Maxim

Maxim Richarz (born May 15, 1982) is a German singer and songwriter. He began performing in 2005 and released his most recent singles in 2014. Though called a Reggae artist he is hesitant to refer to himself as such and does more contemporary work in recent years. Early life Maxim was born in Königswinter, Germany to a French mother and German father. Maxim attended the University of Cologne for a Business Administration degree. He dropped out and went to the SAE Institute (an international media education provider) to become a sound engineer, a decision he says he later regretted when money dried up in the artistic field. Maxim dropped out of the SAE Institute after a semester, finding the work to be boring and too easy. He refers to himself as "self-taught" and says that "his first day of school was also his last." After his various schooling endeavors, Maxim produced a semi-professional tape with Bonner Nosliw, who already had established a reputation for himself on the German music scene. He also took Maxim as a background singer on tour. Maxim calls this time "like an internship. [He found it] interesting and it helped [him] a lot." This time later shaped a lot of Maxim's musical preferences and served as an inspiration for his future work. Personal life When asked about his music being somewhat melancholy and thoughtful, and whether that translates to his personality, Maxim replied that he's a thoughtful person. He is, however, also a joker, and believes most artists to be similar. He feels that the difference between him and most artists is that he needs a lot of time to write a song; sitting alone in a room for hours on end. The longer you think, according to him, the darker and more melancholy things appear. If you write about yourself going to a party or getting drinks with your friends, then you'd have to go do that in order to achieve that mood in a song. Maxim himself enjoys upbeat music but rarely engages in making it.