Canadian riser maxime. unveils new EP, mile end (kiss ur friends)
Montreal, QC-based up-and-coming artist, maxime. has unveiled his highly anticipated 6-track EP mile end (kiss ur friends).
The self-written, mixed, and engineered offering perfectly showcases the Canadian riser’s ability to marry left-of-center electronica, lush alternative sounds, and his innate pop sensibilities, the result being music that is equally interesting as it is infectious. Each track is the product of a different coming-of-age experience from the 24-year-old’s life since moving from Ottawa (where he was born and raised) to Mile End, the bustling, culture-infused neighborhood of Montreal that has shaped the past two years of his young adulthood.
Alongside the EP, maxime. has announced his debut headlining North American tour, which will kick off in July. The breakthrough act has accumulated over 40M+ streams across his impressive catalog and has graced the covers of multiple top editorial playlists, including Spotify’s Indie All Stars and indie pop & chill playlists to name a few. Whether you catch maxime. on tour this summer or you see him plastered across a NMF billboard in downtown Toronto at Yonge & Dundas, there is no denying that with each new release, maxime. solidifies his position as one of the most exciting artists to watch develop.
Listen to mile end (kiss ur friends) below and learn more about maxime. via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Howdy readers, I am Maxime, but you might know me as maxime.. I put a period in my stage name solely to make it look awkward in written media. I kind of regret going with the lowercase punctuation aesthetic, but it’s too late now. Anyway, I make music in my bedroom in the beautiful city of Montreal. Genre-wise, my work is a little all over the place, but I guess it hangs around the indie-pop categories. I make a mean beef bourguignon, never learned how to swim, and my favorite movie is Leaving Las Vegas
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
I have a new song called “wedgie” and it has nothing to do with underwear. It is my favorite song on my new EP called mile end (kiss ur friends). I am particularly proud of “wedgie.” The magic I felt the day I started this one is why I make music. The bassline and how it just stays glued to the drums make me very happy. And the little BAH BAH BAH BA-DAH part is so fun. I love it. Lyrically this one is mostly just me complaining, but more specifically about how personal growth can feel contractionary at times. 1 step forward 2 steps back type beat. I think I was sad when I wrote this, but I am happy it doesn’t sound like I was. This song is too fun to be sad while listening to it. Actually, hey, maybe you should throw it on right now while you read the rest of this interview. Set the mood and all that.
Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?
I rarely ever go into a song knowing what I want the song to be about. I almost never sit down knowing what it is exactly I want to write, only that I want to write something. I usually start my songs with the composition itself. I’ll noodle around on the guitar and find some chords or play around with a synth and some drum samples until I find something that feels right. On days when I am really struggling to come up with something that excites me, I’ll find a song or two that I really like, then try and fail at replicating some part of that song I really dig. More often than not, whatever I tried to steal but couldn’t quite play right/was out of my vocal range, or whatever gets turned into this whole new thing. From there, that’s where the really fun ideas flow from.
Since I tend to compose the songs first not knowing what I want the songs to be about, the lyrics come to me along the way. Either I’ll get an idea halfway through for a more concrete cohesive idea, or I will just write about whatever the hell different things are going on in my life at the moment. Sort of like a purposefully vague diary entry that rhymes.
Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?
Indeed, I do. I’m going to be touring (hopefully) northeastern US this July. Hitting all the major spots (yes, even there). maxime. takes on the USA, baby! I’m talking Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, New York, and even a few Canadian spots like Toronto and Montreal. At these shows, you can expect to see me and my two favorite men in the world perform my best songs… live! Like you’ve never heard them before! with my good friends, Lucas and Clay playing real-life physical instruments while I sing and dance on a stage. Maybe I even play a few songs that haven’t come out yet, who knows…
What’s your goal for 2023?
I really, really, really want to score a short indie film. If you are an indie filmmaker (short or not) reading this right now, hit me up.
Otherwise, I think it’s about time I try and write a concept album. I don’t want to commit to anything right this instant, but I really want to put out a piece of work that I’ve thought through to be a cohesive narrative. Maybe this year is the year, huh?