Few capture the essence of a vagabond better than Max Bianco. The songwriter, who was born in the Northeast of England, has travelled extensively through the UK and Europe busking in bars and telling stories of wanderers and lovers. He has since been hand-picked by The Libertines to support them on their upcoming tour.

Bianco’s latest single, Sometimes, was recorded at The Albion Rooms and paints an intimate picture of him playing guitar to himself, safe from the outside world. ‘Sometimes it’s just way too hard to leave my room’ is heard as he dances between the loving and the macabre with crisp hammer-ons and pull-offs that ooze comfort whilst also hint a grey foreboding. These themes correlate with the single’s artwork where Bianco is drawn stylistically on a wall, head down seemingly unaware of his surroundings.

The arrangement throughout Sometimes is minimal which allow for Bianco’s vocals to be at the heart of the track. The verses are somewhere between a vocal canter and a torrent as if Bianco is wrestling with several or more thoughts at once. His gravelly and, at times, sharp tones depict a character on a decisive precipice, best epitomised by his lyrics, ‘Got trapped in a hurricane; spinning me insane, every good deed I did always slapped me in the face…’ Speaking about Sometimes, Bianco has said, “‘Sometimes’ is about life really and when the cards dealt don’t match up to anything, but how it’s maybe worth taking that risk of going all in again and hoping for a better hand to be dealt next time.” But despite the acoustic set up, Bianco manages to make Sometimes feel expansive and even cinematic, with some neat chord progressions on a piano that brush up against his guitar in a thoughtful haze. You could imagine Sometimes being used for a film where a weathered protagonist struggles to confront some long-held internal demons.

Cinematic musings aside, there is a great deal of maturity to Bianco’s songwriting for Sometimes in the way that he captures the spirit of a traveller moving on up the road. There are elements of Springsteen’s Western Stars in the way that Sometimes flows and similarities between Bianco and Bob Dylan, who he has been compared with before. And, whilst there are certainly similarities between Bianco and the latter, such as playing style, tonality and even looks, it’s a testament to the way Bianco has captured a rare purity whether writing about himself or another.

LISTEN TO ‘SOMETIMES’ HERE NOW

Max Bianco is playing upcoming shows supporting the Libertines

30.10.24 Roundhouse, London
17.11.24 The Engine Shed, Lincoln
18.11.24 The Globe, Stockton

Words by Charvawritesstuff

Photo 1 by Suzanna Callahan – Photo 2 by David Haine