Even if you’ve never heard of the name Max Martin, you have most definitely heard one of his many hits. The Swedish rock-singer turned top pop producer has been able to keep his songwriting career going for over 20 years, producing one hit after another, and pretty much changing the way that we all work in the industry.
The first time I ever heard his name drop was probably when he worked with Robin and developed her r&b pop sound further, which then led to the breakthrough of acts like The Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. He gave them their signature sound in the early stages of their careers. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was his idea to change Britney’s vocals down the line to the baby voice she’s known for. When you hear her first album, you can still tell that was still being developed in those days.
Anyway, Max Martin is a big name in the business and he’s just received his tenth Ascap Award for Songwriter of the Year. There’s no getting around this guy.
Over the years, he has been able to lose his signature sound from the late 90s and move across many genres (he’s also worked with rock acts like P!NK). He has not changed his method of working.
Max Martin is known to break his song recordings in several bits and pieces. Singers never get to sing in one take and they never get to record just one recording. He then pastes the best recordings together to create the versions we hear on the records. It’s kind of like how directors will edit a movie. If done cleverly you will never see they used different takes. If done late at night after a long day of editing, you can see glasses on a table move from the left to right within fractions of seconds that are not humanly possible. It works the same in music and you can consider Max Martin to be the Steven Spielberg of music.
This year, he’s received the award for Songwriter of the Year for his work with Justin Timberlake (Can’t Stop The Feeling), Adele (Send My Love) and P!NK (Just Like Fire). He's not called the Hit Machine for nothing!
Last year, when he was awarded by the industry, he did a very rare interview and provided feedback about his career, even going back to his own days as an artist. For the most part, he hides out in the studio.
