Maxwell Luke on new single “are you there tonight?”, the power of pop music, and welcoming change
APRIL 21ST 2024 | by MADISON NORTH
Photo by Chase Denton
Maxwell Luke is embracing the power of pop to make music most authentic to him. The 22 year old is wise beyond his years when it comes to not only music, but life in general. He believes in the power of words, something truly evident in his songs, which most of the time are upbeat and make you wanna dance around with your friends while harboring more personal messages. His song “here lies what could’ve been” has racked up over 400,000 streams on Spotify and climbing. If you’re in search of an artist who truly puts all of their energy into not just the music, but the entire immersive creative experience of their craft, look no further.
We were lucky enough to chat with Maxwell Luke about how he’s been able to make music that feels most natural for him, accepting change, and his newest single “are you there tonight?”.
RAMBLE: I really love the whole vibe of “Growing Up Without Me”, you said that when you wrote it it felt like you were writing your first song, can you elaborate on that a little bit?
MAXWELL LUKE: Absolutely. So I’m 22 now and I really started releasing music in high school, started writing and recording around 16 is when I got really serious about it. There were a couple of songs that I had released by the time “Growing Up Without Me”’s release, which is the first single in this sort of group of singles that I released in June of last year, so when I said in many ways it felt like my first song I think I was really getting at the fact that even though I’ve released stuff in the past, this is what I would consider as an artist my debut single. I think that I’m very grateful for the experience I had releasing music and the people I worked with when I was 16, 16-18 years old, but these songs that I’ve been writing in the last few years I feel like are a very true and honest representation of myself as an artist and as a writer and the production too and every other sort of step of the process I felt very involved in and whether it’s fine tuning the production on the song and on the mix or with my producer or really deciding and getting creative about what I want the cover art to be, every sort of step of that creative process I feel like it is me. This was really the first time I felt full stop, complete pride in a project that I was releasing so I sort of wanted to rename it as my debut or my first song.
RAMBLE: I like that, cause when you're 16 versus now, like you said you’re 22, you don’t really think about it in the moment when you’re that young but you’re going to be such a different person now versus then.
MAXWELL LUKE: Yeah and I think that’s one of, funnily enough, or ironically I consider that to be one of the most beautiful or greatest parts about being a songwriter is sort of this like public diary you get to view as a listener and also the person that wrote it, and sort of watch yourself grow up through music and through songs and through projects you’ve released, but there was something that just felt a little inauthentic or a little dishonest, I think that that really that point or that sentiment of watching yourself grow up through the songs really only hots hard when you were being honest or you felt prideful in the work at the time and so I just felt a little detached I would say from my earlier work and so I ended up taking it down for the first single that came out last year.
RAMBLE: Like a whole new clean slate.
MAXWELL LUKE: Yes, it felt good (laughing)
RAMBLE: (laughing) So you had said you had written “Growing Up Without Me” after leaving your home state for the first time, how was writing that song able to process such a monumental moment in your life?
MAXWELL LUKE: I’m a deeply sentimental person and I’m deeply nostalgic and I’m constantly thinking about the past, I probably think about the past much more than I think about the future, but I also welcome change. I remember when I was growing up, in my childhood home growing up I always wanted to move my bedroom constantly, I just liked the change of space or I was the kid that wanted to make a bedroom out of the attic or the spare room like Harry Potter under the stairs.
RAMBLE: (laughing) Like the coat closet and everything.
