'You're going to know me someday': Musician Max Hageman sets sights on releasing album in 2026

Rush City native Max Hageman is often known to east-central Minnesota venues as Relax With Max, but as the musician continues to write and release original songs — with plans to put out an album in 2026 — his work ethic outpaces his stage name.

"I've been playing music since I was about six years old, playing guitar," Hageman said in an interview with WCMP on Feb. 18. "I got my first band when I was 14, and I've been playing music ever since."

Hageman said he picked up his instrument from listening to his dad and grandpa play the guitar, and followed his grandpa's proclivity for surfy 1960s rock.

The first song Hageman recalls learning — 1963's "Pipeline," by The Ventures — came when he was around 6 or 7 years old.

"I mean, it didn't sound good," he said with a laugh. "But that was the spark that kind of clicked."

More inspiration came from an AC/DC concert when Hageman was 8 — a show he recalls as a formative memory in his pursuit of playing music.

"That was kind of the big shocker moment for me," he said. "Like, 'whoa, I want to play guitar, this is what I want to do.'"

At 14, Hageman joined Vulkan, an eighties-indebted band from the Cambridge-Isanti area. He first saw them play in full long-haired, zebra-striped regalia at Froggy's in Pine City.

"I think I started jamming with them a little bit when I was 14, and I think I officially joined them when I was at the tail end of 14 years old, or right when I turned 15 years old," Hageman explained. "I played guitar with them for about three or four years. That was a fun time, a fun group of guys."

Hageman said he was "weirdly good" for an early teen guitarist, playing bar shows that his parents had to accompany him to.

"I always tell people, when you're in a band, it's like you're dating four or five girls at the same time," Hageman laughed. "It's more people, more schedules, more ideas, more thoughts, it's just a lot harder. Everyone wants to do things their own way."

When Hageman ventured out solo in 2018, he hadn't started singing, so he returned to the instrumental sixties-era surf rock learned from his grandpa in his youth.

The Relax With Max moniker came to him in a serendipitous moment when trying to find good rhymes for his name while taking a shower.

"It just came to me at the weirdest time," he said with a laugh.

The first Relax With Max show was at The Grumpy Minnow in Stanchfield — Hageman recalls charging "close to nothing" for the gig.

"The patio was packed, and it was super fun," he said.

Over the past eight years, Relax With Max has continued to grow. Hageman played about 150 shows in 2025, and said it "just keeps getting bigger and bigger."

"Starting out, you kind of have to get your foot in the door with a lot of places, so you're shooting emails everywhere you can," he said. "And me, I was 18 years old at the time, and talking to different bar owners. You grow up kind of quick, communication-wise."

Photos provided by Max Hageman

Hageman said he started singing in July of 2025. He collected snippets of rhythms and melodies in computer recordings, and finding the confidence to sing helped his process for writing original songs.

"I'm still learning," Hageman said. "It's still new to me."

The learning process isn't exclusive to writing: Hageman also mixes, produces, and masters his own material, and jokes that he's a proud student of YouTube University.

"That's how I learned guitar, too," Hageman said. "Never had a lesson in my life. If you want to learn something, you learn it."

On Feb. 13, Hageman released "Know My Name," a track inspired by playing with a band at the Everwild Music Festival in Ohio.

"I was walking around backstage, and I know everyone there, but no one knew who I was," Hageman said. "It's kind of a crappy feeling, when you're like the little guy, but it's kind of nice being the underdog, too. I just marked down how it made me feel a little bit. Like, 'you're going to know me someday, you don't know me now.' That was kind of the mentality behind it."

Most recently, Hageman released single "Solar Stride" on Feb. 23.

His goal is to have a full album out by the end of 2026, if not by his birthday on July 10.

"I have four songs right now, a fifth one in the works, and I think with a whole album, I'd probably only need eight to nine songs," Hageman said.

Hageman said one of his biggest sonic influences is San Diego reggae project Stick Figure.

"It's one guy who plays all the instruments, sings, does all the production, basically what I'm doing, but on a way higher level," Hageman said. "And then he hires a live band. So those guys have really been my inspiration with music."

Hageman is a self-described "big eighties guy," and likes to genre-hop when it comes to drawing inspiration, but never expected to fall into reggae as a genre.

"I can shred solos all day, but nothing makes me happier than playing three chords on a guitar, and just jamming," he said.

After setting a high watermark for show volume in 2025, Hageman has plenty more shows booked for 2026.

"You try to find ways to keep continuing to grow," he said. "The worst thing to do is be stuck in the same place you were last year. So that's my goal."

You can listen to Max Hageman's music on his website.