INTERVIEW: MAXWELL Dishes on Things (Newsweek)
Maxwell Dishes on Auto-Tune, Hip-Hop, Radiohead, and Baby Makin’
Seth Colter Walls
Some musicians work only on their own terms, while others aim to satisfy the charts. Maxwell is doing both at the same time. After ditching the music game for eight years in order to pursue a “normal life,” Maxwell’s latest CD shot to the top of the Billboard 200 during its first week of release. He spoke to NEWSWEEK’s Seth Colter Walls about what changed in the interim─including Auto-Tune, hip-hop, and the urge to make babies of his own, as opposed to just baby-makin’ music. Excerpts from their chat:
After eight years away from the game, did you expect to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart?
It’s a good feeling to know you’re not irrelevant! Yeah, look, I’m always pleasantly surprised. I don’t walk around drinking my Kool-Aid, thinking I’m the ish of all times. You just cross your fingers and hope. I’m just grateful people went out and bought the album. They could have gone online, found a torrent, and stolen it!
I read that you were unsure of your relevance after the rise of Auto-Tune. What do you think now?
I’m always careful with the way I answer on this. I don’t want to be the guy who’s like the older guy. [In a wheezy voice] When we were doing it we were doing it like this. [Laughs] Because when I was starting out, there were people saying the same old ish about me. Every generation has the right to graffiti-stamp the era the way they so desire. What some see as a gimmick is what they see as their calling card. But those things can date themselves pretty quickly. For those people who really execute, it can be so amazing. If I hear a T-Pain song in a club, I start nodding. When everybody starts doing it, that’s when it’s like, I got it.
Some critics have called your lyrics generic. To me, though, it was cool that you didn’t spend any time trying to build up a unique myth about yourself on this album. It’s clearly not about you.
You know what I think about when people speak of bland lyrics? I think about what the landscape is offering right now: it’s always just metaphors about how much money and clothing and extravagance people are into. My tendency is, I like to be more broad about it, so people can put themselves inside the songs a little bit more.
BLACKsummers’night made me think of a couple different records: Al Green’s The Belle Album, because of the live-band sound. And Moon Ride from last year, by the legend Leon Ware, with whom you collaborated on Urban Hang Suite.
Yeah, man! You know, these long, detailed sort of descriptions of what I own and who I’m with and how great I am, and all that kind of business─when you listen to a lot of old soul records, that’s not where they come from or what they’re about. Hip-hop has created that. For me, I hope the audience can allow themselves to be inside what I’m trying to do. It’s already got my name on it. I don’t really need to beat you on the head with me. Music is a service. I’m more interested in what other people’s results will be. You know, I heard “Pretty Wings” is being used as a wedding song.
That’s a little strange.
I’m not sure why a song about breaking up with someone would be used in someone’s nuptials. But I’m happy to be of assistance. [Laughs]
Lots of people made a big deal about the “neosoul” movement in the ’90s, which included you. Who’s on the cutting edge of R&B today?
I don’t know. Is there such a thing as R&B anymore? Hip-hop has completely absorbed all of it. I have no problem with that. And I don’t think things are supposed to stay the same. They can transform. There’s some lyrical elements on “Pretty Wings” that are influenced by hip-hop: the “affliction/prescription” rhymes.
And the line where you say “You played me dirty.”
Yeah, that kinda thing.
What else are you listening to then, aside from hip-hop and the R&B you say it has absorbed? I heard you’re a big Radiohead fan.
I love the arpeggio stuff they’ve got going on. The space. You know, they can just be music. People look at me as a singer, as though I need to be singing all up and down every last moment of the record. “Help Somebody” has much more of a rock element than I’ve ever had on any past music. Working with Hot David, we tried to do something that was really interesting. Not just about race or color or whatever. We’re gonna dig a little deeper as we move into [the next two albums of his planned trilogy: blackSUMMERS'night and blacksummers'NIGHT, respectively].
I know you’ve written your next two records already, but when will you record them?
Oh, they’re done. I had eight years, you know! I’ll probably go in about four months or so to start tweaking them. My greatest contribution will be to kind of keep things live. It’s important to keep things organic that way. It feels so much better for the heart and soul to feel someone’s fingers on the guitar. Feel the keys hitting the chord.
Was it difficult to get the label to approve this record the way it sounds─live in a studio? Without any guest stars?
It’s funny. I just want to set the record straight. I’ve never had any interaction [with executives] where they said, “You can’t do this.” Never, not one record.
Really? There’s been a lot of talk about how your debut was held back for more than a year.
When Urban Hang Suite was held back for about a year, it was due in part to the fact there was no “black music” executive [at the label]. Which sounds archaic at this point, since iTunes has just made everything this big mishmosh. But in those days we had, like, departments for rock people and all that. The business was segregated musically. But there never was there an instance where the label interfered with me.
But you did do a last-minute remaster of this record, to keep the live sound, right?
The entire album went into mastering and it kinda was smoothed out. So we took away the brightness. We tried to make it feel like a lot of rock music right now. Like the Fleet Foxes and Bat for Lashes. Even Grizzly Bear has a vibe that I like a lot, too. This “in the room” feel where, it’s like, “We don’t really have that much money. The mics aren’t really that expensive.”
But the label didn’t Q-Tip you─threaten to reject a record or anything?
No! And he’s my boy, too! I can’t wait for that album [Kamaal the Abstract] to finally be released. I heard bits and pieces from the guy who mastered it, with Q-Tip’s permission.
We wrote about him earlier this year. It’s a great record.
You know, he was just too soon for people. Maybe right now it’s the right time. I think it’ll be pretty successful. I don’t know if he knows how successful it could be. Fingers crossed.
Speaking personally, what did the eight-year hiatus do for you?
I just feel like it really made me hungry again. All the time that I was away, people would walk up to me and say, “Just please put a record out. We really want something from you.” But I just got to be a human being. You know, you’re thrown out there in the spotlight, and you struggle with the polarized take that people have of you─where they think you’re the second coming of this or you just suck. The people who do get a great deal of success, they start to buy into the conditional aspect of that love. I’m so happy I didn’t lose the real idea of who I am. I’m not just a song, or a voice, or a haircut, or the suit I’m wearing. I feel like I can actually have a pretty healthy love life in the future. Maybe have some kids. Maybe be a person. You know people, if they don’t see you doing stuff, they think something’s wrong: “Why aren’t you out here hustling?” American Idol created this whole new perspective, in terms of what fame means.
How, specifically?
That you just need to be out there. You’re here to be judged and told how to look and go through this weird gauntlet for the world. I’m just here to have a normal life, just like you. Change just like you. Get older just like you. The byproduct of that life can result in some music, or result in some children. It can be anything. To be able to feel the strength of that, I can’t even tell you. It gives me more confidence and self-respect. When I look at Michael [Jackson], it seems he just always felt like he was really wrapped up in that whole game of the public and himself. And actually, I met the most beautiful women without having an album out. They didn’t know who the hell I was. There were really good things in my life, without having the cover of any magazines. That was really good for me. I think that I’ll be able to work for several years and maybe do it all again. Go away, make some children. And maybe people won’t freak out as much.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 3:44 pm and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Aizhana July 24th, 2009 at 12:29 am
O I love this interview!)