My Story
Music is the one language that everybody speaks.
My name is Max Brandenburg and I’m here to tell those stories to the world that we’ve all already lived, but haven’t yet acknowledged. No matter what background and country we’re from, we all have certain goals and aspirations and experience universal feelings; the feeling of being head-over-heels in love, sadness, doubting ourselves, and connecting with others.
I come from an industrial area in Germany; cities packed tightly together, dense with people, full of soulful jazz clubs and theatres, but with enough clear space in between to hear silence and listen to my own thoughts. With the musical surroundings in Germany, being a singer-songwriter with pop and jazz influences always had me standing out from the crowd. After graduating from high school, I pursued my dream of being a professional musician by choosing to go to the one place where I felt understood, yet challenged - Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
The moment I realized my reasons and passion behind being an artist, was during a rehearsal for Berklee’s gospel choir. I loved the music, but I’d been feeling no connection to the other group members and no sense of belonging. I finally reached a point where I was about to quit, and, at the rehearsal I considered to be my last, something happened: during one of the songs the atmosphere transformed and the musical-director started crying from the emotions brought up in the piece. The music continued, the choir kept singing, but something changed in every one of us. All the presumed walls that we had up as different individuals, fell down, and for a moment, we strayed away from judgment, simply existing with each other, accepting one another, and enjoying the purity of the music. When I write and perform my music, I want to give that experience to others - I want to make walls fall down for everyone.
Music is one of the only things in life that can connect people on such a universal level. We get so caught up with our differences and how diverse our countries and cultures are. However, we need to also take time to see that through our amazing diversity, everybody has common hopes and fears, everyone has their battles to fight, and their insecurities to get over. Music allows us to be on one level and is the passage into each other’s souls.
What I love most about my writing is the power of the simplicity in the process. All I have when I sit down to write are 88 keys of an upright piano, my voice, and uncounted thoughts and ideas I want to share with the world. As a classically trained pianist, I find fascination in the never ending harmonic, melodic and rhythmic options that have a different color and texture tied to each one of them. I write music that is raw and real, but that other people can relate to at the same time; telling the girl I love every little reason why I adore her, showing strangers that everyone feels the pain of emptiness from time to time, reminding the struggling artist that everyone doubts themselves, and reassuring the listeners that we all experience heartache and that life will get better.
Besides music, I love to travel, to meet new people, and to find new ways to look at the world. I aim to constantly keep my mind open enough to see past my own 24 hours and 20 square feet of my dorm room, focusing on bigger issues in the world that need attention and help. It’s our responsibility to make the world as good as it can be – make it a little better every day. I will always try to contribute to that by maintaining a positive mind-set, making contact with others, and simply being friendly and respectful with people.
Music. It’s the one language that everyone speaks - and I want to speak to the world.
Music is the one language that everybody speaks.
My name is Max Brandenburg and I’m here to tell those stories to the world that we’ve all already lived, but haven’t yet acknowledged. No matter what background and country we’re from, we all have certain goals and aspirations and experience universal feelings; the feeling of being head-over-heels in love, sadness, doubting ourselves, and connecting with others.
I come from an industrial area in Germany; cities packed tightly together, dense with people, full of soulful jazz clubs and theatres, but with enough clear space in between to hear silence and listen to my own thoughts. With the musical surroundings in Germany, being a singer-songwriter with pop and jazz influences always had me standing out from the crowd. After graduating from high school, I pursued my dream of being a professional musician by choosing to go to the one place where I felt understood, yet challenged - Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
The moment I realized my reasons and passion behind being an artist, was during a rehearsal for Berklee’s gospel choir. I loved the music, but I’d been feeling no connection to the other group members and no sense of belonging. I finally reached a point where I was about to quit, and, at the rehearsal I considered to be my last, something happened: during one of the songs the atmosphere transformed and the musical-director started crying from the emotions brought up in the piece. The music continued, the choir kept singing, but something changed in every one of us. All the presumed walls that we had up as different individuals, fell down, and for a moment, we strayed away from judgment, simply existing with each other, accepting one another, and enjoying the purity of the music. When I write and perform my music, I want to give that experience to others - I want to make walls fall down for everyone.
Music is one of the only things in life that can connect people on such a universal level. We get so caught up with our differences and how diverse our countries and cultures are. However, we need to also take time to see that through our amazing diversity, everybody has common hopes and fears, everyone has their battles to fight, and their insecurities to get over. Music allows us to be on one level and is the passage into each other’s souls.
What I love most about my writing is the power of the simplicity in the process. All I have when I sit down to write are 88 keys of an upright piano, my voice, and uncounted thoughts and ideas I want to share with the world. As a classically trained pianist, I find fascination in the never ending harmonic, melodic and rhythmic options that have a different color and texture tied to each one of them. I write music that is raw and real, but that other people can relate to at the same time; telling the girl I love every little reason why I adore her, showing strangers that everyone feels the pain of emptiness from time to time, reminding the struggling artist that everyone doubts themselves, and reassuring the listeners that we all experience heartache and that life will get better.
Besides music, I love to travel, to meet new people, and to find new ways to look at the world. I aim to constantly keep my mind open enough to see past my own 24 hours and 20 square feet of my dorm room, focusing on bigger issues in the world that need attention and help. It’s our responsibility to make the world as good as it can be – make it a little better every day. I will always try to contribute to that by maintaining a positive mind-set, making contact with others, and simply being friendly and respectful with people.
Music. It’s the one language that everyone speaks - and I want to speak to the world.