Max Martin Discusses Prince, Taylor Swift, And Pharrell In Rare Interview

Max Martin doesn’t really do interviews. The pop genius more or less responsible for the past two decades of Top 40 hits only rarely speaks about his work, so it’s always a huge deal whenever he opens his mouth. He recently gave his first extensive magazine interview since 2001 with Sweden’s Di Weekend, and he had a lot to say about his theories behind constructing vocal melodies — his specialty — using Taylor Swift and Prince as examples:

I have lots of theories when it comes to this. If you’ve got a verse with a lot of rhythm, you want to pair it with something that doesn’t. Longer notes. Something that might not start at the same beat. As I say this, I’m afraid it might sound like I’ve got a whole concept figured out…But it’s not like that. The most crucial thing is always how it feels. But the theories are great to have on hand when you get stuck. ’We can’t think of anything, is there anything we could do?’ In those cases, you can bring it in as a tool. If you listen to “Shake It Off” with Taylor Swift (he hums the verse melody). After that segment, you need a few longer notes in order to take it all in, otherwise it’s simply too much information. If there would have been as many rhythm elements in the part right before the chorus … Does what I’m saying make any sense to you at all?

Although Martin never really went anywhere, he had a bit of a low period after his wild success with Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, and NSYNC, and he blames Pharrell’s sick beats:

I’ve learned that things change. The whole boy band thing almost turned into a stock market crash. We folded Cheiron at the right moment. Then, there was a period when we thought that Pharrell (Williams) and the others came and ruined it all for us with their super cool beats. My first thought was: people are idiots for not understanding how great our stuff really is. Then, in the end, I realized: the world has moved on, we’re the ones who’re stuck in one place. So I started listening to other kinds of music. I spent a lot of time in New York and worked with artists who never really got anywhere. Then things took a new turn with Since U Been Gone (Kelly Clarkson). But at the same time, during the Cheiron era, we never really understood what we had achieved down in our basement in Stockholm. Since we never realized how big we were back then, I took that cold period with a shrug of the shoulders.