I first came across the music of Max Stalling around the year 2000. I believe it was my older brother, Kade, who shared a copy of Max’s 1997 record, “Comfort in the Curves”, with me. By now, listeners of the podcast probably know how much I “geek out” on great songs and quality songwriting. So, when I started listening to Max’s music, I couldn’t keep the grin from creeping across my face. I often had those: “Damn…I wish I’d thought of that line” moments. Without writing “over your head”, Max is still able to weave more graduate-level lyrics and concepts into his music than a lot of writers I listen to, which is part of the reason I dig him so much. Through our conversation in this episode it’s easy to understand why, as he explains that when he was a child, he would actually just thumb through the dictionary to find new words he didn’t know. Then, there’s the fact that prior to his career as a singer and songwriter, he worked as a research scientist developing ne