MAXWELL LUKE: Yeah, his little tiny bedroom as cruel and unusual as a punishment it was putting him under the stairs, I watched that movie thinking that’s kinda cool I like his little set up…So I like change, I’m not someone I would say anxiously attaches to things that already happened, but I definitely live in my mind so much in memories and moments and so anytime I do move, even though I do get so excited about all the changes and the newness, I do find myself confronted by so many of those hard hitting, nostalgic ways of thinking, and just sort of going back to things that have already happened and I really attach a lot of those feelings to people, exploring that feeling was really how that song came about, what it’s like to grow up without people that you thought you might. I feel that there’s a sense when you’re 18, before you’ve left home there’s this unwavering feeling that you already know everything, the world’s not ready for you but it really couldn’t be more the opposite. I think when you really start to enter your 20s and really move to a new city without your family, without people you’ve known your whole life I think you really realize that you started to grow up in every sense of the word and it’s a difficult feeling but it’s bittersweet in so many ways to realize that some of the people that you thought you may be doing that with aren’t around anymore, and I was obviously, I still am obviously in the way that I answered that question thinking about it and dealing with it and confronting all of those feelings as I grow up, but I was really interested in exploring that feeling when I felt it very intensely after leaving my home state for the first time.
RAMBLE: I love the line in the song that says “letting go of you feels like letting go of my youth”, I think that that’s just, well your song writing in general…I feel like you’re so good at vocalizing deeply how you feel with such a profound kind of way, for being as young as you are I feel like you’re so well spoken through your songs and the messages that you bring to them, I just think that that’s such a beautiful line.
MAXWELL LUKE: Thank you very much, that means a lot to me. Words really matter and I think sometimes in the writing process they actually where they shouldn’t take so much precedence to me, I forget about the melody or I forget about the music and I hone in on the words a little too much but I feel like it is all in an effort to have someone like you pick out a line like that and have it deeply resonate so that means a lot to me, but yeah that line really encapsulates everything I just said about attaching those nostalgic feelings to a certain person or moment in time and that’s the weird thing about growing up, reconciling what am I actually letting go, what do I take with me, what’s useful and what’s not and what can kind of just live in my mind and not be a productive feeling but something that I can kind of just take with me, it’s all sort of the convoluted mess that is being 21 years old or 25 years old.
RAMBLE: You had written “The Thrill of Almost” about something that I feel so many people struggle with, that feeling of almost having someone and convincing yourself, kind of the delusion of it, it could happen if I hold on a little bit longer, like the thrill of the chase of it. I just love how the sound of it and the production of the song reciprocate that feeling so well. It has a slower start but then before you know it we like burst off into the chorus and everything, it keeps picking up, that constant thrill. I just wanna know what the process of making that song was like.
MAXWELL LUKE: That one was so fun to make and I feel like I’ve made all of these recent songs with a friend and producer here in nashville, Chris Donlin, and I feel like that, that was the second or third song we worked on together after “Growing Up Without Me” and that one was so fun to make, I feel like it was the moment where we really realized we were compatible as artist and producer, as collaborators, I think he would say the same, I feel like that was a very memorable time in the studio of us just sort of bouncing off of each other in such a creative way. I had brought the song to him where it was just a work tape sort of a scratch of me playing the song on piano, just piano vocal, and it sounded almost just the way I was sort of banging on the piano like a percussion instrument it sounded almost theatrical, but you could tell by the way I was playing it I clearly wanted the production to have a lot of energy…If you read the lyrics, ya know on paper the song is about heartbreak or the song is about somebody not loving you the way that you wish that they would and it can be interpreted as a sad and moody and dark sort of sentiment…It was really important to me that it had like you were saying, that it captured that feeling of that intense feeling of the chase of somebody maybe wanting you back and you sort of exerting all of your possible energy into seeing that through just in the off chance that they might be the person that you hoped they would be, and so I felt like having that, I sort of start the song in my room, “last night I slept in your favorite bands shirt”, and so I liked starting it in a sort of softspoken sort of verse and then launching into a production that I felt reflected that feeling, which is just sort of chaotic and crazy and nonsensical (laughing) in a lot of ways you look back in hindsight and think “what the hell was I doing” or “I cannot believe I sent all those texts” or “I cannot believe I say in the second verse ‘and when I went home crying I couldn’t help but feel excited” and those were all true feelings at the time, I think there’s something almost comical about it so I didn’t feel like even though it could’ve totally been just a slow, moody song or a subdued song I wanted it to be alive, very alive cause the feeling is very alive.
