October sees Max’s Records celebrate it’s 5th birthday. How did Max’s Records start and what were your ambitions for the label at that time?
Max’s Records started after a rather drunk conversation with a mate who was in a band. He suggested that, since I went to loads of gigs, why not put on a gig myself, so the same night I booked The Railway in Winchester and then proceeded to ask some bands who I’d seen and particularly liked to come along and play. That 1st gig happened to be very near to Max’s 2nd birthday so I decided to name the musical evenings after him! My mate doesn’t actually recall having the said conversation, but I always put the blame on him for the birth of Max’s Records!
What are your earliest musical memories? Who or what first got you into music?
Top Of The Pops. Plainly and simply watching that. Used to love all the Glam Rock stuff. My dad had a pretty eclectic vinyl collection which also helped I suppose.
What’s your musical background? Have you been in bands yourself?
Unfortunately I’ve never been in a band, but watching anyone go up on stage to perform music does sometimes give me a slight urge to take up piano again. I did it for about 12 years then exams got in the way, and never took it back up again. You never know though, one day maybe.
What are your memories of your first Max’s Records live night?
An absolute classic! Dead!Dead!Dead!, Blackstarcrash, Caroline’s Capuchin and Kath Hewitt at The Railway! I thought it was all sussed until two days before when I get a phone call from the Dead! boys telling me they needed to swap their slot, Blackstarcrash not wanting to budge from their slot and Caroline’s Capuchin ending up headlining! It was certainly a sign of things to come! Total and utter chaos! Great night of music though which just gave me the impetus to do more.
Do you have any favourite memories from the past 5 years?
Every gig we do (I say we, ’cause Max does get involved a bit these days) is a favourite! Each one is like the first, having that sense of what are the bands playing going to come up with this time. There can be some surprises. But there was one particular night a couple of years back where we invited seven bands to play, each of which did a cover of another band playing the same night – everyone bought into the idea and it was fantastic to see how they all gave their own particular take on the other bands’ song.
Who are your current favourite bands/artists in and around Southampton? Why?
We couldn’t possibly answer that question because each and every one of the awesome musicians who play a Max’s night are favourites of ours. What I can say is that we’ve met some really, really nice people along the way who are a pleasure to work (if you can call it work) with. And long may that continue. How’s that for diplomacy?
However, Max himself does have a predilection for The Rebs and Arp Attack/Jazica (Sorry Arp Attack, he does still call you Jazica) and he is partial to a bit of Broken Links. On the acoustic side he does listen to Natalie Hall a bit, and he’s been known to nick my CD of Under The Laurels and slip it into the player. I’d like to mention some of our favourite out-of-town bands though, as we’re starting to branch out just that little bit in dragging some down to our nights – there’s Amy Wyke from Kettering (http://www.amywyke.com) who’s an awesome singer-songwriter, Mike Dawes and Amy Turk (http://www.mikedawesamyturk.com) who are just blowing people away with their guitar/harp sets, Auction For The Promise Club from Cornwall, (http://www.myspace.com/auctionforthepromiseclub) who make a phenomenal sound for a 3 piece band, The Cleo Whip from London (http://www.myspace.com/thecleowhip) who have been off the music scene for far too long but are now reforming, can’t wait to get them back again at some stage, and if we go a bit nearer to home there’s 2 Basingstoke bands who we reckon can play a bit, KTS (http://www.myspace.com/kissts) and The Fortunate (http://www.myspace.com/thefortunateuk).
Tell us about your plans for the 5th Birthday celebrations. Which bands are playing and why did you chose them specifically?
Ah, the 5th Birthday celebrations. Total and utter self indulgence I’m afraid! Decided to go completely overboard and so we’ve got around 40 bands/acoustics playing over 5 nights at 4 different venues. We secured the venues, sat down and worked out a rough game plan and sent out some invites. Fortunately most of the bands/acoustics we asked were actually available to do the nights so off we go. It’s gonna be great fun! They’re playing because we love them and they apparently like doing our nights.
What do you think of Southampton’s music scene in general?
Is there a “scene” as such? What I see is an absolute plethora of talented musicians who just need a stage to get up on to amaze anyone who’s in the venue watching/listening.
Are there any bands that you are particularly keen to sign to Max’s Records?
There’s some exceptionally gifted young musicians out there who just need a little push to get into a music venue and do their stuff, so to speak. We love getting everyone involved but if we were to become a real label as such, the first signatures I’d be after would be Mike Dawes and Amy Turk. I just cannot emphasize enough just how amazing they are and how much we at Max’s HQ love them to bits.
What’s next for Max’s Records?
More gigs. We’re putting on a lot more nights than was envisaged 5 years ago, the plan then was one gig every two months or so, but that has now mushroomed into 4 or 5 gigs a month. I’ll be in the divorce court soon and Max’ll have to run the gigs himself (laughs).
Where do you hope Max’s Records to be in the next 5 years?
Secretly I’d love Max’s Records to actually become some sort of DIY label – from time to time knock out a CD or better still, vinyl of music we love, get some of these awesome local musicians into a studio and do some EP launch nights. That’d be wonderful, but it’s having the time to do it all – I have enough trouble keeping up with the Max’s Records bootleg archive let alone anything else!
Finally, we at Max’s Records would like to thank not only all the musicians who have done/continue to do our gigs, the venues we use for having us, but most importantly of all massive thanks go to the sound engineers – the crucial people without who our crammed multi-band lineups would just fall to pieces.
Interview by Paul Lane.
Unplug The Jukebox 