Since singer/songwriter Max McNown went viral on TikTok with his song “A Lot More Free,” it’s become a hit at radio and even Kelly Clarkson covered it on her talk show. But Oregon native Max says he wasn’t trying to get the song to take off — it just happened.

“I went to the Columbia River gorge with my little sister right after COVID. … And we posted, like, a transitional video of all the beautiful nature around us,” Max tells ABC Audio. “In the caption, I was like, ‘What if this became a travel song?'”

“I thought nothing of it,” he adds. “I literally was just like, ‘Oh, what should the caption be?’ And then everybody started making videos.”

Max believes the song connected with people because of “a combination of the lyrics, of the energy of the harmonica, of the time in the world.”

He notes, “People resonated hardcore with that song and it kind of went viral on its own. I didn’t expect it at all.”

“A Lot More Free” is on Max’s 2023 EP of the same name, and on his 2024 album Wandering. Since then he’s released a new album, Night Diving, and a new standalone single. Still, he’s loving the fact that he can hear “A Lot More Free” on the radio between Lady Gaga and Teddy Swims hits.

“I just see pop as whatever is resonating with the most people at that time. And so it’s really cool,” he says. “If I classified ‘A Lot More Free’ as a song in a genre, it would be kind of folk, folk pop, kind of like a Lumineers thing.”

But Max says so far his success “doesn’t feel real at all”: “I think the imposter syndrome is pretty heavy right now.”

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