It's been an amazing ride for Max McNown, who has transitioned from busking at the San Clemente Pier in Southern California, to taking his talents to social media, and now touring the country with a few hits in hand, including the song, "A Lot More Free." The singer stopped by the Hard Rock Hotel in New York for a talk with NEW 102.7's Emily West, to trace his path and let us know there's much more to come.
LISTEN NOW: Mac McNown with NEW 102.7
"The friend that got me to busk, framed it like this, 'The worst case scenario, nobody cares, and the best case scenario, nobody cares,' McNown says of the lessons from his humble beginnings. "I have taken that into shows, I've taken that into so many areas of the musical career where it's like I have a job that I'm going to do my best to do and how it's received, that's out of my control, so that's what I took away from it."
Shifting to McNown's social media journey, Max committed to posting once a day, seeing it as a "war of attrition."
"I'm not the best guitarist in the world. I'm not the best vocalist in the world, but I am the only Max in the world, and that's what you have to play on." McNown adds that he aims to write songs to "be so personal to me where I can put so much emotion into this song, but write it in a way that others feel they relate to a piece of it."
Hear more about Max and his upcoming tour, being covered by Kelly Clarkson, and the new deluxe album, Night Driving (The Cost of Growing Up), out everywhere on July 18, by checking out the full interview above.