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Roxy 2 was once a nameless idea in the head of Baltimore’s Max Sturm. And like all great ideas, it was tested and scrutinized in at least three group chats.

Sturm spent the COVID-19 lockdown texting friends his eccentric bedroom demos, a collage-like batch of dream pop, folk, power pop, and psychedelic rock. “I tried to write ‘rock’ songs,” he explains with a hint of irony. “Not in any particular style or aesthetic—just ‘what does a rock song sound like coming from me?’ I think that’s pretty telling.” Eschewing genre exercises, he committed to his intuition and the contributions of anyone who would listen.

And many did.

Motivated by the death of his dog Roxy, Sturm formalized his great idea by recruiting a live band featuring his closest collaborators—Julia Connolly (guitar), Ethan Franzen (bass), Mark Steele (guitar), and Nick Wynn (drums)—and in 2023, released two cassette EPs off the jump. “I think my primary influences are friends and peers I see making music,” he admits plainly. “The conversations and arguments I have with others inspire my writing. It just makes sense to surround myself with friends live.”

Roxy, the debut album from Roxy 2, is out 9/6 on Pop Wig Records (Angel Du$t, Turnstile). Expanding his reach to Canada, Sturm brought a collection of songs to producer Matthew Tomasi (Ethel Cain, Nicole Dollanganger) at the Concrete Smile in Toronto. Like a down-tuned Daniel Johnston with a DAW, all nine tracks began as solo outsider songs before being arranged in real-time with Tomasi. Sometimes Tomasi played drums; sometimes he played guitar; sometimes he did nothing. “Max [Sturm] pushes the boundaries of audio production in a way that gets me excited for the future,” Tomasi says. “The Roxy sessions have inspired me more than any project I’ve worked on the last couple of years.”
The lead single, “Silo,” escalates like a heated debate between past and future Roxy 2. Part Elliot Smith and part Creation Records, a call and response between intimate home production and explosive distortion from a studio band seek common ground, mediated by the haunting guest vocals of Danielle Clark (9Million). Tension and release, expectance and surprise—Sturm and Tomasi move through aural concepts with the fluidity of water. Though, it’s not always copacetic. There are songs like “Elfbar” whose dynamics have irreconcilable differences: as its climax, a heavy 90s-influenced riff threatens a two-minute soundscape fit for a film score. Ultimately, the riff wins.

If only for now.

Sometimes, traditional songwriting and lyricism win. “X3 Crane” is a pop tune straight out of 1998, with all the drum loops and slice of life you’d expect (“We both didn’t notice/That your dog barks when you look at me”). But there’s always a sense of darkness behind Roxy 2’s playfulness; “NBA Street” is a foil to the Sturm-Tomasi collaboration. A song about codependency (“Sparkle in my own way/I can make it up to you/Pick my very own out/Make you proud of what I do”), Sturm’s slacker hooks hit the ear like a subconscious or inner monologue.

But Sturm was always at peace working with others. “Bringing someone in that would require so much trust was scary,” he recalls. “Matt made it extremely easy, and it was clear before we ever met up that he understood what I was trying to do. And I’m lucky most people do too.” Roxy is not a solo album; it’s an ecosystem—Roxy 2 is a musical ecology exploring how the subject should exist in a creative community.