Maxwell on seven year hiatus:

“Up to that point I’d been on the road and didn’t have a chance to really live. But I write about reallife experiences, so it just felt like I had to sit back and let these experiences happen and inspire me all over again.”
“People ask, ‘Why so long?’ and I say, ‘It’s easier to take something that’s of the moment, but so much harder to say something
that will resonate today, tomorrow and for all times.’ I want my music to last forever. I never want my music to be dated,” he says of the single. “ ‘Pretty Wings’ falls into that. I met this girl who I still respect very much, and although it didn’t work out, I got lots of inspiration from it. This track speaks of my time with her.”

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Maxwell on BLACKsummer’snight:

“ ‘BLACK’ is darker. It has a bluesier side and features more despondent records. It speaks plenty to love lost.” BlackSUMMER’Snight,”
the second installment of the trilogy to be released in 2010, has more of a gospel feel. “It’s lighter. It’s gospel music for the common person that wouldn’t naturally get involved with that type of music. Hopefully they’ll get down with it now,” he says. And, finally, “Blacksummer’sNIGHT,” the third set with an anticipated 2011 release, is “straight-up slow jam records.”

Maxwell on comeback:

“I’m not going to bullshit you—I was scared. You never know how people will feel. And if only 10 people would’ve been interested, I would’ve been disappointed, but I wouldn’t have been surprised,” he says of touring last year. “It was such a validation and proved to me that my work in the past was worth something. I can’t tell you how validating it is for me to be able to say that I was gone for seven years but I was never gone in people’s minds and hearts.”

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