
Hopefully it's not strictly a business trip and you can set some time aside to see some things whilst you’re in Europe
“We’ve scheduled a few extra days in London for that reason exactly because I find myself going from show to show and sometimes not enjoying as much as I wish I could in the environment that I’m in. So, I am very excited to have a couple days at the very end with zero shows, just exploration and it's going to be a blast. I’m excited to ride the tube, I hear everyone calls it the tube and apparently that’s how everyone gets around over there.”
Living in London, nobody drives through the city here. It’s one of the big differences here, that whilst we complain about our public transport system a lot, we are more reliant on it. The other thing is the architecture because in Europe they don’t tend to knock buildings down every forty years like tends to happen in the States and here if a building is three hundred years old there is the attitude of don’t touch or breathe to hard near it.
“Oh my gosh, that’s right up my alley. I love architecture, I've always been fascinated by it, one of kind of my early dreams in my elementary life was to someday be an architect and design buildings. Especially on the west coast, because even on the on the east coast of the US, like in Boston and then in the south, in places like Tennessee and Kentucky, you have these buildings that are several hundred years old and that's incredible to me because on the West coast, in Oregon specifically, our buildings don't go back that far. So, to go to Europe and see things that will have been standing there for like a thousand years will be like WOW. I cannot wait to experience that.”
It’s been a wild ride that has led to this trip. You grew up in Oregon, then you were singing on the beach in California, a couple of songs take off on TikTok so you head to Nashville and all of a sudden you're talking to me about heading over to play a show in a church in Germany.
“It’s absolutely been a wild ride, I l don’t lay it out like that often enough to really think about it because in a lot of careers but I have found specifically in this music career that there’s not like an objective victory. It's like every victory is just the next one and then the next one and the next one, you have to keep climbing so, you don't stop and think too often about everything. One of the first people that ever saw me street performing who told me to sing Zach Bryan on the Southern California pier, her name is Jaime and she just came to the Nashville show a couple days ago which is surreal to be like you watched me when I had no music out, wasn't even singing Zach Bryan songs, I was just playing three chords on the beach and that that's how you knew me. Then now you're watching me in a sold out show and it’s across the country. That type of stuff is very important to think back on and really appreciate because it's easy to lose track and lose touch of the blessings that that I've had in my career so far.”
You put your first record out less than a year ago and since then you released an EP and “Night Diving” as your sophomore album. Typically, a first record is your entire life’s work up to this point which is your introduction and the second record really tells people what you have to say so what would you say is the message that comes out from “Night Diving”?
“For me “Night Diving” was a deeper dive into my own artistry and what separates me, I feel like. “Wandering” has a lot more of the traditional country feel to it, it was kind of my intro into the music business in a lot of ways. Not to say it wasn't me, but it was me figuring myself out and who I am and that's why I titled it “Wandering” so it was me kind of learning in the business on the fly. Like there's no there's no time for, I’ve got to sit on this song for five months and then maybe I'll release it, but it was no, we're writing songs and we're just like we're putting this out. That’s what “Wandering” was and “Night Diving” is a deeper introspective dive into who I am and who I want to be as an artist. I think in my early career, I was kind of shaking the name of the TikTok kid, the illegal kid, like the reaction video kind of gimmick. I've always felt throughout my whole life and artistically, I really feel and think deeply, which is what “Night Diving” represents for me as the second album. I hope to just kind of continue along that line, I hope with every album, the goal is I basically dig deeper within myself and kind of separate myself from the rest of the pack because as artists the only difference between me and someone else doing the same thing is the fact that I am me. This is different, I am a different person, I’m a different brand, I have a different background with different lived experiences so, my goal with every album is to become more and more me.”
The current single from "Night Diving" is "Roses and Wolves" where you have Hailey Whitters joining you on that one. When you and Jamie Kenney wrote it, had you always seen it as a duet and how did Hailey get involved as the artist to collaborate with?
