Max McNown Explores Heartbreak, Healing, and the Beauty of Self-Discovery on Powerful Album ‘Night Diving (The Cost of Growing Up)’

In a few short years, Max McNown has made his mark on the music world, writing songs that are seen as poetry set to music.

McNown moved to California without knowing what he wanted to do with his life. His brother had been diagnosed with lymphoma, and after helping the family navigate the diagnosis and his mom’s persuasion to make a change and pursue something, he moved to Southern California, with a guitar his dad had given him, to try to make a life for himself. A friends belief in him and the suggestion to take a shot at singing in front of people, gave McNown the courage to try busking on the pier. Posting a few cover videos on Youtube brought attention to the young man from Oregon, leading to his first EP A lot More Free, with the title track taking off and thrusting McNown directly into the spotlight.

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Fast forward a couple of years, and McNown has released his third LP, Night Diving (the Cost of Growing Up), part two to his previously released Night Diving album. Adding 11 brand new songs to the original 10 songs, McNown has completed a project that fully represents himself.

Written all within the same period, the poignant lyrics written by McNown and his co-writers are combined with melodies that resonate with the listener. On the new album, McNown has set himself apart in a crowded field, writing songs with deep and relatable lyrics that strike a chord with anyone who listens.

“There is a lot of optimism, but optimism in the darker moments,” McNown tells American Songwriter. “I fell like that’s true to my personality. No matter what I’m going through, I’m always the kind of person that tries to find the silver lining. The album is meant to represent that there are going to be waves of difficulty, and trials that are going to be placed in your life, and how you handle them is the most important thing of all.”

American Songwriter: I want to talk about the album, Night Diving (The Cost of Growing Up), but first I want to find out a little bit about you. Who is Max McNown?

Max McNown: Max McNown is a singer-songwriter from Oregon. I saw a lot of this new age of country-centric music, the Tyler Childers, the Zach Bryan-type music, where it’s simple chords and just beautiful poetry. And that’s kind of the two pieces put together that make them so large. And I saw that and I was so inspired by that. So I’m a kid from Oregon who was inspired by the ability of all these artists to put poetry over simple chords and make a difference. And that’s what I’m trying to do.

AS: You’re one of five siblings. Tell me what it was like growing up Max.

MM: I couldn’t be more grateful for my family. I have an amazingly supportive and loving family. One of the most important things, I think all growing up that my mom and dad both told me is whenever I was wondering what I was going to do with my life, when I was insecure or anxious, that so many of my friends are going into the medical field and they see their lives years down the line already. And I was like, ‘I’m working at Starbucks. I’m going to try to be a manager, I don’t even know.’ One of the things that they always told me was, ‘I don’t know what you’re going to do, but whatever you choose to do, you’ll do it very well.’ That was always the reinforcement that they gave me, and that just always calmed my mind. I was always kind of surrendering it to, if once I decide, once I figure out what I want to do, it’ll be clear to me. And that it was.

They were always amazing in that way. My dad was very entertaining. He was really good with words. He spoke in analogies often, and I think that’s what I attribute my vocabulary to: my dad primarily. And he also sang for us and played guitar. Never professionally, but I remember before my youngest sister was born, he used to sit in the hallway that connected the rooms that my brothers and I were all sharing, and he would just sit, cross his legs, and sit out in the hallway, and he would play guitar and sing us, Zac Brown Band, Jack Johnson, Amos Lee, and Ray LaMontagne. I remember walking out and sneaking out, and some of my earliest memories are lying next to him and listening to him strum that guitar and play for us. So music was instilled in me.

AS: Talk about your new album Night Diving (The Cost of Growing Up). You had Night Diving, part one, and now the new album contains 11 new songs added to the original 10. What was the thought behind putting them both together?

