THE STORY

It was early October in the rural town of Dover, Ohio. On a street corner stood a fifteen year old boy. He’d heard the sounds of the Harlem streetlight “serenades” of the doo-wop era. He envisioned himself there, in Harlem New York, where on every street corner stood a different acapella group. Something about those magic changes, the chords of course, of the true doo-wop sound made his heart flutter and his little eyes water. 

With this came a soundtrack to his life. He wanted to sing the bass part and the lead part and all the other parts. He’d had a fascination with sound since a toddler and had been playing piano by ear since the age of seven. To him, those four chords appeared more true than the morning. 

He soon realized (after composing a dozen songs or so) that HE could be the one on stage performing them. If those doo-woppers from old could do it on a street corner, he could definitely hold his ground with a mic and a piano. This is the story of Max Beal.

Shortly after the “doo-wop epiphany” he got his first job as summer help for the local power plant. Here, he would spend eight hours a day hiding in the dark coal covered rooms. He smuggled in an old acoustic guitar and would write songs until his boss sent the “where the hell are you” text. 

After the summer ended, Max was going into his junior year of high school. He’d secured the funds from the power plant to build a studio in his parent’s basement. He bought microphones, a crappy recording interface, a drum set, an electric guitar, an old friend’s amp, and a bass guitar. He also bought sound treatment foam and put it on the walls and ceilings. Did it do anything for the sound of the room? He didn’t care- it looked legit and that was enough.

In this creative space, Max would refine the sounds bouncing around in his head. Still holding true to those magic chord changes, he recorded his first EP, Change. He would go on to write, perform, engineer and produce two additional full-length albums and another EP in that room.

After the release of Change, Max competed in GROOVE U’s annual battle of the bands competition called Instaband. The year was 2018. A month before his seventeenth birthday, Max Beal became the first ever solo act to win the competition.

After winning the competition, on March 28th, 2018, Max released his second full length album titled New Love. This was his first album available on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. He also released his second EP which was an expansion and re-record of his first album.

Winning Instaband also yielded a record deal with Elementary Records and Max’s third EP titled Dumb in Love, which was recorded in Columbus, Ohio in the summer of 2018.

Max’s final album in his home studio, Xplode, was released on his eighteenth birthday in 2019. In this release, Max accomplished his goal of a concept album that was produced to the highest standard attainable for him at that time. This was BIG. Staying true to the streetlight inspiration, the melodies compelled him to a feeling. This meant that the audience would be compelled to a feeling, whatever it was. He knew that in order to be the artist he wanted to be, demanding a response was the most important feature. 

Max is a noble and unapologetic case of “C’s get degrees”, so when he graduated high school, he knew where he was headed: a career in the music industry. At the end of summer 2019, he moved to Columbus to start school at Groove U, a two-year music entrepreneurial program. 

Here, he is learning firsthand the woes of the music industry and developing every aspect of the artist he is destined to become. What’s in store? He doesn’t even know, other than it’s going to be entertaining, enchanting, beautiful and bold. Max is building a musical empire of work, talented musicians, and entertaining experiences. Soon, he will “xplode” into the consciousness of all that choose to listen. Will you be there to watch, laugh, and cry? Max hopes so. He knows the sky's the limit— therefore there are no limits. This is Max Beal.