Maxwell Demon is a true DIY artist. He records all his music in his small New York apartment and wears the many hats it takes to move any music career forward.
His new EP is scheduled for a summer release so we sat down to speak with him about his creative style and what keeps him moving forward.
Maxwell shares some inspirational thoughts that any DIY musician struggling to take the next steps might find helpful. The key takeaway is to never give up.
For those that are new to you, let us know who you are, where you are from and what style of music you create.
My name is Max. I’m 23 from Bellport New York.
The style of music I create would go under the genres of Indie alternative rock, chillwave, shoegaze, glo-fi, possibly psychedelic rock with a few acoustic singer/songwriter type songs thrown in there.
Was there an “ah-ha” moment when you knew making music was going to be your thing?
I’ve always been involved in music in some aspect since I was a child. Gradually down the road of my life growing up more and more avenues were closed to me. I’ve tried and failed at many things in my short life up to this point. Multiple jobs that never worked out, public schools that seemed like prolonged torture.
I guess it wouldn’t be until after I wasn’t able to continue college that I knew without a doubt knew that this had to be it. No job, no education, really no future.
Music is the only thing that has stuck with me all these years and the only thing I have left. It’s either be successful at this and escape poverty or become another victim of my environment. I’ve seen it happen to people close to me, you either get out or shoot heroin until you OD or kill yourself.
How long have you been at it?
Since I was 11 years old, it progressed from being in bands doing covers to semi original work in High School until I realized to be able to do what I wanted/needed to do I had to go solo. I released my first solo album in 2010. I was 20 years old.
What outside influences would you say show up in your songwriting or effect your music?
Musically you can definitely see influences of Smashing Pumpkins, The Pixies, The Smiths. Lyrically Elliott Smith has had a huge impact on my writing, the amount of depth and honesty in his songs resonates with me so much and I wish I could produce music half as good.
Mentally oddly enough it comes down to Curtis Jackson aka 50 cent.
“The actual system wasn’t prepared for me, I thought I was ready in ’97 and I didn’t have a major record label marketing and promoting my project until 2003. For that time period I had to run on my own energy. I had to convince myself that I’m gonna make it regardless of how people felt at that time. What it does is it makes you feel like there is gonna be times when people mistake my confidence for arrogance because they don’t understand the process I went through and how much I had to believe in myself in order to make these things happen. I feel like you can will yourself into a good space, things that are meant to happen will and if you believe in yourself enough you can help yourself learn. You can inspire yourself in different ways where you can actually discipline yourself to the point where you can be good enough. From ’97 when I started writing it was full time every day I was writing music because I had no choice if I was gonna stop hustling how was I gonna provide or continue the lifestyle that I created for my son’s mom, my son and myself.” — Curtis Jackson aka 50 Cent
How is the Internet/Social Media helping (or hurting) you in your promotion efforts?
The Internet is the last place where someone can really come up from nothing, a complete free market where the major labels haven’t been able to quite yet put a strangle hold on.
As tough as it is, it’s the best of a lot of bad options where you can get out your music to people everywhere. Not to say that it’s easy, there is a lot of shit you have to deal with but for me it’s been a learning process of what works and what doesn’t.
If you are broke and have free time you can really hustle on the internet and make things slowly happen for yourself. Just like everything it takes time, I feel like everything I do is just another brick on this giant wall that I’m trying to build…I get impatient.
But the problems I face now are a joke compared to when I first started so it’s all about perspective and patience and consistently moving forward.
What are you trying to accomplish over the next 12 months?
Well I’m working on an EP I want to hopefully release this summer and beyond that it’s just to keep learning keep going, keep doing what I’m doing and keep myself in a good head space.
I feel like staying on my mental game has to be priority number one if I want to accomplish anything. Keep my body and my mind strong so I can keep going because it gets draining and takes a lot of motivation and energy to really push hard.
Are there other producers, musicians, or songwriters you are working with?
I work with my good friend Charles Bordeaux aka Reverb Rock who helps me with the mixing and mastering of my songs. Charlie is awesome and it helps a lot to have another ear to listen to my music and help tweak it.
Do you have an album available? Where can people find your music?
I released an album entitled “Strange Beings” last summer you can listen and download everything for free on Soundcloud.
You can connect with Maxwell on Facebook or visit his website.