MM: There’s two reasons. One, releasing music kind of in the tortoise wins the race fashion, where you release one song every three or four weeks and you keep singling stuff, that kind of pleases and stokes the algorithms that you have to cater to. And as much, and I’ve had so many conversations where I ask my management, ‘Can we just put out an album and maybe single one song before it?’ But the results do not lie. You just get on the radios of those DSPs (Digital Service Providers) and it ends up being beneficial and it keeps you in the scene and keeps your buzz going. So that was part of it. We wanted to release it in increments. And then we got to the point where we were ready to put out a full project, which is typically 10 to 12 songs, traditionally, again, exceptions to every rule. But we had a lot of these songs, a lot of the second part of Night Diving was written before some of the first part of Night Diving, so it’s always been one full album to me.

It was kind of released out of necessity. It was like, ‘Hey, we’re still working on this portion.’ It helps the algorithm anyway to have releases be consistent. So we saw it as a benefit to say, ‘Hey, here’s an album. This is what people will be pointed back to whenever they hear a single.’ It’s all going to come back to a full body of work, which we wanted to have that for this new album. Tthen we just figured we’ll finish the rest of them and then we’ll put that out and it’ll be kind of a side A, side B situation, even though I don’t favor any side. It’s more just, I think of albums as phases of life and all of these songs were written in the same phase of life, so they’re meant to be together.

AS: Night Diving seemed to be more heartbreak songs and sadness, whereas Night Diving (The Cost of Growing Up) seems lighter and more joyful in healing. Is that a fair assessment?

MM: You are absolutely right. I think that happened a little bit by chance. I wish I could claim credit for being that deep. But I wrote that first half, a lot of the first half songs were written either right after I met my girlfriend or before. So they were kind written in hindsight about a lot of the things I’d been through. That’s why it probably felt there was more turmoil. I think a lot of those writes, especially Night Diving, were therapy sessions for me. I was diving into myself and finding the things in the darkest parts of me that are things that need to be learned, but maybe are harder to figure out about yourself. The second half, almost every single song has been written after a long, steady and a lovely relationship. I just love her to death. And a lot of the songs represent that.

I’m in a really good place mentally. And speaking to the authentic mentality, it’s really hard for me to write a breakup song when I’m in the happiest relationship I’ve ever been. It’s like I want to write songs that are true to my own experiences, and that doesn’t mean I never write sad songs or I’ll never write another deep song. It’s just, I’m not going to write about how much I hate an ex if I’m just in a really great place.

AS: Was the first part about a different relationship than what you are in now? Or is it the journey of the same relationship?

MM: It’s the journey of the relationship.

And a lot of the earlier songs were very fresh into the relationship, and so I was still kind of looking in hindsight and thinking about all the things that I’ve been through, that’s where I was drawing inspiration from. And now she’s the main thing I draw inspiration from.

AS: Why did you want to call the album Night Diving and then Night Diving (The Cost of Growing Up)? What’s the significance of the name?

MM: I named it after the most important song to me, Night Diving. And then I realized that night diving is also absolutely a metaphor for digging into the parts of yourself that aren’t very pretty, and digging into the things that are difficult to confront, and learning the most about yourself when you do that. Swimming in the ocean is awesome. Every once in a while, you’ll see really cool creatures. When you go night diving, everywhere you look is something bright, shiny, and massive. And it was like, that was the takeaway for me, was to see all that.

That’s why I named the first half Night Diving. Because I feel like that’s what the first half is. It’s that more introspective, that darker, every write was like a therapy session, and then The Cost Of Growing Up is the optimism in that. So Night Diving is addressing those things, and The Cost Of Growing Up is realizing that A: You’re not alone, and B: All of the things that you’re going through are a part of life. Whatever you’re going through is a part of growing up and living life. It’s not always going to be perfect, but it’s always worth pushing forward and living. So yeah, optimism is the main takeaway from my album.

AS: On “Night Diving,” you sang the song by yourself first, and then on part two, you invited Cameron Whitcomb to sing with you. Talk about bringing him on and why you wanted to add him to the song.

