For all the ills of the internet and all its potentially negative effects on young people, you only have to look as far as young creatives to find some positives. Not only can they share their art with others, they can make connections across cities, states, and countries, and those connections can lead to collaboration.
Maxwell Young lives in Wellington, New Zealand, and his latest song, "Midnight," features Clairo, an artist from Boston who blew up this year with an intimate sound and honest approach. The two have never met in person, but have been mutual admirers of each other's music, and their dual vocals make "Midnight" a special song. It's hushed, gentle, and beautifully intimate.
"'Midnight' was directly inspired by the house party scene of 10 Things I Hate About You," Maxwell Young explains. "The tone, colours, characters all felt really special to me and prompted me to write about the experience of being with your crush at a house party and the ebb and flow of that game until it's around midnight when you leave and that moment has past."
Listen to more music from Maxwell Young here and learn more about him below.
Why did you want to get Clairo on the song and how did that come about?
Claire and I have been friends for a couple years now through liking each others music. I'd always thought our voices would work really nicely together. After the first day of making "Midnight" I knew she would sound perfect on the song and really help create a back and forth nature of different characters. It was my first experience working with another vocalist on a song and I'm so blessed she was so eager to work on it. Her success this year has been inspiring and I'm so proud to see her attain all the success she's getting now. 2018 is going to be a huge for her.
How does New Zealand impact the music you make? Is there much of a music scene where you live?
I don't think its impact is that strong on me, probably because it's all I've ever known. I've never left the country actually. There are some scenes but on the whole not much going on in line with what I do here. The rise of Lorde was a huge moment for New Zealand music and she's a huge inspiration to me for being so young, independent and pure in her art. I also have heaps of admiration for Lontalius who's from my city and he's been a hero of mine since I was 12.
Honestly I don't feel like I'm missing out on much most of the time for living in such a small country. I'd still be making music by myself 95% of the time if I lived anywhere else, not too different to what I'm doing right now. There's the internet to allow anyone to hear it and learn whatever I need. However, I am very excited to travel and see different scenes in the future.
