If there is any one human being that knows about the trials and tribulations of living a musical life it is Mark Maxwell. The 50-something lead vocalist for Louisville, Kentucky band The Crashers and owner of Maxwell’s House of Music in Jeffersonville, IN grew up in a musical family. His father Marvin was a drummer in Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars and also owned a music store. And his older brother Max is a 30-year veteran of the Louisville music scene and drummer in The Crashers as well.
“I was around a lot of good people and met some interesting players that worked with my dad,” recalls Maxwell on his formative years. “I had no choice but to fall into this thing. I worked in my dad’s music store at 18 years old. And for 40 years I’ve worked in a music store and played in original and cover bands.”
Being immersed in the music world, Maxwell garnered a ton of experience that he wanted to share with his customers and his immediate music community at large. He had developed a strong business sense as well as a creative one as a vocalist and guitarist. Undoubtedly, a major turning point in his musical career happened 16 years ago when he formed The Crashers.
“We’re just a fun cover band that is comprised of the same six guys who started it,” says Maxwell. “The best thing we did was, when we got together, we sat around a table and got to know each other. We knew we were good players, but could we live with each other for the rest of our lives? Once we determined that, we discussed what were our goals? And then we came up with these lofty goals and hit each one within three and a half years.”
Over the years The Crashers have become one of the premier cover bands in the Louisville area, warming up for major acts, playing lucrative municipal, private and corporate events and doing feature shows in Mexico and the Caribbean. The affable singer and front man has learned a lot along the way and wanted to simply pay it forward.
About six months ago Maxwell consulted with his store videographer about the notion of starting a series on their website offering tidbits on aspects of being in, and running a band, that would help other established and musicians in their town.
“Everybody knows The Crashers in Louisville and we’ve built one of the most stable businesses in this town,” says Maxwell. “And everybody started doing the same thing we were because I kept saying this is what you oughta do.”
So, Maxwell began posting 30 to 60 second videos on maxwellshouseofmusic.com that soon got added to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and throughout the social media universe. The series is called If You’re in a Band and features Maxwell casually positioned in various sections of his store nonchalantly extolling tips on musical performance, practice methods, audience interaction, marketing, etc. Initially, as with anything new, there was some push back from the public. But then the tide began to quickly turn in a favorable direction.
“After about a month or so of me posting these videos the world started biting in,” says Maxwell. “People from Hawaii, Colorado, Canada, Israel, New Zealand and Australia started buying into, and loving, the series. And once that happened, all of the naysayers in town, for the most part, had stopped.”
If You’re in a Band comes out every morning 8 a.m. Monday-Friday EST. And, despite the phenomenal success that Maxwell has personally had through his band and related exploits as a music merchandiser, he humbly maintains his motivation for doing the series and offering real world advice comes from a place of empathy, and is organic and real.
“We’re just a local music store that is solid in our foundation in what we’re trying to do to help musicians,” says Maxwell. “We’re here to help you get to wherever you need to go, with whatever gear and whatever ideas. I never once say you should buy this drum set, guitar, bass or amplifier. But this is the big key. When you don’t try to do something and you just do it for the right reasons, which was just to share this with my little town, things blow up! I never tried to sell anybody anything. But it’s the algorithm that connected with musicians and brought everyone here.”
Maxwell is living proof that if you remain dedicated to your craft, develop a game plan, keep open lines of communication fluid with your band mates and keep dreaming big anyone can attain whatever level of success in the music business, or life for that matter, they want to achieve.
“Being in a band is more like playing chess than checkers,” says Maxwell. “And I think most of the bands in the world are playing checkers—meaning I get one, you get one. It takes a moment to realize that the first move you make affects the eighth move you make, or the third move affects the 12th. So, if you can stop and readjust the way you make these moves it will change your thought process on how to run a band. And I don’t see a whole lot of people doing this.”
The series If You’re in a Band is on all social media platforms. But to go to the source, visit maxwellshouseofmusic.com.
