Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Directed by Kiefer Sutherland

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

As many of you may know I’ve been writing songs with a guy named Shawn Mullins over the past year or so. I first met Shawn in Nashville where my manager had set it up for us to meet and to try our luck at co-writing some new songs. I remember it all very well..

I flew in to Nashville from Burbank California on March 10th, 2009. There my friend Michael Hearne picked me up at the Airport in Nashville and drove me to “Chuck Cannons Studio” where Shawn had explained we could stay for a few nights and “Take turns sleeping on the couch.” When Shawn had said we’d be staying at his friends Studio/Apartment I was kinda thinking we’d be staying in a studio apartment not a recording studio with an apartment upstairs. Chucks place was much nicer than I had envisioned it. Vintage Gibson guitars sat in most every guitar stand while a finely painted replica of Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” graced the high ceiling in one of the lager rooms. The place was awesome and Shawn was about the coolest songwriter I’d ever met. I was liking Nashville already.

We hung out for about two or three days at Chucks place and wrote two songs. The first one we wrote was called “Babylon Blues” which was recently recorded by Michael Hearne for his new release entitled “Life In America”. The next song we wrote was kind of a funky smooth song called “Love Will Find A Way”. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot in those few days working with Shawn and couldn’t wait to do it again.

Nearly a year later I traveled out to Shawn’s hometown of Atlanta GA to write more songs with him. I had this thing I had been working on that turned into a song called “Tinseltown”. We didn’t quite finish the song that time around so Shawn and I opened it up to some different songwriters later on. I worked on it some with a guy named Jeff Trott in Los Angeles and Shawn worked on it some with a guy named Chuck Jones in Key West. It’s a cool rocker that portrays a guy in Hollywood that no longer wants to get caught up in the midst of “Tinseltown”.

The last and final song we wrote is one that is dear to me for a few reasons. One reason is because we wrote it using various chords and progression styles that I really had studied in the past. And two, they let me play the acoustic guitar part on the recording that would become “I Knew A Girl”. It’s a beautiful acoustic arrangement that takes a hand from an equally beautiful string quartet.

Now the real reason I’m writing these stories down is because Shawn is releasing three of these four songs on his upcoming record titled “Light You Up”. Its the first time any artist will have released some of my work on a level like this. The record will be released in stores and online Tuesday, October 12th by Vanguard Records. The three songs that made the cut are Tinseltown, I Knew a Girl. and Love Will Find a Way. Babylon Blues will see the light someday.

I feel very blessed to be within the same company as the others who worked on this project. So many talented musicians and songwriters worked on this record and I’m proud to be a part of it.

Thanks Shawn for having me on board.

-Max

So about a month ago, I was buying a new mattress. And at the mattress store the local radio station had set up a “live on the air” promo thing for this big sale. I know what you’re thinking.. “What the heck does this mattress story have to do with NYC?!” Well just stay tuned and we’ll get to that part. Because the radio people where there they were giving away free stuff. CD’s, T-Shirts, etc.. I was talking to Paddy Mac ( a local DJ at the sale ) and I saw that he had the new Alpha Rev record. At the time Alpha Revs first single “New Morning” was topping the AAA radio charts so I knew about the record. I remember when I first heard the single on the radio. I said to myself, “Man, if Rule The World had this kind of production!”

So anyways, I got myself a new mattress and the Alpha Rev record. I went home on put it on the stereo and was blown away by the production. The sound, sonically it was as good as anything I could think of. Over the next few weeks I became obsessed with the sound of this record, so much that I looked into who was responsible for this great production. All signs pointed to this record producer named David Kahne.

A few weeks later I found myself in Boulder Colorado at a radio convention hanging out with Shawn Mullins. One of the nights I was there Alpha Rev was scheduled to play at the hotel for the radio suits. I watched the show, hung around late and met some of the guys to ask them about working with David. They only sparked my interest further.

Around this time I told my manager in LA, Thomas Scriven, to humor me and send David Kahne some songs and see what he says. I was pretty well expecting the usual, “Sorry kid, we regret to inform you..” but David emailed us back and it turns he was blown away by the music we had sent him. He wanted to work together.

Next thing you know I’m on a red eye to New York City to see if David Kahne and I get along and figure out what could possibly come of it. I stayed in Manhattan for two nights with Thomas. The first day I was there we had a meeting with David. It went great. I was really surprised to find that he was such a scholar. Light years beyond most producers I’d met in the past. I mean he was more than just a guy with a good ear and a studio. He had ways of making things sound incredible because he knew about the music.

The next day we recorded three songs at Avatar Studios. “One of the last great rooms in New York.” -Says David.

The sessions went great and we hit it off pretty well.

I’m gonna be going to NY quite a bit in the future months. I’ve gotta keep on working towards this, and NY seems a great place to do it. One of the last things that David said to me before I left the studio on W 53rd in Manhattan was “You’ve got a lot going for you, my only advice to you is.. Don’t fuck it up.” For some reason I don’t think I’ll ever forget those words.