American singer-songwriter MAX is no stranger to the K-Pop industry. He dropped his latest album ‘LOVE IN STEREO’ on Friday, February 16. From the track list, there were many collaborations and one of the pre-singles was ‘STUPID IN LOVE’ which sees HUH YUNJIN of the globally acclaimed girl group LE SSERAFIM featuring on it.
The process of this unexpected collaboration occurred when the 31-year-old singer was in South Korea to collaborate with a producer on music for BTS. MAX has previously penned a few songs for the band and has also many collaborations with BTS’ SUGA. While on this trip, a member of BTS suggested the idea of collaborating with LE SSERAFIM.
Now, in a recent conversation with PEOPLE, MAX stated, “I was like, ‘Wow, I’m a big fan. Yeah, I’ll make it work.’”
“I show up, and they gave me this gift, which is a really beautiful thing in Korea — a lot of times you give your gift as an album and write a letter. YUNJIN wrote me a letter, and it was like, ‘I hope we get to meet and work together.’ It was really endearing, so I extended my trip to see her live.”
When they met face-to-face, the ‘Lights Down Low’ crooner discovered that both he and YUNJIN are originally from New York. This mutual aspect added an extra layer of excitement to the possibility of collaborating. He said, “It just felt right.”
Talking about the collaborating song ‘STUPID IN LOVE,’ MAX revealed that he penned the lyrics taking inspiration from his own marital relationship. So, to have a female feature on the song felt like the right decision. “I usually have so many love songs with guys for some reason… I never have duets with girls, so it was really cool that happened naturally.”
He also shed light on his love for K-Pop musicians. He explained that there is a humble kindness in the music culture there, and he feels attracted towards it. MAX also went on to say that, especially in a group or a band, everyone’s treated like an equal, which he really appreciates.
The song ‘STUPID IN LOVE’ is available to stream on all music platforms now.
