Max elevation

>> Capital kid Max Graham aims for the top of trance

by KRISTA

"I can still remember sitting on the floor by the DJ booth at Horizons, watching you spin," Max Graham smiles at me from across our little table in noisy Cafeteria. "It was such an amazing party. I'll always have that image of you up there playing, looking so focused. It had such an impact on me."

Well, talk about greasing the reporter. If you were looking for a glowing review, Max, you just got it. Everyone knows the way to a girl's heart is flattery. The Horizons event that Max is referring to took place way back during a time when the rave world, and me along with it, was just graduating from U.K. hardcore and funky breaks to drum & bass and funky house. Back then, Max was just beginning his career as a DJ, playing his brand of energetic, driving trance music at small raves around Ottawa.

Get a look at him now.

For lack of keener observation, it would seem as though Max is poised to be the Next Big Thing. For starters, he's one of the most recent additions to local production giant 514's "event residents" roster. Moreover, he's touring with Paul Oakenfold, and he's putting out records on a U.K. label. He's like Ottawa's answer to our Misstress Barbara--all jet set, yet very dismissive and nonchalant about it and full of little anecdotal tales about that time in Ibiza. Like I understand.

I didn't even know he was producing records until I saw a mix CD with a tune bearing his name on the track listing. How did that happen? "Hope Recordings is one of my favourite labels," says Max. "You know that DJ who's always calling to tell the label how much they like their stuff? That was me. I was on their mailing list, and when I went over to England, I hooked up with them and went in to the studio." He says this rather matter-of-factly.

"The first stuff I produced for them was over a year ago. I wasn't really familiar with equipment at all, but almost by fluke I got it right the first time and they were happy. It will be interesting to go back in now and try and build from where I left off."

Insert bad joke about the formulaic nature of trance music here.

In all fairness, while it's pretty easy to make any kind of dance music, it's not that easy to make good dance music. I may not be the biggest fan of trance, but I have to admit that if anyone has the ability to do it well, Max does. Already he's managed to capture the quintessential Max Graham sound on vinyl--sweeping, highly emotive and energetic trance-scapes with just a hint of old-school flavour. He hit the nail on the head so precisely his first time in the studio that now Paul Oakenfold's Perfecto label is after him.

"But I don't really want that," Max tells me. "I mean, it's flattering, but I would rather stay with a smaller label. I like the fact that I have a relationship with Hope. It's more of a family vibe."

See, despite all the travelling, fancy hotels and exotic gigs, Max is still a small-town boy at heart. "I even see myself moving back to Ottawa in the end," he says. But that's after he gets the mack loft in Montreal.

With Darren Emerson, Dave Ralph and more at the Cream mega-event, Sunday, Sept. 1 at the Olympic Stadium