New striking strokes
22 April 2024
Artist: MAX BLANSJAAR
Who: Up and coming 21-year-old singer-songwriter born in Amsterdam, raised in Oxford based now in Brooklyn. He first appeared on the Oxford scene in 2018, aged 15, promoting shows in all-ages venues, recording sessions for BBC Radio Oxford, appearing on local magazine covers, and releasing his playfully sincere lo-fi indie pop songs through bandcamp.
New single: BURNING IN OUR NAME
From his upcoming debut album False Comforts,
out June 21. More info here.
Album artwork
Blansjaar: “I wrote this song in one sitting — it was a stream-of-consciousness kind of thing. How many times had I turned on the radio and heard about ‘generational challenges’? How does the individual fit into that picture? From the moment we’re born, how many fires have already been started in our name?
Politics is personal, and what seem like huge, sprawling issues can affect our lives in small, everyday ways. We recorded most of the song to cassette using a six-track Tascam tape recorder. I left the tape in the studio in Brooklyn by mistake — I’ll go and pick it up one day.”
TUTV: Following last month’s frolicsome song Anna Madonna, Blansjaar entertains our ears again with this tiptop tune. It’s a folky, sickly sticking, jangly earworm with Blansjaar laid-back vocals rollin’ all over it.
On the album’s cover and on the bus he’s surrounded by freaks. I have no idea who they are. His band? His best friends? His demons?. Maybe there’s a connection with the song’s hilarious line “my face looks like I spent the night with Freddie Krueger”. Anyway, Burning In Our Name confirms Blansjaar‘s songwriting skills.
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