"We didn't actually plan for that to be a duet initially. That was the first song that I wrote with Jamie, it was when on the day that we met actually. That session was potentially going to be a writing session, but it was also just meant to be a get to know you session. It's important to me that I relate to and feel comfortable around the people that I'm going to write music with because I write very honest and emotional music so I want to make sure that it's not someone who is completely disconnected from me on a foundational level. So, it was kind of like a meet and greet with Jamie where I brought up my notes page of all the different ideas, poetry and concepts that I have where I was like this is one that I'm not as confident in, so I'll start there for you so that we can build into the ones that I'm excited about. It was roses will still bloom in the spring time, we'll sing our songs into the moon, because people fall, people love and people pass on through but tomorrow I won't see me and you. That was just written in my notes and Jamie was like, we're going to go with that one. For the life of me, I can't figure out why I wasn't confident in it and I really love it now after the song was written but I was still pretty new to writing and that idea was not one that I thought would be amazing and Jamie just believed in it which was kind of that was what started everything.”
“For me “Night Diving” was a deeper dive into my own artistry and what separates me, I feel like. “Wandering” has a lot more of the traditional country feel to it, it was kind of my intro into the music business in a lot of ways. Not to say it wasn't me, but it was me figuring myself out and who I am and that's why I titled it “Wandering” so it was me kind of learning in the business on the fly. Like there's no there's no time for, I’ve got to sit on this song for five months and then maybe I'll release it, but it was no, we're writing songs and we're just like we're putting this out. That’s what “Wandering” was and “Night Diving” is a deeper introspective dive into who I am and who I want to be as an artist. I think in my early career, I was kind of shaking the name of the TikTok kid, the illegal kid, like the reaction video kind of gimmick. I've always felt throughout my whole life and artistically, I really feel and think deeply, which is what “Night Diving” represents for me as the second album. I hope to just kind of continue along that line, I hope with every album, the goal is I basically dig deeper within myself and kind of separate myself from the rest of the pack because as artists the only difference between me and someone else doing the same thing is the fact that I am me. This is different, I am a different person, I’m a different brand, I have a different background with different lived experiences so, my goal with every album is to become more and more me.”
The current single from "Night Diving" is "Roses and Wolves" where you have Hailey Whitters joining you on that one. When you and Jamie Kenney wrote it, had you always seen it as a duet and how did Hailey get involved as the artist to collaborate with?
"We didn't actually plan for that to be a duet initially. That was the first song that I wrote with Jamie, it was when on the day that we met actually. That session was potentially going to be a writing session, but it was also just meant to be a get to know you session. It's important to me that I relate to and feel comfortable around the people that I'm going to write music with because I write very honest and emotional music so I want to make sure that it's not someone who is completely disconnected from me on a foundational level. So, it was kind of like a meet and greet with Jamie where I brought up my notes page of all the different ideas, poetry and concepts that I have where I was like this is one that I'm not as confident in, so I'll start there for you so that we can build into the ones that I'm excited about. It was roses will still bloom in the spring time, we'll sing our songs into the moon, because people fall, people love and people pass on through but tomorrow I won't see me and you. That was just written in my notes and Jamie was like, we're going to go with that one. For the life of me, I can't figure out why I wasn't confident in it and I really love it now after the song was written but I was still pretty new to writing and that idea was not one that I thought would be amazing and Jamie just believed in it which was kind of that was what started everything.”
“That's how "Roses and Wolves" was written and then when it came to the feature, I had heard Hailey Whitters throughout the last several years, she's very respected in the country music industry. It kind of touches back on when I was talking about the shaping that kind of TikTok kid, this dude is just brand new, he doesn't have an artistic bone is his body and he just sings for people online yada, yada, yada. So, I heard Hailey Whitters on Evan Honer's song "Fighting For" and it was kind of a style of her voice, the way she sang it was a way that I hadn’t heard her sing before. It was lower, it was calmer, it was chill, it was very emotional and it connected with me. In the perfect world, I thought that voice would be a fit for “Roses and Wolves” and it turns out that several people in my crew and our operation are friends with people in her operation and with her personally. So, it just kind of happened, it was a little bit out of nowhere, then we got together, recorded and filmed content. That's the story, it’s not quite as long or intricate as people may think.”
Just lastly you have mentioned people seeing you as a TikTok kid and yesterday I saw that Kelly Clarkson featured you on her show and she got her break through a talent competition where even someone as successful as her or Carrie Underwood, artists that came through that avenue had a similar stigma attached. TikTok seems to have a similar thing now where once you get that badge, you are kind of stuck with it and some people view it quite negatively but I guess for you it's about the balance of trying to establish your credibility as an artist in your own right but also staying loyal to the people who support you on that platform.
