Just a little FYI>Maxwell

B-Side Artist: Maxwell

His fourth studio album and first in eight years, BLACKsummers'night, is the sound of an artist taking the commitment to his craft and the conversation with his audience that much further. Needless to say, it is a conversation that’s been overdue; but as the soft-spoken, multi-platinum artist sees it, in order to come back it was necessary to step away. "I wanted to return to 'what was the promise?'" Maxwell offers. "What did my music and creativity speak of to people? For me, coming back to that promise was kind of where my heart was really gravitating towards. I didn’t intentionally step away from all of it, but I just wanted to…live my life a little bit, and then be able to make music with that pure experience again."

He might have been out of the spotlight, but Maxwell along with long time collaborator and friend Hod David, had begun crafting BLACKsummers'night several years ago. The album is the first installment of a trilogy entitled BLACKSUMMERS'NIGHT. BLACK is a much darker but soulful compilation, SUMMERS' leans more toward the gospel side and NIGHT is more of a cool collection of slow jams. By late 2008, the process of polishing and shaping the album was full on.  Though having much of his creative team on board, Maxwell still approached the creative process with extreme caution and the painstaking meticulousness of a true genius. "Every time I'd get in the studio it would be like am I trying to outdo this last record? I just wanted to make a really good record." Of course, what Maxwell's notoriously modest character failed to warn was that what he was creating was more than "good" but rather (like his other projects) a timeless piece of work.