Oxford has been shown to be a thriving seat of music in the last year, with several Oxford based bands featuring in Angry Baby. This week, our Oxford based musician is Max Blansjaar, originally from Amsterdam. Sixteen year old Max began his musican career as a classical pianist, before starting to experiment with writing and recording his own pop music. A unique brand of deadpan lo-fi pop, Max’s debut EP Spit it Out! was released in 2017. Two years on, Max’s second EP, Fantasy Living, is released this week.
The five track EP opens with ‘Going Backwards‘, a great melody with intelligent, sharp lyrics. “You’ve ruined everything I could have been” and “my lonely life was so much better without you” are just two of the sharpest lines I’ve heard in a while. If there’s a story behind that, I’d like to hear it!
Moving onto ‘The Shame That I Wear’, which is a track that swings between a frenetic sound and Max’s deadpan, almost monotone delivery. I really enjoyed this and upon listening, got to the end and it just wasn’t long enough – I had to repeat a couple of times. Fantasy Living is an EP full of interesting tracks and this, for me, is the most interesting and is one of those tracks that gives a different meaning each time you listen.
Having said that, Fantasy Living is an EP that needs listening to a number of times; each time you’ll find something new.
Max’s advice for aspiring musicians is a mix of the practical and the funny – as some with a name that is often misspelled, the last bit made me chuckle:
“Get yourself out there! Even if you think what you’re doing is terrible. Who knows – someone out there may love it, and even if they don’t, the only way we can get better is to practise. To keep writing songs, and keep letting people hear them, and keep supporting your peers, and eventually you’ll get to a point where someone listens to your music and thinks: “yeah, I recognize that. I can feel that.” And in the end, that’s what music is all about! Also get a name people can spell, ’cause I didn’t do that and it comes back to haunt me every day.”
Fantasy Living will be released on 12 October 2019 on Beanie Tapes. Get your copy here.
Follow Max at:
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