Max Kaplan’s recent single, “Mind on My Heart,” sums up where he is right now.
“It’s about finding the relationships of your life and the people you love, while also trying to reach your fullest potential and doing the best you can at what you’re doing,” Kaplan says.
Kaplan, 24, is moving onward and upward with his music career. In addition to recording new material, Kaplan has a new band name — Max Kaplan & The Magics. In addition to lead singer/guitarist Kaplan, the band includes Jad Tariq on lead guitar, John Hay on bass, Danny Banks and Andrew McNeil on drums, Matthew Wilson on bass and drums, Benton Parker on bass, and Art Edmaiston and Marc Franklin on horns.
Tariq wrote the single. “We’re all trying to find our path and our career and what we’re going to do with our life. But at the same time we have these strong relationships and friendships and people we’re meeting on the way. It struck me immediately, there’s always this struggle, ‘How much can I give to my relationships vs. how much can I give to myself? Where do your priorities lie? You don’t want to lose either one.’”
The upbeat tune is an example of Kaplan’s new musical direction vs. the direction of his former music project, The Harbert House Band. “Before the pandemic, we were playing shows and it was pretty much just straight blues. That was fun, but we weren’t truly expressing ourselves.”
Now, he says, “The single and all these singles going ahead are going to be soul-pop things. We love Memphis, of course, and all that great soul music that came out of here has definitely been a big influence on us as bands and especially in our writing style.”
But, he says, “We’ve got this new soul pop thing going on the world. Bands like Durand Jones & The Indications and The Dip. These soul bands are really coming back to the forefront of the conversations again. So, we’d like to bring back the Memphis soul if we can.”
A native of New York, Kaplan was raised on blues. “My dad is a guitar player and he taught me. And, yes, that’s what he’s known his whole life. When I got to Memphis I was exposed to soul music, which is very much an evolved form of the blues. The blues kind of came to Memphis, met jazz and other such forms of music, and became soul.
“Soul music really is the key to all of American pop music. It shaped what we’ve got going in America here musically now. That’s my favorite stuff to listen to. So, when I write songs I’m always thinking, ‘Well, I love old soul music, but I want to make something new. I can’t just be copying old stuff.’ What we’re trying to do is basically the same thing every artist does; take our influences and put our voice into it.”
As for his influences, Kaplan says, “I studied at Rhodes, so I’ve got a little jazz influence. A little of that thing going on. Plus, I’ve got this deep blues heritage. In Memphis, I got injected with all this soul music. I finally got a unique voice. It came right down to when I play a single note on the guitar, it’s going to sound different than any other guitar player. When everybody else plays it, it sounds different, too. Everybody’s got their own unique voice. What I’m trying to do is put mine out there. And we’re developing as we go along.”
The music that came out of Stax is one of their influences, but Kaplan says, “This is a different time period. We are making music in 2021, so we are bringing all that influence into it. Stax was based in the ‘60s and ‘70s, so they were bringing influences of the world at that time into their music. We’ve got different things going on in our lives.”
And, he says, “We’ve got the current Memphis professional musicians. The same kind of guys that might have found themselves on a record in the ‘60s at Stax. That’s what we’re working for in Max Kaplan & The Magics and on our record.
“The music scene has evolved over the past 50 years. Especially here in Memphis. The city has listened to a lot of new music since the ‘60s and ‘70s. A whole new set of influences. We have the benefit of looking back at everything. All the music that was produced during that time. This golden age of Memphis music — ‘60s and ‘70s. Also the privilege of seeing where that music took pop artists like John Mayer, for example. When we produce this music now, we are able to take into account where other artists have gone with it. You’ve got John Mayer, and he is super influenced by blues and soul music. And he went into the direction — with his coffee house kind of soft acoustic way with it — into rock and all sorts of things.
“We love the original stuff and seeing what other people took it to, and bring our own flavor to it. My guitar player has the benefit of being influenced by Albert King and B. B. King and Freddie King. He wasn’t influenced by only one. When you look at our song, ‘Mind on My Heart,’ the main guitar lick is a product of us being able to listen to decades and decades of more music than our idols did.”
Soul music was perfect for their band, Kaplan says. “People have always loved soul music. People will always love soul music because it touches your soul. People always love blues, too, ‘cause everybody has the blues. That’s the human condition, right? We always have something we’re struggling with. People love soul music in the same way because it reflects how they feel in their soul.”
The new single, which was released on Color Red Records, was one of eight songs Kaplan and his band recorded in 2020. “We recorded them all at once in my living room with my roommates in our little pandemic pod. I spent forever trying to find a record deal. I must have emailed over 250 labels.”
They recorded the songs in October, 2020. “And sat on these songs until May of 2021. I didn’t get the deal until June 2021.”
Kaplan and his band have evolved since those songs were recorded. “I have developed as a singer, as a songwriter, as a guitar player.”
His band mates also have grown musically. “We have three songs we’ve been working on and we have yet to record, but we’re starting to play them live. So, those songs are going to be closer to our current musical voice.”
In addition to performing at T. J. Mulligans in Midtown (October 1st) and Earnestine & Hazel’s (October 2nd), Max Kaplan & the Magics will open for Neal Francis at Railgarten (October 7th).
As for future plans, Kaplan says, “We want to start touring. We want to get on the festival market. I want to keep putting out records and more albums. The goal is to have a band that travels the world and is successful enough to support themselves and their families with nothing but the music.
“And, really, the reason that we’re doing all this is because we love playing music. And the more we can do it, that’s the goal.”
Listen to “Mind on My Heart” here.