RAMBLE: I feel like also too like with this alive feeling it seems to be a theme with your next song “here lies what could’ve been”, I’m obsessed with that song by the way, like I 100% bet it’s gonna make my Spotify Wrapped this year, I cannot stop playing it. (Laughing) When I’m listening to it I feel like I should be crying to the lyrics but with the beat and everything I just wanna dance, and I’m like if that was his intention, great job you nailed it.
MAXWELL LUKE: It’s a little bit of a confusing song, sort of again the lyrics on paper you would think “oh this is probably a ballad” (laughing) and then I’ve got a kicked up tempo and something you can’t help but jump around your room to, but that was the goal so that makes me very happy for you to say.
RAMBLE: Would you say, cause you’d mentioned Chris Donlin, and then I also noticed that Randy Merrill also seems to be on all your tracks as well. What was it like having these two consistent people be on all four of your projects? Does it make the creative process easier being so comfortable with people, like riffing off ideas and everything like that?
MAXWELL LUKE: Yeah, I mean it definitely streamlines it for me and I spent a couple years,I would say a year and a half, two years in Nashville on the hunt for a producer and really searching for somebody just like Chris. I think if Chris were here he would tell you that he’s growing too as an artist and as a producer and he is coming into himself everyday in his craft. I think I really wanted somebody that was in that position, somebody that was young and still sort of, i don’t know I guess hungry is a good way to describe it as funny as that can sound…I wanted a producer that felt like they were almost in a similar place that I am as an artist, I felt that that would be, that that would lend itself to such a creative, most importantly creative environment, because like I had mentioned about my songs in high school there were moments when I just didn’t feel like I was apart of the process…And it’s no testament whatsoever to the people that I was working with, I didn’t feel like my ideas were shut down or anything like that it’s more so just that I wanted somebody that almost, and I think young was an important thing too, I wanted somebody that was just ready to really mesh all of our ideas together…And not shut my ideas down, but also just listen to my ideas and just replicate them. I wanted somebody that would give me push back or say “actually I think we should do this”...And I think that’s what Chris has been, like I said it was three songs in when I feel like we really started to hit a good rhythm and sort of momentum of working together, that’s only grown with each song, so working consistently with the same producer has been a very valuable part of the song making process for me. And then Randy is the mastering engineer and that’s just been very helpful to have him be just our go to guy for mastering the songs because Chris will produce them, Chris also mixes them, and then to have a separate ear on the songs in that final stage of sort of baking the cake I think has been very helpful.
RAMBLE: Would you say having some like Chris who, as you said is on this similar creative journey as you, do you think it alleviates a little pressure off of you as a newer younger artist to not be like, “ok well I have to do this really well”, “this has to be perfect”, versus working with somebody who’s older?
MAXWELL LUKE: I think something about Chris, I hope this answers your question, is more so I don’t feel like I’m working against the clock with him, or I don’t feel like, if I’m understanding correctly, if I were to work with a producer who was already very established, maybe had some crazy credits on some wild popstars…If I was working with someone of that sort of caliber, at this point in my career I might feel like my time with them was limited or that it was conditional…That might lend itself to some capacity of imposter syndrome and I don’t get any of that with Chris, I think he’s incredibly humble, sometimes too humble…I think that that just allows for me to not feel any pressure. I don’t know if I would ever necessarily feel any pressure like the person I was working with was somebody I had to impress or had to do everything perfect for, but to feel any pressure like our time is limited together or that I only get one song with this person and I have to make it great, to not feel that pressure I think is very helpful for me.
