Just before lockdown, Max & Harvey had completed their sold out Don’t Be a Stranger Tour, and at the end of last year, they released their newest single Worry a Little Less and they are now planning their next tour This Is Not a Phase. Since starting their careers in musical theatre, Max & Harvey now host their own show on CBBC called Max & Harvey: FOMO, have a Spotify podcast – School Daze and, later this year, they are due to host Nickelodeon’s SLIMEFEST. Max & Harvey competed in the 2019 series of The X Factor: Celebrity finishing as runners-up and they can often be seen uploading videos to their popular TikTok account. During their career so far, Max & Harvey have also filmed a documentary and written a book and collaborated with Jayden Bartels on their single Electric. Talking with us, Max & Harvey tell us about their recent release Worry a Little Less, hosting their own CBBC show Max & Harvey: FOMO and their School Daze podcast.
Can you tell us about your recent single Worry a Little Less and what’s the response been like to the release?
Our fans loved the song and we’re so glad they did, we really wanted to give across a good message to people to not worry about the small things in life, and to make sure to mostly think positively and to focus your worries on how to stop this pandemic as it’s clearly the most worrying thing at the moment. We’re so proud of what we wrote and can’t wait for everyone to hear what we are releasing next!
Where do you get inspiration from for your songwriting and how has it changed since starting out?
We can’t lie, we used to be terrible songwriters but we figured out how to write about our own and even other people’s personal experiences in a song, some of the new songs we’ve written recently are extremely personal to us and we hope people will like the songs and relate to them.
How did your Don’t Be a Stranger Tour go, which you finished just before the first lockdown and what can audiences expect from your upcoming This Is Not a Phase Tour?
The Don’t Be a Stranger tour was INCREDIBLE as it was our first ever sold out tour, which meant the world to us, to have so many of our amazing fans screaming our songs and just having a good time with us was the best feeling. People can expect loads of new songs and something else we’ve been talking about doing but can’t share too much about yet.
Where does your love of performing come from and how did you start in the industry?
We’ve been performing since we were about six years old and have been singing way before that, both of our first proper industry starts were when we did West End musicals, the likes of Priscilla Queen of the Desert and The Sound Of Music UK Tour. Musical theatre really grew us as performers and then we got into social media and started doing pop music and our lives changed from there.
In 2019, you came runners-up on The X Factor: Celebrity, how was the experience on the show?
The show was actually one of the best things we’ve done, not for the exposure or anything like that, but it actually took our performing and singing ability to another level that we’d still be trying to achieve now if we hadn’t been on the show. There were just so many amazing people we got to work with and meet and it was incredible for us that we managed to come second as the youngest in the competition.
How did the collaboration with Jayden Bartels come about on Electric and what was it like to do?
Jayden has been a great friend of ours for years, she was one of the first people we met in LA and we just knew we had to do a song together as soon as Jayden started getting into music. Electric was such a cool song for us to do together as we were able to sing different sections that suited us individually as singers.
What’s it like seeing the fan reaction to your TikToks and what do you enjoy most about filming them?
We love it when TikToks get positive reactions because it really motivates us to make more, and filming them can be so great because a lot of the time our content is just things we’d be doing regardless, even if TikTok wasn’t a thing, so the fact we can also film it and share it with the app is awesome.
What inspired you to start the School Daze podcast and can you say more about it?
We were actually surprised with how it came about because we’d never thought of doing a podcast before until Spotify approached us personally with a pitch for us to have our own Spotify original podcast, we would’ve been stupid to turn it down, so we came up with some ideas and thought that School Daze was a great concept for a start and if we needed to change things around a bit in the future we would. It’s worked amazingly so far as we have so many funny segments and a lot of awesome guests.
How is it hosting your own CBBC show Max and Harvey: FOMO and can you tell us about some of the episodes?
FOMO is awesome and possibly one of our longest running projects, we basically just get to mess about on national TV for our appointed time slot and it’s great. The show has some really cool segments even though we’ve been faced with the challenge of filming it in lockdown, and we have some huge things planned for future episodes when the pandemic has calmed down and we can’t wait to start filming those.
What’s it like working with CBBC for their HQ and events like Summer Social?
We love the team at CBBC as everyone is so friendly and loving like a family and they always offer us some amazing gigs. The Summer Socials were both awesome and I hope they do more in the future, and we love presenting live TV for them because we know we always have the gallery on the edge of their seats because we’re a tad bit mental.
You’ve previously released a documentary, a DVD and a book, what were these like to do?
It was surreal for us when we released those because we actually had the book and DVD coincided with each other and they basically supported one another in promotion and content. When we were younger we would have never thought that people would want us to write a book about ourselves, never mind the BBC wanting to make a documentary about us. We’re so grateful for those things and they were an incredible start to our career.
Later this year, you’re scheduled to host Nickelodeon SLIMEFEST alongside Jordan Banjo, Perri Kiely and Holly H, what are you most looking forward to for the event?
I can’t lie to you, we’re definitely looking forward to the fact that we’re going to be performing at Wembley Arena, it’s definitely going to be a highlight of our career, but we’d be stupid not to say that we’re looking forward to the slime that Nickelodeon are gonna bring, the Nick team are crazy and fun and if we know them, they’re not going to hold back at Wembley. It’s also going to be amazing for us to host a live show alongside Holly and Jordan and Perri.
What would you say are some of your career highlights so far?
Definitely our main stage performance at Camp Bestival as we were lucky enough to perform in front of 30,000 people.
Can you say about being Patrons for the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity and how was it doing the 24-hour livestream last year?
The 24-hour livestream was possibly one of the most physically challenging things we’ve ever done, because we tried to keep high energy for 24 hours whilst interviewing guests and friends that were kind enough to give us their time in order to encourage people to donate money to the cause and we’re so glad we managed to pull through.
As twins, what is it like working together and what do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
It makes things easier especially in our current situation as we don’t need to isolate from each other because we’re related, and in our spare time I (Max) usually play football, make music or go to a trampoline park and Harvey loves playing the drums and does spend a lot of his spare time editing our videos. We are also both avid collectors of the brand Supreme.
What are your plans for 2021 apart from This Is Not a Phase Tour?
We have so much new music planned and we may have some new smaller projects in the works and also are going to be constantly improving our current projects.
Follow Max & Harvey on:
https://maxandharveyofficial.com
Categories: home, Interview, Music, Presenters/TV Personalities, Talent Shows, YouTube/Online Content
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