Featured Image Credit: Tommy Nowels
Rising artist Max Drazen is known for some catchy, ear-warm songs such as “Caffeine,” “Blurry Pictures” and “Not Because I Loved You.” His recent single, “Five Three,” is about loving someone for authentically them being them and not based on image. We chatted with Drazen about his song and much more.
How are you??
I’m great, just generally very excited for this year. I’m releasing an EP soon and starting live shows so it’s all becoming wonderfully real.
You just released your latest single, “Five Three”, what was the inspiration behind the song and what is the title meaning as well?
It’s exactly what you would assume haha! I wrote “Five Three” about a girl I was in love with who is 5’3”.
It sounds like a perfect love song, telling someone you’re everything to you regardless of height or anything else. What’s the message listeners should take away from the song?
To me the song is simple. It’s just about the smallest things that this girl does that creates my world. It’s about someone who is literally short but makes a massive impact on my life. I thought a clever way to present the idea of this girl being everything was to compare how small she is to the size of her impact on me.
I love your lyric in “Five Three” ‘when I’m too high, you pull me down.’ This industry can have a lot of those moments. How do you stay grounded and what type of people do you surround yourself with to stay true to your music?
I have the same close friends that I had since I got to LA so it helps to have people that have known me for a long time. I also speak to my family every day. Hearing from people that knew me and loved me way before i ever considered making music is so important to my mental health.
Do you have a favorite lyric yourself from the song?
It’s between two lines in the first verse and I can’t decide; “When you say you love me that shit echoes.” And “ Let your aura pull me through the threshold.” Each of these lines describes what feels like a small, insignificant action but in reality, it’s the world to me.
If you could set up a fan in a setting for them to listen to “Five Three”, what setting would that be?
Literally the setting that I shot the live performance video. It was on a ranch in Malibu overlooking the Pacific ocean. There’s something so special about being up there and listening to “Five Three”.
How did you get into music in the first place? Do you remember the first song you wrote and thought, oh this is definitely my career calling?
I played soccer my entire life and once I started getting recruited for college it started to feel like a job rather than a passion. I realized all I ever knew was soccer. When I got to college my next door neighbor in the dorms was a producer, we started to write together a ton and immediately knew it was what I wanted to do the rest of my life. Covid hit and I left school, got in touch with my manager, wrote a song a day for a year and then a year after, I signed my deal. It’s been a whirlwind and I still haven’t fully internalized it all but I’m loving it so so much!!
Is there one quote or life saying that you’d want to ECHO out to fans?
Follow your gut. 9/10 time your gut instinct is what you should be doing. I will always preach this because it’s the reason I am where I am right now. It’s always hard to maybe go a different way than you, your parents, or whoever thought you would, but it’s the best decision you will make.
What’s next for Max Drazen?
LIVE SHOWS, EP!!! I’m super excited for people to see me perform my upcoming EP live. The show is going to be so much fun and the band is made up of some of my best friends. I can’t wait.