Getting to Know Max Quinn

September 27, 2016

Max Quinn has just dropped his new single. We asked him to tell us about himself:

I am… Max, from Ballina. Nice to meet you. I am hoping for an opportunity to tell you about my new song, ‘The Boys’ but I am unsure if it is going to come up in this Q&A. I hope it does. It’s a song about hyper-masculine discourse in Australia and our readiness as a society to accept it as cultural doctrine. I don’t like it and I want it to be different so that my friends can feel safe at shows and so that my girlfriend doesn’t get leered at by bulky dudes who drive past her in beat-up Subarus and I hope that it makes you think about what prompts this enculturation and why we think it’s okay.

Again, I hope that I get the chance to discuss it with you in this Q&A, but you are the person asking the questions and I am just the boy typing the answers and I don’t dictate what is going to happen next. Anyway, if there is an opportunity for you to ask me about my new song called ‘The Boys’, that would be welcomed by me personally.

“The Boys” is… I don’t know what you’re referring to.

My single launch will be… In Collingwood, on Friday October 14. My friend Alex will be there and my friend Ruby will be there and they will sing songs too and I hope I can bring my cats Jeff and Michelle but probably not. One time Jeff got out after I got home late from a gig and I stayed out until 4am trying to find her and eventually she (Jeff is a girl) came back home and then we had to get Michelle so she would always have someone to play with but now Michelle tries to run away and he (Michelle is a boy) is even better at it than Jeff is.

Home is… Northcote currently, Waterloo previously, Ballina forever.

I spend too much time… Daydreaming about expanding my collection of Los Angeles Rams football caps. I bought this nice corduroy one on etsy in 2014 but then I lost it so I had to buy another one and then I found the old one in my parents’ house in Ballina last time I was home so now I have two corduroy hats which I have recently discovered is the correct amount to own. There are new yellow ones which I want really badly but the shipping and handling is expensive. I just made up a pun called “shitting and handling” but I don’t think I want you to print it or definitely don’t make it the headline of this article. Don’t.

I’m currently listening to… This is the best song right now.

It might surprise people to learn that… I have a podcast! Gross, self-promo. Anyway whatever me and my guitar player Xavier do a podcast called The Bachelor Of Hearts about the Australian bachelor/bachelorette series. It’s very fun for me personally. Richard was awful and I hope this new girl is better television. Also, not to straw-man you, but if you feel weird about me releasing a new song imbued with gendered politics and then backhandedly hosting a podcast about the most heteronormative television program in the world, I think sometimes I think it’s ok to game the system and use popular culture to try to recontextualise popular culture. Good talk.

In the future… The future scares me. I don’t know. I always had a big plan and I kind of have done most of the things I wanted to do as an adult when I was a teenager and I feel comfortable with where I am but that’s at the same time super intimidating and scary because, like, what’s next? I didn’t think past this point. Ultimately I guess we’re all just floating on a big pile of goo in the middle of the solar system so I’m going to try to concentrate on feeling good and content with the goo I have because I think I’m lucky to live and exist and have a pile of goo to begin with. Also I plan to revisit this classic piece of Australian comedy where Peter Helliar loves beer.

‘The Boys’ Single Launch is on Friday October 14 @ Magic Johnson, Fitzroy, with special guests Alex Lahey and Ruby Markwell. It’s a 70 person capacity, door sales only, all acoustic sets and no microphones. Don’t miss it.