"Absolutely and I still post every day, obviously and it's not I don't have anything against the social media app specifically. It's more just the name specifically to me, I did reaction videos and initially I was singing covers and basically getting people's reactions via Omegle. The reaction was kind of more the thing that blew up the videos in my opinion, not necessarily my voice. I think the voice I had was decent in order for it to go big, but I've seen a lot of reaction videos where people who are just, you know, this sound all right, but the reaction is like, oh my gosh, this is so crazy and that's what explodes. So that's what I started doing and I think just that in itself is almost like a little stick that I had to shake. I don't just like sing to make people cry or whatever where you're almost like the shock jock of TikTok where you're just getting a reaction from someone and then posting that reaction. For me, it was specifically, I think more difficult. Like if I remember correctly, I there's been quite a few people that have blown up on TikTok that very quickly shaped the TikTok kid. I mean Zach Bryan technically, TikTok was big for him then Bailey Zimmerman too and there are quite a few other artists that TikTok helped blow up their careers and they weren't necessarily held to that. I think it's funny you bring up the talent show artist thing because I also almost dealt with that too with American Idol but I ended up turning them down for that reason exactly. I had already built a career, I had already started to shake the Omegle reaction kid thing and then if I would have gone on to sing on a talent show, that would be another thing that I would have to shake because that is very real. I think that even if TikTok kind of replicates what used to be the stigma around talent show artists, I think that stigma is still around."
NIGHT DIVING TRACKLIST:
The new album “Night Driving” from Max McNown is out now via Fugitive Recordings x The Orchard x Columbia Records and is available HERE. To learn more about Max and all that he is up to you can check out his WEBSITE or follow him socially on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK X or FACEBOOK
Just lastly you have mentioned people seeing you as a TikTok kid and yesterday I saw that Kelly Clarkson featured you on her show and she got her break through a talent competition where even someone as successful as her or Carrie Underwood, artists that came through that avenue had a similar stigma attached. TikTok seems to have a similar thing now where once you get that badge, you are kind of stuck with it and some people view it quite negatively but I guess for you it's about the balance of trying to establish your credibility as an artist in your own right but also staying loyal to the people who support you on that platform.
"Absolutely and I still post every day, obviously and it's not I don't have anything against the social media app specifically. It's more just the name specifically to me, I did reaction videos and initially I was singing covers and basically getting people's reactions via Omegle. The reaction was kind of more the thing that blew up the videos in my opinion, not necessarily my voice. I think the voice I had was decent in order for it to go big, but I've seen a lot of reaction videos where people who are just, you know, this sound all right, but the reaction is like, oh my gosh, this is so crazy and that's what explodes. So that's what I started doing and I think just that in itself is almost like a little stick that I had to shake. I don't just like sing to make people cry or whatever where you're almost like the shock jock of TikTok where you're just getting a reaction from someone and then posting that reaction. For me, it was specifically, I think more difficult. Like if I remember correctly, I there's been quite a few people that have blown up on TikTok that very quickly shaped the TikTok kid. I mean Zach Bryan technically, TikTok was big for him then Bailey Zimmerman too and there are quite a few other artists that TikTok helped blow up their careers and they weren't necessarily held to that. I think it's funny you bring up the talent show artist thing because I also almost dealt with that too with American Idol but I ended up turning them down for that reason exactly. I had already built a career, I had already started to shake the Omegle reaction kid thing and then if I would have gone on to sing on a talent show, that would be another thing that I would have to shake because that is very real. I think that even if TikTok kind of replicates what used to be the stigma around talent show artists, I think that stigma is still around."
NIGHT DIVING TRACKLIST:
- Night Diving
- Better Me For You (Brown Eyes)
- It’s Not Your Fault
- Azalea Place
- Love I Couldn’t Mend
- Hotel Bible
- Won’t Let Me Go
- Roses and Wolves feat. Hailey Whitters
- Marley
- Freezing in November (Revisited)
The new album “Night Driving” from Max McNown is out now via Fugitive Recordings x The Orchard x Columbia Records and is available HERE. To learn more about Max and all that he is up to you can check out his WEBSITE or follow him socially on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK X or FACEBOOK
