Max Pretends is a twenty six year old French singer/songwriter living in between Los Angeles and New York. Blending a sumptuous cinematic pop style with alt-pop sensibilities, Max holds himself true to an offering that is his and his alone. No pun intended, he has just released his new single ‘Alone’, and it is a real moving and emotional pop song that is melancholically beautiful and memorable. We sat down with Max to learn all about the new track and much more.
Hey Max! Tell us about yourself briefly and how your journey got you right here!
I picked up a guitar in College and the rest was history. But seriously I was studying photography before even thinking that a music career could be a path for me. I followed my instincts that were almost always wrong but with every wrong decision came one that was right for me. Almost four years later, after locking myself in a room releasing as many songs as I could and learning how to songwriter and produce properly, I can finally make music that I’m proud of.
What was the recording process like for your new single ‘Alone’?
The recording process for this song was fairly straight forward, just took longer than we thought cause it was done at a distance. We mapped out the production of the song with Peter Cleaver (producer) but because we’re all perfectionists it took us a long time to fix the details in the production, and Peter lives in London. Nonetheless he did a beautiful job bringing it all together harmoniously. I then re recorded the song twice because I need to be 100% happy with what I lay down before I release it. Also it took me years to get comfortable with the sound of my singing voice so I’m finally owning up to it.
You really do drill into the cinematic side of pop which not many people do, what brought out this side of you?
Being raised in a musical theatre background with my father as a playwright and my mother as a singer, you can guess the dramatic effect was everything but lacking in our household. That’s what inspired my first songs. On the piano, trying to find chords and everything that would come out sounded like theatre unintentionally. I then studied music for film in college which tied everything together for me because there I learned orchestration and that’s where my mind completely blew up with never-ending ideas of how to make a visual come to life, and that’s what I’m trying to do with pop music. Bring the story to life.
Is ‘Alone’ a part of something bigger like an EP/album?
Alone is for now stands on its own but being involved in web3 and music NFT’s, the future singles might just be part of a mint, who knows 😉
And lastly, what do you want your music to do for others?
I don’t want my music to do anything specifically for others, I want everyone to listen to my music and create their own narrative, that’s the best part of music.