RAMBLE: I think it’s so important in any creative industry to just surround yourself with people you feel comfortable with, people that you know aren’t gonna pressure you to do that you’re not comfortable with creatively and artistically, and it’s really cool I kind of see that, this might sound weird, but I see that through your Instagram and your aesthetic. It feels like with each song it has its own set aesthetic and it’s so clearly seen…It seems like visuals to you are just as important to you as the actual song and lyrics, which I think transpires so well…I just wanna hear your thoughts on visuals of all your songs, like why it’s so important to you.
MAXWELL LUKE: I love visual components to music, and I have folders on my phone and on my computer of album art inspiration and I always take note when I think an artist does it really well. It’s such a fun thing about making music that I can’t help but not take advantage of it, there’s a part of me that I feel most at home when I’m just being creative in general and I’ve always felt that way…It’s always been music but I’ve had interest in making movies, or doing tv stuff, or making music videos…I love photography, I’ve always been a visual person in that way and so I really like to take advantage of that element of making music and releasing songs because it’s sort of a way to check that box without actually having to go to film school or try and make it as a photographer, I can kind of make it a little side hustle to what I’m already doing…Visuals are very important and I always sort of dream them up in my head and I love bringing them to life. I’ve worked with several different people on different visuals for these songs and it’s always a fun process.
RAMBLE: Do you have a favorite visual from your four singles?
MAXWELL LUKE: I love the cover art for “Growing Up Without Me”…That one stretches a little bit beyond just the photo and the composition of the photo itself. I shot that cover art at the beach I grew up going to in Florida, which is really where the song existed in my head the entire time I was writing it, I even say in the song a lyric about sitting on the beach and then canal street is the street that runs through the beach town in the song, and so that was a really special experience I feel like to actually shoot the cover art where the song is set in my mind and I shot it too with a friend of mine who I grew up with in Florida Brooke Flecca, she’s immensely talented we went to school together, we took photography classes in school together…That’s another person too, anytime I get to work on visual stuff with her it’s uniquely collaborative, more than it would be if I were to just hire somebody else that I admired their work. With her I can really sort of get into the weeds about what I want and what we’re looking for, and so that was a special trip the two of us took to go take that photo and I couldn’t be happier with the result, that’s probably my favorite cover art right now.
RAMBLE: I really like, it feels like from “Growing Up Without Me”, “Thrill of Almost” and then this kind of switch into “here lies what could’ve been” and then your latest single “are you there tonight?”, the two most recent have this more moody, dark aesthetic to them versus the other ones feel more free and light spirited…I just think it’s so cool, I just love your aesthetics, I just think it’s so neat the way you creatively do that.
MAXWELL LUKE: Thank you very much.
RAMBLE: Your latest single “are you there tonight?”, by the time this interview comes out the single will be out, how excited are you for it to be out?
MAXWELL LUKE: I’m very excited. This one came together pretty quickly…This one was a song in the writing process that was sort of three songs at one point in time last year and it’s sort of something I realized up until the ends of last year that, actually that chorus should be a pre chorus, that verse should be a pre chorus or that should be a bridge or that outro and I sort of mashed all of these things in my notes app and journals to create “are you there tonight?”, and this one I’m having a lot of fun with because, again maybe on paper the lyrics feel like a song about longing or heartbreak or something that could be interpreted as a difficult feeling but to me it’s a song that is the most fun sort of parts of nostalgia or the, maybe not fun, but the most, we’ve been talking about the feeling of being alive or just liveliness, it’s the most lively feeling of nostalgia. To me this song, like I said to someone recently that “if here lies what could’ve been” is the sort of moody but upbeat walk through New York City when it’s the dead of winter in January when it’s cold and it’s sort of sleet is pooling on the city sidewalk and you’re walking but it’s upbeat and you’re heartbroken, this one is sort of like that first sign of spring, like the warmth is coming in and you just kind of wanna run down the street thinking about the person you miss or can’t call anymore. That’s how I feel like a lot of times I deal with heartbreak or nostalgia is that windows down with friends who feel the same way or understand the feeling, it’s that feeling so I’m very excited for it because I feel like it’s something I haven’t, it’s one step of the heartbreak process that I haven’t explored previously in the other songs.
