D.C. Maxwell is an alt-country singer-songwriter from New Zealand. Formerly the teenage front man of high octane punk band Roidz, Maxwell has grown up to become a tender songwriter that doesn’t shy away from fiery performance of his songs. The ten songs of his lushly orchestrated debut album Lone Rider are the work of a troubadour, a magnetic performer, but foremost a storyteller.
Lone Rider is a collection of vivid tales of lives lived on the outskirts. From a horse thief who sees their lover killed to an old woman whose greatest love was a man she hardly knew to a bank robber betrayed by his hostages. But while these songs sometimes flit from character to character, this is a deeply personal album that came after years of healing following the death of two close friends.
After grief and pain forced Maxwell away from music, he returned to it through the genre of country, as it gave him a way to verbalize questions about himself that had been plaguing him for years. The title track Lone Rider is an example of this, written after Maxwell was forced to reevaluate a male friendship that had ended in death. Behind the wild stories, many of the songs are rooted in such reality.
Musically, the record is framed within a rich orchestra of string and horn sections, choirs, and a large backing band, recalling the 1970s baroque pop of Lee Hazlewood and Scott Walker. It is also heavily influenced by classic Flying Nun songwriter Chris Knox. The album was produced by Peter Ruddell (Wax Chattels) and features a range of established New Zealand musicians, Dave Khan (Marlon Williams), Liz Stokes, (The Beths), David Harris (Princess Chelsea) and many more.
Maxwell has had a lot of buzz around him as a new artist, playing multiple sell out shows and opening for international acts such as Future Islands, all before releasing a single. His former band Roidz released two albums and went on multiple tours, but Maxwelll took a hiatus from music after the death of Roidz guitarist and producer Reuben Winter. While not making music, Daniel studied creative writing at university, wrote a terrible novel and eventually became a journalist.
The mosaic of songs that make up Lone Rider creates a world of love and loss in roadside motel rooms, as well as the inner lives of small town dreamers that are as majestic as the plains. While the themes of the album cover love, anguish, murder, bank robberies, BDSM, heartbreak, horse thievery, and alcoholism, Maxwell is fiercely passionate about delivering each song with power and empathy for the characters within it.
