A native of Brisbane, Max Byrne found himself enthralled with the complex facets of electronic music at a young age studying the synthesizer and the techniques of his favorite producers. A unique mix of influences has molded his sound into a distinct lo-fi downtempo style touching on pop, hip-hop, and delicate soul sensibility. As Max puts it, “I want to convey in my music everything I love about music.” C-Heads sat down with Golden Vessel to learn more – enjoy and read below!
Photos provided by MGMT
Positive Pressure
Something that I became aware of is that I write really well under pressure. There is always pressure when you’re writing in the room with someone else. This pressure comes from wanting to show your best work in front of other people and also time constraints. This forces you to work faster and take risks that you wouldn’t usually take. I’m all for writing a track either from scratch or nearly from scratch with another person in the same room, and I tend to shy away from email collaborations because they’re so mild in comparison.
New Places
I love getting out of my bedroom studio and writing somewhere else. With “Shoulders” I had started the instrumental and didn’t know where to take it next. Elkkle and I went down to his parents property on Phillip Island for two nights, it was really cold and beautiful, and the scenery just fuelled the creation of the song. I was also in Taiwan earlier in the year and went to a coastal town called Hualien for two days. I hired a scooter and went up to this amazing national park for a day and the next couple of days I made a lot of headway on a few of songs on the EP i’ve got coming out later this year.
Friends
I’m from Brisbane and although it is far from being the most exciting place on earth, I love it. The music scene is thriving, everyone looks out for each other, and there are connections being made across a variety of creative fields. I’m seeing more photographers and designers link up with a lot of artists and form really strong visuals for the Brisbane music scene. One of these people is Sean Pyke who works with a lot of Brisbane musicians, and who I collaborate with quite a bit on all of my ideas. There’s nothing more exciting to me than seeing my friends work really hard and do really well.
Sound
When i’m working on music I often find it difficult to channel colours or places or stories. Instead making music for me is very audio-based. I’m constantly listening to music and sounds all around me, and when something sparks my attention I feel inspired to somehow incorporate that into my music. Something that I’ve been putting together over the last year is a folder on my hard-drive, and every time I have access to a new piece of musical gear I’ll just make a bunch of random recordings. This has often been a starting point for a lot of recent songs, sifting through these folders and getting inspired by something I recorded 6 months ago.
Film Photography
In the last year I’ve picked up an old film camera and have been shooting heaps of photos. The thing I love about film is that because each exposure costs money and you only have a limited amount of shots, you put more thought into the framing and lighting. I also really enjoy the wait of getting photos developed, it’s nice to having something that isn’t so instantaneous. Taking photos is a nice creative outlet when I need to take a breather from music
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