At just 23, Max McNown has emerged as one of country music’s most promising new voices. Born in Oregon, McNown’s journey was shaped by personal challenges, including his brother’s battle with cancer, which fuelled his determination to chase his dreams. Leaving his remote hometown, he drove to Southern California, where he gained traction busking on local piers—his performances quickly going viral on TikTok, amassing 1.9 million followers.
His debut album ‘Wandering’ was hailed as one of the year’s top debuts by Whiskey Riff, earning praise from American Songwriter and People Magazine, and leading to tours with Wynonna Judd, Corey Kent and Sam Barber — as well as a milestone Grand Ole Opry debut. His breakout hit, ‘A Lot More Free' became a streaming sensation with over 80 million streams and viral TikTok success, while his ‘Willfully Blind’ EP reinforced his status as an artist on the rise.
Now, with his highly anticipated new album ‘Night Diving’, McNown is poised for the next chapter in his already meteoric career. Read our five star review of the album here. McNown is poised to play the biggest shows of his career at the O2 Arena in London next month as part of the C2C festival and we were thrilled to catch up with him to talk all about it.
Thank you for your time today Max – I know how busy you must be in this post-album release phase and you are right in the middle of a headline tour too!
Oh no, man, thank you for having me.
Congratulations on the new album, ‘Night Diving.' What a tremendous piece of work that is. Are you getting any inkling from streaming numbers or social media as to which songs are resonating with people or is it still a little too soon?
Thank you for saying that. It's a little soon but the title track is getting a lot of love and support from playlists. ‘It's Not Your Fault' has kind of raised its hand too and is performing really well for a track that wasn't promoted as a single as well. If there is one track slightly hitting above all the others at this early stage it would seem to be ‘It's Not Your Fault.'
We're playing it in the live set as well right now and it's kind of an emotional rollercoaster because it's a very heavy song and then the ending to it is meant to be a relief from the tension that has built throughout. It ends in a triumphant ‘It's Not Your Fault' way rather than a depressing feeling, which is what it is at the beginning of the song so it's fun to play live.
I feel like you've grown a lot in terms of lyrics, melodies and the instrumentation that you employ of ‘Night Diving' compared to your debut album. What prompted that growth and evolution – is it the people you are working with? Is it from you as you learn more of the craft?
It's a little bit of both I think. As a writer I think I am strong melodically – I know what I want a song to sound like and I come in with my own poetry and lyrical concepts – so from a melodic standpoint it's probably down to my growth and where I want to be.
Sonically, with the instrumentation choices, that has been more on the producers side. What we do is we build out a sound and a framework when we write a song and then when we track the instruments it allows for more creativity, which is something we've definitely done this time around.
You mentioned the word ‘poetry' there. I find your lyrics incredibly cinematic in how you portray feelings and relationships for one so young. Where do you get your inspirations for your lyrics from – your life? Books? Movies? Stories you hear from friends?
Man, that's a good question. I haven't thought a lot about that as yet but I wonder if a lot of it could be attributed to my dad? He speaks in a very artistic way and uses a lot of analogies – sometimes it's like he's speaking in riddles because he is so good at taking a human experience and comparing it to an analogy that makes it more understandable.
I've grown up around that and it had to have played a huge part. The music that I listen to and the movies that I love must have influenced me too as well, I think.
Did you grow up in a musical family? When did the musical bug first bite?
Our household was very sing-songy if that makes sense. There was always someone singing somewhere. Music was a big thing. It was a normalised thing to sing. My dad is a pretty good acoustic guitar player and he would make up songs on the spot so singing was such a joyful and common thing but there was no professional edge to it at all.
Things happened quickly for you then. You left your home in Oregon and headed for California and ended up busking on piers there and then 2-3 years later you are up on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry!! What were the drivers and motivation behind you leaving for California?
There was more push than pull for me to leave. My brother, Brock, was battling cancer at the time and our home kinda felt like it was ‘the trenches,' you know, that's what Brock referred to it as. It was where everything was going down and it was a tough time for all of us, him the worst, obviously. It took a toll on my parents and the home and I'd just turned 21 and we were all battling this overwhelming sadness so I, somewhat selfishly, decided I needed to clear out and try and live on my own a little.
California was the change of scenery and my aunt and uncle were kind enough to take me in for a few months and then I got my own place there. One thing led to another – I started street performing covering Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan songs and that's kinda where it all began.
TikTok helped propel you into social media stardom with the viral success of ‘A Lot More Free.' How did you feel a couple of weekends ago when TikTok went dark and it looked like it was done for in America?
(laughing) You know what is so funny? I'd forgot that had happened! (laughing) TikTok, to me, has kinda served its purpose. It was integral to my growth and I guess it helped to create me! (laughing) I used it to promote my first songs and I don't know if I would have been able to pursue music in the same way without it so it did play a huge roll.
I've tried to spend so much time time and energy since, though, trying to shake off the title of ‘TikTok kid,' though. Moving forward form that virality is important to me because it sometimes comes with a lack of authenticity on social media. When TikTok was being banned it kinda felt like it would be a good thing for my mental health so that I wouldn't need to post there anymore! (laughing) It continues to help me but what a lot of people don't know is that the algorithm is so hit and miss – you could have 30 videos do under 10,000 views and then one video, for some unknown reason, does 20 million and it doesn't make any sense. It makes you a slave to posting, which I think is unhealthy.
