Meet Max Oakland

Today we’d like to introduce you to Max Oakland.

Hi Max, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started making music when I needed music for my video games. I tried collaborating with people but when you don’t have a budget, you don’t get a lot of say in what the song sounds like! So I thought I’d try my hand and see if I could do something. I grew up with my mom playing piano all the time and my dad had a guitar, so there was some influence that yes, you can play music. I enjoyed making up songs on the piano so I figured I might as well try!

First, I was working in Garageband with loops and playing the instruments on my laptop’s keyboard. My friends didn’t know about loops so they were baffled that I was coming up with such complex stuff out of nowhere. Around that time I got really into grunge and other 90s music so I dumped that and started learning guitar.

I was also moving around a lot, trying to find the right place to start a band and build a community. I lived in Chicago, NYC, Missoula (Montana), Iowa City, and some smaller towns along the way. I was nomadic to say the least! But I also struggled with money and that was the main challenge that faced me.

While I was moving around I met so many cool people and gathered tons of inspiration. I played music with talented musicians from beginners to experts and heard tons of different genres because of them. I was mostly into noise and punk music, but I made friends who were into indie rock, pop, industrial, psychedelic, folk, hip hop, riot grrrl, garage rock, you name it. And I was listening to Lana Del Rey all the time for reasons I didn’t understand. I was into noise punk! Why did I love the music of a sensitive pop songwriter?

After Missoula, I moved back home to the Midwest and struggled. I was also working on music nonstop, writing songs and exploring new sounds, but didn’t know what to do with it. For a while, I was still in the mindset that I had to be in a band, but I was transitioning to more of a solo artist concept.

My interest in pop music expanded to the point where I’d listen to anything regardless of genre and decide if I liked it after hearing it. At that point, I was burnt out on guitars. I had tendonitis, which made it very painful to play, and vocal damage from trying to scream sing. So I went to physical and speech therapy and spent all my time working in Garageband and then Logic.

About a year and a half ago I moved to LA and I’m sort of building all over again from the bottom. I’ve been mostly working in video games. Doing music, graphics, and programming for various indie games. I’ve also done some odd jobs like music production and web design. One thing I love about LA is there are so many creative people making whatever they want. I love being involved in their projects.

Right now, I’m getting out there and starting to playing live again. I’ve done open mics and I’m releasing all my music on streaming services and making animated music videos since I’ve always been drawing.

If I had to pick one thing to do, it would be music because music is powerful to me and helped me through some really dark times. But the good news is, I don’t have to pick one thing.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’ve struggled with money, anxiety, and depression. Those are all current battles too. I haven’t won them – yet! But I’ve been learning a lot about how to deal with mental health. That’s what my recent song Antifreeze is about. What do you need to get out of the freeze of depression or anxiety? For me, going on a run or walk is key. That’s my antifreeze.

One reason music is so important to me is that it was the first tool I had to help me with my mental health. I remember in Jr. High I was listening to the radio really late at night as I loved to do, secretly, under the covers. And I would always listen to hear songs that made me feel something since I was so depressed all the time. I heard this song I hadn’t heard in years and it brought up a feeling that gave me hope. Made me remember that I’m alive. Nothing else could do that for me as powerfully as music.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I specialize in low-budget alternative pop. It doesn’t have a specific genre right now because I’m mixing all of my favorite genres and hopefully creating something new. My previous song (Antifreeze) and my next one (When the Water Comes) lean into an unusual psychedelic pop sound with heavy beats. Before that, I released a dream pop cover of Ocean Eyes by Billie Eilish and a dreamy guitar song called I Prefer the Dusk, about loving someone and letting them go.

If I want to be known for anything, it’s not having any limits to what I’ll write songs about. I want to explore all the human emotions. Write songs about feelings that haven’t been written about yet. Even stupid things, tragic things, funny things. And also things people have written about before too. I don’t want to limit it.

I’m most proud of the fact that my music is as polished as it is without any budget. I’m doing some innovative stuff in songwriting and production and I don’t stop there, I also do music videos. For a while, I was doing live-action music videos but people kept encouraging me to do more animation since I did an animated video on a whim. I think I’m going to keep doing that at least for a while. I do have some more cinematic ideas I want to explore in the future.

Funny enough, I’m more known for my video games than my music right now. I’ve been working on Gameboy Color games and people are liking them! I have a character called Wink (pictured) that’s a purple eyeball creature that shoots lasers. People really seem to love him and the game he’s in, which is kind of like Kirby or Mario. I even put him in my music video for Antifreeze recently because someone suggested I try to merge the worlds of my music and video games more. Before that, I was resistant to the idea but I’m interested in trying it out. For example, I do 8-Bit remixes of the songs for my video games with the idea that people who like the song in the video game might check out the full song on Spotify.

What do you like and dislike about the city?
My favorite things about LA are the creativity and the weather. My least favorite things are the sprawl, dryness, and how hard it is to build a community.

I love how many people are here to work on something creative or trying to. I sang at an open mic the other day and talked about it later with a friend from London I made there and we were both so inspired by the diversity of the artists. People (including me) get the idea that LA is mostly about commercial music and Hollywood and stuff, but that’s only a small part of it. There were artists who made music like nothing I’ve ever heard before, artists who made really compelling but non-commercial stuff, and artists who made very commercial and crowd-pleasing stuff too. High quality all around.

And that doesn’t just apply to music, it applies to everything. If there’s a form of expression, people are doing it in LA. It’s the coolest thing. Filmmakers, dancers, choreographers, and visual artists. I even met someone who creates immersive art. Like, buildings where you explore the environments they create. And when I’ve been lucky enough to get involved in a project, whether it’s holding a camera (or iPhone) or helping someone record onto a computer from a cassette tape, I’ve been inspired.

Having warm weather all year is a game changer. I’m someone who’s suffered seasonal depression in places with winter year after year. I don’t think I would ever want to go back to that. Even winter here is warm to me and being able to go on a walk every day makes everything better.

I hate the sprawl, though. It makes it so hard for us to connect and build communities. The sprawl has a lot of causes from car-centric planning to public transit neglect. It just makes everything harder. I think all our lives would be improved if we could reach each other more easily and it would also help in building the artistic communities that are the lifeblood of creativity.

I ran into a friend the other day and I realized how life-affirming it is to just be able to run into your friends and say hi and chat for a minute and then walk away. It’s such a small detail but it showed me how important community is. It’s something I want, but it’s not easy because we’re all so spread apart. I have friends all over the city and it’s daunting to spend an hour (or more) on the bus to see them or spend $30 for a rideshare. Or drive 35 minutes and then deal with parking. The options actively interfere with relationships.

Pricing:

• Powerlines EP Vinyl – $35
• Ruby & Rusty Gameboy Cartridge – $55
• Powerlines EP Cassette Tape – $10

Contact Info:

• Website: www.maxoakland.com
• Instagram: http://Instagram.com/maxoaklanddd
• Facebook: facebook.com/maxoaklanddd
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/winkwinkerson
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/maxoakland
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1JQras4A2CwuWkrKGMKYjq