MAKING OF A DEBUT EP WITH MAX JOSÉ

Looking for some new tunes to get you through these long winter months? We’ve got a new local recommendation we think you’ll love! Maxwell José is a performer who’s name you might recognize as a frequent player on local stages. His style is influenced by country folk artists like John Prine and more modern performers like Daniel Romano. After lots of hard work and songwriting José’s first EP Making of a Fool was released in late 2019. With a fresh new year at hand, he’s ready to get out and perform his original songs for new and old fans alike. Right now you can show José support by voting for his track Lord Who Knows in CBC’s Searchlight competition; first-round votes are open until February 13^th!

We gave his album listen and we can certify that this one is certainly worthy of a road trip jam! We reached out to to José to get the down-low on Making of a Fool. Read on to learn more:

Start us off by telling us a bit about your musical background and style.

If I had to narrow it down I’d say my music is a hybrid of contemporary folk and country. My writing influence, for the most part, is heavily rooted in country music, ranging from early John Prine to the late George Jones stuff in the 90s, fast forward through the early 2000s and up to all the artists I love today, Daniel Romano, Jason Isbell, Tyler Childers, John Moreland, all these guys played a huge roll in shaping my writing style and the way I approach country music.

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Talk to us about the experience of recording your very first EP and collaborating with other artists on the project. How does it feel to have your own album out in the world?

Recording this EP was a dream. I’ve known for a long time that I wanted to put something out for people to hear. Countless times people would come up to me after shows and ask where they could listen to my music, and I never had an answer, so it was finally time to get together a group of songs I was happy enough with and see what we could do with them. I would have absolutely no chance of creating the product that I did if it wasn’t for my band. They are all professionals in what they do and I’m so grateful for their insight and influence in how the songs turned out. And a great thanks to Keegan McDonald for allowing us to be one of his first few recording projects, he killed it.

Going into the recording of Making of a Fool you had songs written to record. Talk to us about how some of your songs changed over the course of the recording process?

When I’m alone at home, sad and hungover, pensive and depressed perhaps, it’s not very natural to start banging out tunes with fast strumming patterns and sing along tempos. When I write my songs, in their natural state they are very slow, very focused on lyrics, and I often tend to appreciate the melody of the verses as opposed to a chorus. When the boys got their hands on the songs, a lot of them made a big 180, in a good way. “Travelling” for example originally was a slow and dark track about how people tend to cope with anxiety and depression with alcohol. But it had a hopeful side too where I say “that’s not the road I’m here to travel on”, and that comes out a lot more when everyone agreed that it should be a much faster, more upbeat song, and I’m so glad they gave me that insight because it turned out to be one of my favourite tracks.

You’ve moved around quite a bit within Ontario living in Marathon, Sudbury and Toronto and even as far as south Illinois. How do you feel this has influenced your style?

I spent the first half of my life thus far living in Marathon, a little mining town on top of Lake Superior. Anyone who is from the North shares this feeling of pride and ownership about where they came from, it’s a beautiful but rugged way of life. I mean it’s cold up there, winters last about 6-7 months. It’s a good place to go to in your mind when you’re singing about depressing things. So when I moved to Illinois when I was about 11 or 12 it was really hard at first, but we lived in the country down there, it was all cornfields and forests, farmland and vineyards for miles down there. And I loved it. Sudbury, has been my home since then, that’s where I lived with my brother and was introduced to all the great friends and musicians that I’m proud to know today. Living all over the place, in different climates and experiencing the cultural variations of an every day, relatively mundane life has definitely influenced the way I think about the world around me.

The second track on Making of a Fool is Bottle of Wine. Give us a wine recommendation?

I drink a lot more beer and Gin than I do wine, to be honest. But I do love it nonetheless, especially coming from a Portuguese father. I guess something I would like people to try is vinho verde. It just means “green wine”. It’s a young, usually slightly sparkling wine that goes great with seafood or light cheeses and stuff like that. Aveleda and Casal Garcia are two of my favourites, go try it.

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Give us a Sudbury shoutout to some of your favourite local artists.

Man there are so many, I’m gonna feel like I’m missing so many people. Lots of great talent has and is currently coming out of Sudbury’s music scene, in all sorts of genres. Eric Clancy, Carden Cove, Barry Miles, Bendero and Mars, Dirty Princes, Portraitures, Dry Heaves, Murder Murder. The list is huge. Go see some shows.

Where can readers find more information about you, your album and upcoming shows?

I’m working on hopefully having some shows in different places coming up this Spring, in one way or another, and I’m pretty excited about that. My Spotify will always be updated with events and if you follow @maxwelljosemusic on Instagram I’ll be sure to keep you up to date.