Meet Max Devereaux

We recently connected with Max Devereaux and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Max, so excited to have you with us today, particularly to get your insight on a topic that comes up constantly in the community – overcoming creativity blocks. Any thoughts you can share with us?

I’ve overcome creative blocks by embracing the diversity of my practice as an artist, musician, and filmmaker. Having multiple creative paths to explore allows me to pivot from one discipline to another, freeing me from the frustration of feeling stuck in a single medium. This flexibility brings a sense of playfulness to my work, as I don’t feel pressured to treat each creative act as my sole means of expression at any given moment. I’m able to view ideas from multiple angles and explore how each form of expression affects me, before, during, and after the process. While I recognize that diving deeply into one medium over the long term might deepen certain aspects of my work, I often feel that doing so would neglect my natural curiosity and my drive to explore broadly and across disciplines. My approach to art-making moves both vertically into deeper layers of each practice, and horizontally across mediums.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’m an artist, musician, and filmmaker working at the intersection of sound, image, and performance. My name is Max Devereaux, and I was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a city whose cultural fabric really shaped who I am. From a young age, I was drawn to storytelling in all its forms, inspired by the museums, concert halls, and historic movie theaters I grew up around. I’ve followed that pull ever since, developing my practice largely outside traditional institutions through obsessive study, experimentation, and a drive to invent my own visual and sonic language.

What excites me most about my work is its range and fluidity. I move between experimental music, indie country, outsider film, abstract painting, ikebana flower arranging, and electroacoustic composition. I often blend these into hybrid forms that defy easy categorization. I’ve never been interested in sticking to a single genre or medium; I’m more interested in how different modes of expression can inform and transform each other. My process is intuitive and rooted in lo-fi aesthetics, and I think that rawness brings a certain energy and honesty to the work.

My filmmaking has gone through several phases, from early stop-motion animations and music videos to narrative shorts, a documentary feature film, and now to more experimental, fragmented approaches that focus on blur, accident, and perception rather than traditional storytelling. Alongside this, I’ve released music with independent labels across the world, including in Japan, Mexico, South Korea, the UK, Belgium, Canada, Poland, and beyond. This has connected me with a wider international avant-garde community.

In 2024, I had a solo exhibition at M.A.P. Gallery in Tokyo and have been fortunate to screen films at festivals and multimedia events both in Japan and abroad. Currently, I split my time between Southern California and Minneapolis, continuing to pursue a cross-media approach that values experimentation over fixed outcomes.

At the core of everything I do is a desire to create spaces for attention, feeling, and reflection. Whether through sound, image, or gesture, I’m always trying to open up a new way of seeing or listening—something that feels alive and full of possibility.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

For me, the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that have impacted me the most are my three main pursuits as a creative individual: art, music, and film.

These three arenas have formed a kind of holy triumvirate in my life, guiding and shaping my work in ways that keep it flexible and difficult to categorize. Having the ability to temporarily step away from one medium and immerse myself in another gives me a rare opportunity. Not many artists have the chance to step outside a discipline, view it from the outside, and then return with a renewed perspective. This ability allows me to penetrate more deeply into the foundations of each form and explore what makes them compelling, not just for myself, but for others who’ve held similar roles as artists, musicians, and filmmakers.

My advice to those just starting their journey in any of these fields is this: you have two basic routes. You can take the safer path, specialize in one area, become really good at it, and enjoy the benefits of being easily understood. You’ll have a recognizable, nameable vocation that people can point to and say, “Ah, I get what you do.”

Or, you can take the more difficult path, like I did. This means trying to keep multiple creative plates spinning at once, constantly being misunderstood for going through all this extra effort, and just hoping that someone, someday, gives you credit for your unusual little party trick. I suppose my real advice is: it’s your funeral. How hard do you want your life to be? And more importantly, can you turn that difficulty into something useful in your work?

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

Recently, I’ve become a dedicated student of the late American composer John Cage. I’ve read two biographies and immersed myself in every interview, lecture, documentary, and piece of academic writing by and about him that I could find. In many ways, I feel a deep kinship with Cage, as an artist who wasn’t afraid to take risks, to explore, and to follow his curiosity wherever it led.

Like myself, Cage was incredibly playful. He took great joy in crafting his works and was always open to collaboration and the discovery of new possibilities. His approach to art and music, deeply influenced by Zen Buddhism, resonates strongly with my own vision: to be present and awake to the wonder of each moment. I tell anyone who will listen about how profoundly his work has impacted me.

Since encountering his teachings, I feel as though I’ve gained a new arsenal of language, concepts, and examples to guide and protect me, especially in moments of self-doubt. Time and again during my study of his work, I’ve found his methods and mindset to be incredibly intuitive, often mirroring approaches I was already using in my own practice. This sense of being reinforced by a mentor from afar has been grounding and deeply affirming. Cage worked tirelessly to create beauty and to illuminate the world, and in doing so, he’s helped me feel more secure in my own process.

His influence has given me confidence, allowing my ideas to flow more freely without judgment, and helping me let go of likes and dislikes. I’m incredibly grateful to him and to everyone who has written about his life or helped share his work with the world.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Photos by Kari Fisher

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