Hi Guys,
Thought this might be an interesting topic. I remember in some video Max saying that he wanted to incorporate more rock/heavy metal influences into his sound and that's why he contracted Shellback as the man for that. Also similarly, Kristian contracted Carl Falk I believe for a similar reason, in order to incorporate more acoustic and rock elements into his sound. So just from simple deductions, I would say that Max and others contract songwriters and producers based on the current trend occurring or the trend they believe is on the horizon, as in, a mostly likely trend. For example, if the Pop trend were to become more Jazz based, would Max think about contracting Jazz musicians in order to keep his sound up to date. Or is it completely not like that and Max just chooses his collaborators based on whether he likes the music personally. Your thoughts please?
Neal.
Regarding Shellback, the story has been made public in the past. Shellback's friend Julius is related to Max's wife. Through him, he got to send Max songs, which were pretty much death metal songs. As a joke, he wrote a pop song for Julius' birthday if I remember correctly, which Julius sent to Max. He thought it had "something", so he invited him to sit in the studio watching him work. I get the feeling that Max just felt that it was time to take on the mentoring role á la Denniz Pop, more so than that he needed a drummer, or all round rock-guy to collab with.
Julius went on to become A&R for Warner, where he rounded up the guys (and girl) that became Wolf Cousins. So I'd say that it's more Shellback's thing than Max's. And that they were picked based on pop-talent more than individual genre strenghts, seeing as they are pretty diverse.
Obviously all writers collaborate with different producers and session players based on the project. Take Billboard for example that Luke & Max worked with for the more complex, dubstepish beats and weird production stuff a couple of years back. But as for long time collaborators I think it's mostly chemistry and that they complement each other both personality wise and musically. Just my two cents!
i honestly dont know
Cool thanks for the run down on that Alexander LaBrea. So it seems that Shellback had a lot going for him, the fact that he knew Julius and Max was looking to mentor someone at the same time. I guess who you know and timing come into great effect here. With no disrespect to Shellback, I just feel disappointed that it was because of a joke track that he got his opportunity, especially when there are many pop musicians who would have been submitting serious pop music to Max at the time.
Again, with no disrespect to Shellback you can't exactly say that he was picked purely on Pop talent. Come on. Surely Julius had the winning hand to play in Shellback even getting an opportunity to sit in Max's studio as something of a screening or interview phase, if you like. I wonder how many other musicians got the chance to sit in Max's studio and undergo a screening phase??
I know what you're thinking, I sound a bit jealous, not at all. I'm perfectly content with my 80s pop sound and wouldn't trade it in for all the chart hits in the world, simply because I don't like what's going on in the charts at the moment, I can go on about it but I would just be ranting.
Again with no disrespect to Shellback, I just wish big musical decisions were actually based on a fair platform. Wouldn't it have made more sense for Max to screen hundreds if not thousands of musicians before actually making his big choice for a collaborator? It's kinda like only trying one meal at a restaurant, the meal that your friend tells you to try and what about all the other great food out there? Just my 2 cents. Let keep this going with more thoughts.
Well, maybe Shellback is the reason Max got to thinking he wanted a protegé? An "interesting, wonder what I can do with this kid" kinda situation!
Or maybe he saw himself what Denniz saw in him.
The only thing I see is cross-genre, both shellback and max didnt pop in their roots. I agree it's maybe the same thing Denniz saw on Max
Definitely based on who is the best at producing the current trends in music. I even remember watching an interview where Savan Kotecha said that Sonics change overtime but melody doesn't. He said that you can always hire a new "beat guy" when your current collaborator gets stale and that is why Max Martin has had success for so long.
Good points, but a little abstract don't you think, "What Denniz saw in Max," now what was that exactly? Did he see a blinding light of awakening when Max walked in the room, I mean it's so subjective, I think I would have to rely on basic Logic that Denniz at the time was looking for a Pop melody maker because the likes of The Backstreet Boys, AceofBass, Robyn etc were around so he must of thought "what about dance and pop together, but where is my Pop guy??" Max's audition must have shown his abilities to write melodies and I think Denniz could hear a good melody, even dressed up as a Rock tune.
So I doubt there was some kind of "I see the light" experience Max felt when he heard Shellback's stuff, logically he probably heard a great melody maker like himself, maybe that is what you mean, I don't know. Well, my point is you can't quantify seeing something in someone, anyone could be hired for any reason then and that goes against simple logic. It has to be specific and quantifiable and provable. Can this guy make great melodies? Yes or No, like that and I think those thought processes were more akin to Max's thinking. But without trying numerous musicians there must be a lot of doubt in his mind, whose to say he's not thinking "could there be someone better out there or should I have hired at least 2 people?", see what I mean.
Also, unless Max is a telepath how would he know what Denniz saw in him, unless Denniz told him. What a weird question to ask, "what did you see in me?" and can you expect a truthful response. "I saw dollar signs kid, I mean great talent." Okay maybe I'm being a bit silly now. Any more thoughts?