We recently connected with Max Harrison and have shared our conversation below.
Max, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
Harrison: I come from a long line of creative hard workers. My grandfather was an immigrant, guitarist, and a barber for 70 years. My grandmother was an immigrant, cook, and although not a professional, she was a damn good designer and seamstress. Their daughter, my mom, is a fine artist, illustrator, and graphic designer, and she raised three kids doing that. My family showed me how to work hard for the things you love.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
For starters, I’m the leader of a psychedelic indie rock and roll band called The Wax Worms. We’re based out of Miami, Florida, and we’re you’re typical friendly neighborhood worm-next-door project. My lovely bandmates are Alejandro Quevedo (keys/production), Ryan Garcia (lead guitar), Caleb Carr (drums), and Max Trullenque (bass).
Our music is inspired by blog-era indie rock, world psychedelia, proto-punk, and the 70s AM radio sound. And although we’re into some of the softer sounding stuff, our live shows are always high energy because we gotta get the ya-ya’s out. We just dropped a concert video on YouTube, “The Wax Worms Live at Shirley’s Theater”, and that’s probably a good example of the kind of energy I’m talking about.
We’re DIY ’til we die. We either make or design all of our merch, and we make all of our videos ourselves. I like to doodle and make art and movies, so it’s great to have a place where I can merge all my interests.
Currently, we’re working on a catalog of singles and videos that are set to release starting this Fall, and we’re very excited to start sharing them.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I’ll answer in two parts. For the first part, I’ll say be kind, friendly, and honest; write your music from the heart; and listen to loads of music from everywhere in the world absolutely all the time.
As far as advice goes: just try to make lasting connections with like-minded creatives in your community so that you don’t feel alone and you can help each other out. And, do it because you actually like and believe in the art that these people are making.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
I think the number one obstacle that we’re currently facing is honestly managing ourselves. We’ve started to scale up as a band (which is great!) but as we get older, our schedules become more difficult, so we’ve started to set up certain systems that we feel work for us so that we can make proper use of our time together. But it’s a constant thing we have to stay on top of.
We want to remain fully independent for as long as we can, so we do see management/booking as something that we’ll have to outsource pretty soon. SO, if you’re a booker or a manager or producer, that’s looking to manage a band or just book some shows for us – we want to talk to YOU.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thewaxworms.page
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/thewaxworms
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/thewaxworms
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thewaxworms
- Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/27hTtRapuCpHb6D5GavVS3?si=I1rj4RRtQyKBSCtjvS_kkw
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/thewaxworms
Main Site: thewaxworms.com
Image Credits
Live photography by Junette Reyes
Band portraits by Ariel ArriPurri Serrano
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
