Attention Music Nerds: Max Martin Gives His First In-Depth Interview
This is solid gold for pop fans. Max Martin gave his first in-depth interview (there have been a couple of brief conversations here and there) to a Swedish website last year. That Q&A, which was conducted by Jan Gradvall, has finally been translated into English and there’s a treasure trove of information about the songwriting process. For starters, the man behind “Baby… One More Time,” “Since U Been Gone,” Robyn’s early oeuvre and several dozen other gems explains the ingredients needed for a great song.
“I think that a great pop song should be felt when you hear it,” he explains. “You can hear songs that are technically great, songs that tick all the boxes. But for a song to be felt, you need something else. It’s incredibly important to me that you remember a song right after the first or second time you hear it. That something sticks to you, something that makes you feel, ‘I need to hear that song again.’ That’s fundamental. Something you want again. And again.”
Max also opens up about the changing landscape of music. “We’ve just made it out from the marshlands of EDM,” the Swede begins. “Nothing wrong about EDM, great songs came out of it, but there was a period when everything had to have a pace of 128 BPM and be DJ-related. These days, there’s no dominating trend among the Top 40 songs, and I really enjoy that. A hit can be someone just singing to piano music, anything.” The next trend? “Pop music follows the evolution of society in general. Everything moves faster. Intros have gotten shorter.”
The interview also offers a fascinating glimpse into the producer’s brief dry spell between hits. “The whole boy band thing almost turned into a stock market crash,” he remembers. “We folded Cheiron at the right moment. Then, there was a period when we thought that Pharrell and the others came and ruined it all for us with their super cool beats.” Max countered this by immersing himself in new music. “I spent a lot of time in New York and worked with artists who never really got anywhere. Then things took a new turn with ‘Since U Been Gone.'”
For more, very technical, information about writing a hit, read the full interview here.
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