With his own hybrid style of R&B, Maxi Millz has already garnered support from the likes of Tiffany Calver, Maya Jama and PA Salieu. Growing up in a music-loving household and splitting his time between London, New York and Baltimore, Maxi hopes to continue to build momentum with his debut project ‘Captions‘ due out later this week. We caught up with the West London-based artist to discuss the rise of the UK creative scene, the BLM protests, getting back on stage in the near future, and much more.
Who are your current influences, and how do they help you to create?
To be honest my friends are my main influence at the moment… They have been for a while. My musician friends like Oscar, Jevon, Col3, Yak, Humblethegreat and everyone in Vibbar inspire me every day with conversations, demos, songs they’re releasing, general advice. It’s nice playing your shit to good friends who will always offer a good opinion on it. Even just telling me to “keep going” is inspiration. Other than this really just living through different things, making mistakes, learning from them, is where I get most of subject matters from.
Who are your all-time influences, and what do they reveal about you as an artist?
This list is long and bare random…. MJ, Stevie, Smokey Robinson , the whole Motown era. Pre-dating that stuff, the old heads like BB King, Ray Charles, Louis & Ella, Duke Ellington. And then closer to now, Usher, JT up to Frank Ocean, James Blake and early Weeknd stuff.
I think this reveals that I’m going to have to make way too much music to fulfil my need to appeal to everything I personally like. I also think that having at least a small amount of knowledge about why I’m making the music I’m making is important. That’s why I always revisit the old heads, they’re the blueprint… none of our favourite genres would exist without them. All you need to do is listen.
What’s the most overrated right now?
Clout.
What’s the most underrated right now?
UK R&B. Not just R&B, but ‘real’ music in general. Loads of British singers/musicians get overlooked.
What are you the most excited about right now?
The flowers the UK, in general, is about to receive in all creative lanes. The young black actors coming out of London right now, especially, are amazing. Alongside the artists, musicians, writers/poets, filmmakers etc. I’m preeing and energy shift from the rest of the world. It’s noticing that we really have mad talent out here. Don’t sleep on it.
In my world, I’m most excited about my first EP coming out. I feel like it’s overdue, and I’ve already low-key started on my album so it’s all happening over here at the moment! I’m also gassed to start working with other artists, whether I know them or not. So far I’ve really done a “no features” ting. I didn’t want people to ever say I relied on a co-sign, ew.
What was the most surprising thing to you about 2020?
How much education some really ‘clever’ people needed about really basic race issues. In the same breath, it was amazing to see how many people came together for the BLM marches that happened. I wasn’t expecting to see such multicultural protests in the UK.
What’s next for you?
I just wanna carry on creating music and videos, My EP is done and en-route, I’ve started on some other projects and I’m working on some homeware items for my online shop and some jewellery as well, I like spinning multiple plates so I’ll probably start a new clothing brand at the end of the year, now that my old one’s gone (RIP SHO). I’d love to say some live shows but that side of things is unpredictable with this pandemic bullshit.
Follow Maxi on Instagram and check out his new single “MDNA” below.
