Max García Conover is a singer-songwriter hailing from Maine with a novel way of presenting and releasing new music. Ever since putting out the albums Burrow and ellery in 2013 and 2014 respectively, Conover has subverted the regular LP/EP cycle and instead opted to release one song more or less every week, building a huge catalogue of music on his Bandcamp page in the process. The method, at least in part, hails from Conover’s embrace of the Patreon platform, inviting backers to make small donations in exchange for a steady stream of new music. He also offers other rewards, such as merchandise and second hand books from his collection.
Aside from building up an audience and sense of community around his work, the process also lays the foundations for full-length albums, with 2017 seeing the release of Motorhome via Barcelona-based label, Son Canciones. The record is a cherry-picked array of the tracks that came into being through the weekly single series, though feels anything but a hodge-podge of unrelated material. Which is unsurprising, because the songs were drawn from the same well of inspiration, namely Conover’s travels around America in a camper van with his wife and dog. From rock-tinged driving song ‘Fire on I295’ to the upbeat rhythms of ‘On The Street After The Show’ and the cathartic energy of ‘Gone’, the record is an ode to life on the road, the push and pull between beauty and longing, freedom balanced by an uncertainty that can never quite be relieved.
The summation of this idea, ‘Another Travelling Salesman’ finds Conover at his most evocative and emotional. The track’s simple, wistful atmosphere conjures a vast American landscape, positioning the narrator as a tiny speck upon its great dusty plains, every sunset and moonbeam charging a burning nostalgia, a yearning for someplace to call home.
“you don’t mind the driving
you see the passing fields
you like going way out in your thoughts
but every night you feel it
that hungry sort of sadness
like there’s some essential thing you haven’t got
you thought you’d be a kind man by now
but you’re not”
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This summer saw the release of a brand new Max García Conover record, Stagger. However, the album is currently only available to his Patreon patrons, so it’s a pretty exclusive, mysterious thing. Stagger is again built from the singles that have been sent into the world previously, but in order to discover the true shape of the album you’ll have to sign up, or hope that the album someday sees the light of Bandcamp. That said, we know the first single is ‘Rich Man’, a verbose, politically-charged song that takes on the present moment, exploring not only the anger and helplessness but also the failings and fears of hypocritical action. Have a listen below:
You can find Max García Conover on Bandcamp, and support his Patreon page for exclusive music and rewards. Motorhome is available via Son Canciones.
Photography by Shaw Photography Co.