RAMBLE: How would you say all together throughout your four singles that your sound has evolved and changed?
MAXWELL LUKE: I would say embracing pop has been the way it’s changed the most. With “Growing Up Without Me” I feel like I got to the studio and rightfully so was influenced by really really talented and incredible more folksy indie people, but with each single I felt myself maybe fighting the part of me that wanted to do pop or really bring in the pop elements and so with these last two and a little bit with “The Thrill of Almost”, I feel like I have really come back into fusing that interesting or maybe more experimental sound with my favored traditional pop elements that I love so much and love to listen to and also just feel really comfortable when I’m writing that way or singing that way and flushing out a production that way, I feel very confident about the song when I go that route and I think it’s because it’s very honest to the kind of artist I am right now so that’s really the change I see, I think I had a false sense that I needed to reject traditional pop elements.
RAMBLE: I feel like there’s this stereotype against pop music that it has to be this cookie cutter type like vibe, when it’s not, when you listen to pop songs they’re lyrics like if you were listening to The Lumineers or somebody like that, the lyrics are all the same it’s just the beats a little different.
MAXWELL LUKE: Something I reminded myself or realized even that I felt encouraging was just as long as I was thoughtful about the words, and as long as I was thoughtful and intentional about the melodies and the musicality, I can’t not be proud of the product…I’d done pop music in the past very very sort of traditional male pop songs in the past and those are the songs I grew to dislike and feel like were not true to myself and I think that those really fed into the rejection of pop later on, but it’s just because I was doing very generic, I was approaching those songs in a very generic way and so as long as I’m sort of putting it all on the line or being as honest as I possibly can in my lyrics and getting as creative as I possibly can within the realms of pop, which sort of knows no bounds, which you sort of realize, like you said anything cookie cutter about it if you don’t allow that to be the case, that will always I think be a satisfying process or I’ll always feel proud of those songs whether they’re pop or not.
RAMBLE: I’m curious to hear from you, 2024 I’m calling it the year of manifestation, speaking everything into the universe, what is something you want to manifest for you this year, maybe personally or for your career.
MAXWELL LUKE: I would like to manifest more live performing, I think that’s been an area that I haven’t taken advantage of as much and I live in Nashville so there are plenty of opportunities big and small for me to take part in and I would love to manifest, I guess this ones pretty practical, but I would like to manifest a song every six weeks I would like to put something out, I would like to be very very prolific this year.
RAMBLE: I like that. I saw that you opened up for Lindsey Lomis in New York, how was that experience? I saw her on tour when she opened for Joshua Bassett and she’s just awesome.
MAXWELL LUKE: She’s incredible, Lindsey’s one of my closest friends and that opportunity I would say kind of came about because of our friendship, I think I’m lucky that she also likes my music and likes me as an artist, but that was equal parts a professional venture and also just something so fun that I got to do with my best friend and so I look back on that experience as such a reminder of how much I love being on stage and I was grateful for that opportunity and so yeah I think that that’s sort of why one of my manifestations this year is to get back up there and perform the songs, I think a part of me wanted to have something to share when I got up on stage, I wanted to be able to say “also I have music out, plenty of it, you can go listen to it right now”, and I feel like with each song now, with “are you there tonight?” I definitely have that at least a little bit of a corner of Spotify for people to go and enjoy so I definitely wanna get back on stage and I think the show in New York last summer was, it really is such a reminder of how fun that is and how much I enjoy it, and yeah we had a blast, she’s so talented and her fans are simply the sweetest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of interacting with and I mean that whole heartedly, some of them I feel like have stuck around and really engaged with my music and what I’m doing and I really couldn’t be more grateful for them.
Listen to Maxwell Luke’s newest single “are you there tonight?” below.