I’m finally releasing my first finished song in over a year next Friday the 25th! I’m extremely excited to share it with you. It’s called Die Alone, and I think you’ll be surprised in a good way by the song with a title like that

I wrote Die Alone sitting on the floor of my room. It was really different from my other songs at the time, but it stuck with me. At first I recorded it with GarageBand on my computer with loud vocals and noisy guitars. My brother Alec and I recorded it later with our band The Peaches for our Flyover Country album. Later, I redid it for fun, first in Garageband with some of the backing instruments that can still be heard in the final version and then took that to my friend Jake Whitecar Orangutan Sound studio in Montana where we recorded the final vocals, instruments, and live drums. I can’t believe there was a time when we could actually travel

Jake asked Jon Filkins to provide real, live drums and Amanda Ceaser to add background vocals. He also played bass, some synths, and some guitar. The song wouldn’t be what it is without their amazing contributions and I can’t thank each of them enough for participating

The result is peppy, but also dark. It has a heavy beat and some really cool vocals. I especially love the bridge where it gets really quiet and echoey and then builds to the most intense moment of the song

I recorded this song at a really hard time when I had to go to voice therapy because I had hurt my vocal cords and I was just recovering after a year wondering if I’d ever be able to sing again. I still hadn’t fully recovered during the recording process, but the result is cool because my vocals are a lot breathier than usual. My philosophy is: turn that mud into gold if at all possible

Die Alone. It’s about knowing that something or someone beautiful is gone, hoping they might come back someday, but not waiting around because you also have a life to live. It’s a dark song. Not exactly happy, but not unhappy either. Just fresh and raw from the pain and disappointment. The title comes from the phrase “You don’t die alone on the road”, which came from nowhere but really fits the overall energy, about moving forward despite all the uncertainty

In my mind, it’s a lot of dark night driving images which is going to feature in the video that will be released in the weeks after the song.

Die Alone will be out on ALL streaming platforms on Friday, September 25th. Here’s a pre-save link for the fans who don’t want to miss release day: distrokid.com/hyperfollow/maxoakland/die-alone

Listening to it, following me on Spotify and other social media, and sharing it will help me make this hard-won song as successful as possible. Thanks for your support, it’s always helped me keep motivated