This round’s ALT Homegrown Spotlight shines on singer-songwriter Max Wells.

Along with being the in Homegrown Spotlight, you can also catch Wells’ music during ALT’s Homegrown Showcase every Friday at 7 p.m.

Creating his own sound

Wells is a Fort Wayne native who recently moved back after spending a few years in Austin, Texas, and Los Angeles. 

Finding his voice in alternative hip-hop, Wells has grown a name for himself. With two projects and multiple singles out, Wells talked to me about his journey. 

“I’ve been into writing music/expressing myself via art since as long as I can remember, but I wasn’t exposed to a studio or an actual recording process until I was an early teen,” he said. “My mom got a MacBook computer, which is when taught myself how to use GarageBand, and I started putting out freestyles on Facebook and YouTube.”

Creating a trilogy

Following his 2017 debut, Now I’m Here, his 2020 EP caterpillAr, set him on a journey. 

“When I started caterpillAr in 2019, I had no idea it was the start of what eventually would become a trilogy … all I knew is that it was created to mark the starting point of my true self-discovery as an artist/human. 

“After caterpillAr dropped, my whole life shifted in so many ways. COVID took us all for a run, I was about to start a family. I was getting out of prior management agreements making me fully independent again. 

“chrysAlistic then started as a random collection of demos I made while trying to explore different sounds,” he added. “I really was just freely creating until I quickly learned that the topics I’d been writing about were very clearly demonstrating progressions from caterpillAr. So, if caterpillAr was the starting point of me accepting that I need to heal in order to grow, chrysAlistic was me finding what I need to do in order to actually make those changes.”

So what can we expect next?

“The next and last part of the trilogy would represent me actually finding my wings and vividly transforming into who the world will remember me as,” he said. 

Turning to the internet

Since returning to Fort Wayne, Wells has been working at Sweetwater and on his sound. 

“Since there was so little of a ‘scene’ here when I was starting off, I was forced to turn to the internet to gain a following that would actually make a ‘music career’ possible,” he said. “So I guess it helped in a sense, because instead of being a small fish in a big lake, or even a big fish in a small lake and giving up, I learned very early on that maybe I just need to go to a different lake altogether.”

“I think we are on definitely our way to growing a community that is actually encouraging to striving creatives, but I wouldn’t say we’re quite there yet. We need to keep bringing focus to the arts, getting the community involved, and giving the youth more incentive/opportunities to create and be included. I think the overall growth in the last couple of years is encouraging to anyone from here though. It’s nice to see our city finally get some light shined on it.” 

He is definitely correct. It is so important to offer creative outlets for our community to continue bringing talented artists from a Midwestern town to ears all over the world. Wells is one just one example of the incredibly talented artists this town has to offer. 

When asked if there is anything else he wants to let us know, Wells said, “I tried to change the world today.” 

This is his slogan to remind himself to try his best every day.