Biography

Early years

His birth name is Kevin Max Smith, but he legally shortened it to "Kevin Max" in 1997, as a tribute to his birth father. Kevin was himself adopted by the Smith family and grew up in Grand

Rapids, Michigan. Another reason behind changing his name might be because his adoptive brother was named Max. Kevin showed incredible vocal and musical talent early in his life

and his talent grew while at Northpointe Christian High School and later at Liberty University in Lynchburg Virginia.



dc Talk

Later, at Liberty University, he met fellow dc Talk bandmates: Toby McKeehan and Michael Tait. Together they formed dc Talk and went on to achieve great success in both Christian

and mainstream music. The band went on to win four Grammy Awards, 16 GMA Dove Awards, and other recognitions. However, they decided to take an extended "intermission" in

2000.



Spirituality

In recent years, Kevin Max has attempted to create a name for himself apart from dc Talk. While he does not shy away from vocally defending his Christian faith, he has expressed a

desire to create art with a universal appeal. He insists, "My music is for a Christian and a Buddhist to pick up and still enjoy, as well as for an atheist. But it is there to prod and ask some

questions: What's my worldview? What do I believe in, and why do I believe it?"



Stereotype Be

The resulting solo album, Stereotype Be, released on August 28, 2001, was praised by Allmusic for "[combining] pop, rock, and world music to create a versatile and intriguing

project."[citation needed] Legendary artists Adrian Belew, Larry Norman, and Tony Levin contributed to the album.



Further projects

While Stereotype Be has developed a considerable cult following, it wasn't well-received in the Christian music market. Soon after its release, Max was dropped from his Christian label,

Forefront Records. Undeterred, Max began to slowly build his solo career through live shows and word-of-mouth. He released independent albums via his website, including an EP

entitled Between the Fence & the Universe and a spoken-word collaboration with Adrian Belew entitled Raven Songs 101, both in 2004.

In fall of 2004, Max's word-of-mouth strategy finally began to pay off. He played the title role in the Visalia Theatre Company / Hutson-Cavale Productions revival of the classic Tim Rice

and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Later that year, he signed a new deal with Northern Records and released a second full-length album,

titled The Imposter, said to "contain...a sound that recalls the passion of early U2, the soul of Jeff Buckley, and the ambiguity of Blur, on October 18, 2005. He released a Christmas

album, titled Holy Night, in time for the 2005 holiday season.

In April 2007, Infinity Music announced that Kevin Max signed onto their label for his next project. His latest album, The Blood, was released on December 26, 2007.[3] According to Max,

"The Blood is not a classic hymns cover project or a white/homogenized version of black gospel or soul music. It's a sensitive and stylized adaption of the music that was at the root of

rock and roll, blues and popular culture."[3]

In February 2008 Kevin Max starred in the independent film The Imposter Movie, on location in Dallas Texas.[4] Kevin plays a character named "Johnny C", a singer who becomes

addicted to Oxycontin and loses his family and job as a Christian Music Star. The movie also features Tom Wright, Troy Baker and many others.



Poetry and writings

Max is also a poet and an author. He has published four books, three of which are poetry books: At the Foot of Heaven (1994), The Detritus of Dorian Gray (2003) and PO.ET.RY

(2005). The other is an autobiography of sorts titled Unfinished Work (2001), an in-depth look at the meaning of each of his songs from Stereotype Be. In addition, Max has a spoken-

word EP album that accompanies his first poetry book At the Foot of Heaven, released in 1995 by Starsong Productions.



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