Sitting on top of the world: PureSalem Guitars fan Max Keyes
CHE HISE-GATTONE
SPIRAL XP’S MAX Keyes wasn’t a natural-born guitarist. Though he tried picking up the instrument a few times in his youth, something about a six-string just didn’t connect with him back then. That’s why he started honing heavy rhythms as a drummer — most notably for Seattle-based noise-pop band Versing.
It wasn’t until a Versing tour with cult Canadian jangle-pop trio the Courtneys — where he began obsessing over the latter outfit’s gliding open-tuned melodies — that Keyes changed his, um, tune. Later, after a friend gifted him an old Epiphone SG, Keyes was inspired to experiment with drop-Dand open-Darrangements from his living room. This led him toward developing an elementally intuitive approach to fretting that finally unlocked the guitar’s potential for him.