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Music

A moment of reflection: we chat Snake-Tooth Marrow with They Call Me Max

UK artist They Call Me Max is nothing if not original, even if he won’t admit it. So far we’ve heard two singles, the evocative Come and the heart-wrenchingly personal Snake-Tooth Marrow.

Combining elements of beat poetry, hip-hop and classical into a new beast entirely, his output so far is one defined by the unexpected move. As his second single twists its way around the airwaves, we caught up for a chat.

they call me max snake-tooth marrow

A deep dive into a darkened personal space, is Snake-Tooth Marrow a therapeutic release for They Call Me Max, or a dangerous one?

HAPPY: Hey man, congrats on releasing the new single – how’s the reception been so far?

MAX: Thanks man! Ye I think the reception has been good. It certainly seems to be performing better than the first single, which is contrary to my expectations but a pleasant surprise! I think when something is this personal to you, getting it out there into the big bad world is quite a daunting prospect, so I think even if people haven’t liked it, just the fact that it’s out is a success. I’ve definitely found that I feel much less stressed about stuff now the two singles are out, so regardless of reception it’s very rewarding.

HAPPY: With a song like Snake-Tooth Marrow, you’ve confronted some pretty personal issues… does it ever get difficult writing a song like that?

MAX: I mean ye there are some very personal things being confronted in the song. I think at the time of writing it, I was in a pretty dark space, so actually getting out what I was feeling wasn’t difficult since all these emotions were kind of boiling over the surface anyways… like if they weren’t coming out in musical form they would have been expressed in some other way, probably much less positive. I found the most difficult thing wasn’t writing it, but to expose that part of myself to other people by putting the song out.

It’s a funny one, because obviously when people listen to Snake-Tooth Marrow they’re going to feel a certain way about it, and probably assume that the guy that made it feels that way all the time. But in reality the song reflects just a snippet in time, a moment of reflection. It’s just a funny thing to have such a permanent representation of that moment. But I find it useful, regardless.

HAPPY: We’ve really digging the tune – what’s it like knowing there are people on the other side of the world really connecting to your music?

MAX: Ah man it feels great! The birth of the internet has allowed so much sharing that would previously have been impossible, it’s a really exciting thing. Like, the reality is that so much time is spent alone creating these things, making music, thinking about your life and just kind of being in that creative space that without being connected to the rest of the world online, probably nobody would ever hear anything I do! That’s probably less the case with other artists but for me it’s an incredibly important tool. The fact that you can share things half way round the world with other humans that you have never met is quite a powerful concept.

HAPPY: The video was really great too – what was the concept behind that one?

MAX: Oh, thank you very much. I’m glad you guys liked it! It’s a bit of a departure from the video for the last single but I think it reflects the nature of the song better that way. Firstly, I just want to say thanks again to the guys at Context Films who made the video possible, and to my boy Suki at Swordtail Studios in Haggerston who let me use his incredible space.

So in answer to your question (sorry, shoutouts were definitely required!) the idea was that it was just like this guy in an empty space performing the track, almost like you’re seeing into someone’s head, looking at the place where they think these things. I wanted this feeling of vast space around me, and like there were some things which were recognisable, but it was all happening in this abstract imaginary place. Whether or not people got that from watching the video, I don’t know, but that was the idea at least!

HAPPY: I think an interesting part of your history is your experience at your local Buddhist temple watching monks chant – do you think this musical experience has influenced your current music in any way?

MAX: Ye, I mean I think that’s definitely sunk into my mind somewhere and for sure it emerges when I’m creating, but never consciously. I mean a lot of those experiences I found quite evocative in terms of the feeling that you have when you’re in this big reverberant building filled with monotone voices chanting away, and probably those emotional feelings and the energy that you get from that experience is definitely something that has made me reflect, and therefore in turn, informed my music.

But it’s not like, ‘oh ye, let me make something which is influenced by Buddhist chanting today,’ if you know what I mean? I think as people, so many things are just absorbed into your subconscious and life is so rich and intricate at times it’s impossible to process everything consciously. But then when you do something like make music in a way where you kind of don’t think intellectually, but are just feeling things out and trying to be as purely emotional as possible, that’s when experiences that your subconscious has been processing come to the surface… if that makes any sense at all!

HAPPY: Your sound is incredibly unique. How important is remaining original to you?

MAX: Thank you very much, I take that as quite a compliment given that so much music is homogeneous these days! I mean obviously it’s important for me to feel like I’m doing something unique, just because that reflects my personality, but I would never try and make something weird or awkward when I was writing just for the sake of originality.

The music is what is most important, in whatever form that may be, so if something needs to sound like a pop song for me to feel like it’s being expressed correctly, then a pop song it will be! Not that I would aim for that, but I won’t restrict myself when it comes to creativity so the thought of whether or not something is original isn’t really a factor in my process.

HAPPY: With your new EP coming out in the near future – are you exploring similarly personal themes on the other tracks?

MAX: In a short answer, yes. My music is very autobiographical and I find it most useful when it’s saying things that otherwise I wouldn’t confront or talk about, so there’s a lot of personal material in there – pretty much exclusively. I think the kind of music that I like or that I feel has impacted me most is about things that you really feel the artist has experienced, true reflections of their life that more often than not, you can also relate to. I think that’s the kind of music that I find most useful to myself.

It’s interesting that actually I find I don’t want to listen to my own music that much, mainly because the things that I write about are no longer parts of my life or don’t stress me out or make me anxious anymore, so I almost have no need to listen… almost like the therapy is complete!

HAPPY: What can we expect from They Call Me Max going forward?

MAX: Oh what, you mean other than total world domination? I joke, I joke, no but seriously, I’m working on the next EP as we speak and wrote a new song just yesterday that I’m quite pleased with… I think there will be more melodic songs, and hopefully I’ll have a bit more confidence to do a bit more straight-up singing on the next record, so trying to do that is fun. I’m also trying to write some more up-beat music, with varying success!

And for the Start Small EP I want to start working on an animation video for the song We Moved To Stocton Road, so I’m going to start hunting for a kick-ass animator so that we can get that moving and drop it a month or so after the whole EP release. Meanwhile, I’ve got my boy working on some remixes of the solo tracks, so there should be a lot more fun and games coming your way! If anyone reading this is/knows any kick-ass animators, please get in touch!

Thanks for chatting to me man, I appreciate the support. Until next time!