MM: Cameron is one of one. He is the only Cameron Whitcomb in the entire world. And we talk about authenticity, and we talk about uniqueness, and what makes artists special is who they are. Cam is the epitome of that.

I love his music, I love his authenticity, and I love that he sings about some of the darkest parts of himself. He sings about his drug addiction or his former drug addiction. He’s clean now, but he’s very open about his battle with addiction. And “Night Diving” is a song about addiction. And so when we had the complete “Night Diving” and we decided we were going to potentially look for a feature on this next part of the album, he was the first person I reached out to. I just sent him “Night Diving” and I was like, ‘Hey, we’re going to release a second part of this album. We already had that planned down the line.’ And I was like, ‘I feel like this song is meant for you. If you would be down, I’d love to have you on it.’ And he was like, ‘Heck yeah.’ That’s as simple as it was. He recorded it, and I love how it came out.

Max McNowns’s Night Diving (The Cost of Growing Up) is out now: Listen Here

Max McNown TOUR DATES

Jul 18 Fri – Redmond, OR – Fairwell Music Festival
Aug 1 Fri – REGGIES Chicago (Official Lollapalooza Aftershow)
Aug 2 Sat – Chicago, IL – Lollapalooza
Aug 8 Fri – Elkhorn Precinct, NE – Pinnacle Bank Championship Concert Series
Aug 21 Thu – Kansas City, MO – KC Live!
Aug 22 Fri – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom
Aug 23 Sat – Dallas, TX – House of Blues
Aug 26 Tue – Houston, TX – House of Blues
Aug 27 Wed – Austin, TX – Emo’s
Aug 28 Thu – Helotes, TX – Floore’s Outdoors
Aug 30 Sat – Aspen, CO – JAS Aspen Labor Day Experience
Sep 1 Mon – Sandy, UT – Sandy Amphitheater
Sep 4 Thu – Sacramento, CA – Ace of Spades
Sep 5 Fri – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
Sep 6 Sat – Los Angeles, CA – The Novo
Sep 9 Tue – San Diego, CA – Observatory North Park\
Sep 10 Wed – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
Sep 11 Thu – Albuquerque, NM – El Rey Theater
Sep 13 Sat – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
Sep 17 Wed – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
Sep 20 Sat – Grand Rapids, MI – The Intersection
Sep 21 Sun – Detroit, MI – The Fillmore
Sep 23 Tue – Cleveland, OH – House of Blues
Sep 24 Wed – Pittsburgh, PA – Roxian Theatre
Sep 28 Sun – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
Oct 1 Wed – Montreal, QC – MTELUS
Oct 2 Thu – Toronto, ON – The Danforth Music Hall
Oct 3 Fri – Toronto, ON – The Danforth Music Hall
Oct 5 Sun – London, ON – London Music Hall
Oct 6 Mon – Ottawa, ON – Bronson Centre
Oct 9 Thu – Winnipeg, MB – Burton Cummings Theatre
Oct 11 Sat – Saskatoon, SK – Coors Event Centre
Oct 12 Sun – Edmonton, AB – Midway Music Hall
Oct 13 Mon – Edmonton, AB – Midway Music Hall
Oct 15 Wed – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
Oct 16 Thu – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
Oct 19 Sun – Seattle, WA – The Showbox
Oct 20 Mon – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom

Dec 1 Mon – Dublin, County Dublin – 3Olympia Theatre
Dec 2 Tues – Glasgow, Scotland – Barrowland Ballroom
Dec 3 Wed – Manchester, United Kingdom – Albert Hall
Dec 5 Fri – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Melkweg
Dec 6 Sat – Hamburg, Hamburg – Fabrik
Dec 8 Mon – Paris, France – Alhambra
Dec 9 Tues – London, England – O2 Forum Kentish Town
Dec 10 Wed – London, England – O2 Forum Kentish Town

* Lee T. Baker 
^ Ethan Luke 
~ MYFEVER 
**Weston T. Hine