From a career standpoint I'm super-glad it's back but from a mental health standpoint? Not so much!!! (laughing)
You mentioned authenticity and, obviously, a song like ‘A Lot More Free' is dripping in it. Do your lips ever go dry and fail you when you sing that song live or is your whistling game always strong?
(laughing) You know, there were a couple of shows, especially in Colorado at that altitude, when the whistle did start to suffer! I've learned a technique that helps, especially as I'm also playing the harmonica in that song, where I do a quick lick before the whistling! (laughing) It has to be real quick and unnoticeable so I'm not making noises on the microphone but I have learned that you have to keep those lips lubricated!
Which song on ‘Night Diving' was the easiest to write and which song took the longest to get it to where you wanted it to be?
That's a great question. The title track, ‘Night Diving' was one of the longest. It was a painful experience without it being bad, if that makes sense? It was almost a therapy session and it took us a long time to get to where we wanted it to be from a lyrical stand point. The song is so honest and full of vulnerability that I hadn't really explored to in such depth before. It is a song that is multiple layers deep and we needed to handle it carefully – expressing my own disdain for my own failures through the medium of song wasn't an easy thing to achieve! (laughing)
The shortest or the easiest song to write was ‘Azalea Place.' I'd been writing quite intensively at that point, I'd written something like 30 songs in 45 days at the point we wrote ‘Azalea Place.' I was pretty burnt out, staying in a hotel in Nashville and I didn't really know anyone else other than my producer and the people I was writing with and I didn't really even know them that well. I was ready to go home and had exhausted everything that I had to say in song when I got an uber ride over to a writing session and got into an amazing faith-filled conversation with the driver on the way! I was telling the guys in the room about the crazy conversation I had just had in the uber and the song just tumbled out of me! (laughing) The driver is the ‘he' in the song.
I bet ‘Azalea Place' will be a fun song to play in your live shows?
I agree. We haven't played it live yet because we're playing tracks like ‘Hotel Bible,' Marley,' ‘Better Me for You,' ‘It's Not Your Fault' and ‘Night Diving' right now and the tour is still, technically, the ‘A Lot More Free' tour so we're trying to figure out how to give the ‘Wandering' album the full respect it deserves because I didn't do any headlining tours off the back of that album. We're trying to give some of those songs their dues before they, maybe, disappear off the setlist in favour of some of the new ones.
We are planning another tour for Fall 2025 right now and I think some of the newer songs, like ‘Azalea Place' will start to appear during that tour. It will be good to give fans of the ‘Night Diving' songs something to look forward to but it's also good to give yourself a change or a lift and introduce some newer songs to keep things fresh.
I've always done that in my writing career. Right now, I've just put out the ‘Night Diving' album but a lot of the pressure on me has been lifted because I also have eleven more songs, secretly, that nobody knows are coming, that I absolutely adore for a new album! Having that next thing is very important to me from the mental health side of things as well as the fan side of things. If you put out an album and you have nothing else in your locker because you've used every single idea, melody and lyric that you have you are going to feel the pressure descending in terms of what to do next. I don't think that's healthy.
On a very intense album, ‘Marley,' which you mentioned is in the live set right now, is a lovely Zac Brown-esque palette cleanser. What was your mindset the day you wrote that song?
The Zac Brown Band are one of my favourite bands of all time – that is exactly what we were going for there! (laughing) I had the concept just pop into my head when I was hanging out with my producer at the bar he owns in Nashville! ‘Put the needle on Marley and let the good times roll,' that lyric just came out of nowhere. We write a lot of heavy stuff and I love that, that is who I am and I stand by it but I was, like, ‘wouldn't it be nice to have just one feel-good summer song?' (laughing)
Sometimes focusing on the difficult and weighty things in life can be healthy but it can also be unhealthy in other ways too. You need to have a balance and that's where ‘Marley' was born. We wrote the song the day after. It's a good breather on the album and a great song to play live.
You're coming over to London next month for the C2C festival in London. You must be excited about that? The Spotlight stage you are playing on is the springboard to the main stage, which is cool. You get three songs in that slot and you're obviously going to play ‘A Lot More Free' so will you be agonising over which other two songs to play?
(laughing) Honestly. Two of out of the three are super-easy. It'll be ‘A Lot More Free' and ‘Better Me For You.' ‘Better Me For You' has received an amount of love and support second only to ‘A Lot More Free.' The other thing to think is that it is going to be an acoustic performance with just me and another guitarist, or maybe two guitarists.
Do I play ‘Love Me Back'? Do I play ‘Marley'? Would those go down well acoustic? I'm playing in front of the biggest crowd I will have ever played for before, so that's another factor. What songs are more difficult for me to sing? Will nerves play into it? So, the third song, honestly, I have no idea right now. ‘Wandering' works well acoustic……. I'm just thinking out loud with you right now! (laughing)
We can't wait to have you over in London. Do you have any sightseeing or bucket list things you want to do whilst you are here?
I need some ideas. We are booking two extra nights to spend in London after the festival. I want to stop and smell the roses a little rather than just rush onto the next thing. I've only been out of the country once or twice in my entire life and one of those times was Canada so that barely counts! (laughing) I've heard the tea is great and that there are pubs in London that are older than the whole United States. I can't wait.
Check out Max McNown's fabulous new album ‘Night Diving' in all the usual places. You can buy a ticket to see him at the C2C festival right here.
