Riley Max
The Colorado singer-songwriter opens up about the three-year journey behind her most personal release yet, blending indie folk textures with honest reflections on change and gratitude.
At just 21 years old, Colorado-born singer-songwriter and multimedia artist Riley Max is stepping into a defining new chapter of her career with “Pockets,” a deeply personal single that reflects the growth, change, and self-discovery she has experienced over the past several years. Written over the course of three years, the track represents a major evolution from her debut album ROY G BIV, which Riley created at only 18 years old and which went on to receive critical acclaim. Blending indie folk warmth with memorable pop melodies, “Pockets” captures the emotional complexity of navigating change—exploring gratitude, growing apart from someone who once meant everything, and learning to carry both difficult experiences and meaningful memories forward. Built around reflective lyricism and a gentle, immersive soundscape, the song marks a turning point for Riley as she moves away from writing through fictional perspectives and embraces a more direct, vulnerable approach rooted in her own life. It is a track that feels unmistakably like her: honest, thoughtful, and shaped by the perspective she has gained through moments of uncertainty, anxiety, and personal growth.
Beyond music, Riley’s creative world stretches across film, visual art, animation, and storytelling. As a rising senior at Harvard University studying Art, Film and Visual Studies, she continues to explore new ways of expressing herself across mediums while developing her evolving artistic voice. She serves as the music director of The Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones, participates in musical theater productions, and brings her visual storytelling background into projects ranging from cover art and comics to animation. With her sophomore album arriving this fall, “Pockets” marks a confident new era—one rooted in experimentation, self-trust, and the freedom to follow her own creative instincts. We sat down with Riley to discuss the three-year journey behind the song, finding her artistic identity, balancing multiple creative disciplines, and embracing the idea that some of life’s biggest transformations simply need time.
“Pockets” took shape over the course of three years. How did giving yourself that time change the song from when you first started writing it?
When I start writing a song, it’s usually because I have one or two lines bouncing around in my head that I think are really great and I know that I want to write something around those lines, but I’m not exactly sure yet what the bigger picture will end up looking like. That first day that I wrote the first verse, I honestly didn’t have anything else to say. And often when that happens, I’ll start pulling from fiction, or from other people’s lives that I’ve witnessed rather than just my own. But when I started “Pockets,” I was in this phase of my life — that I’m still in — where I was trying to be better about writing about my life and my experiences, and not shy away from that as much. So I waited. I waited until it felt like I had something more to say. And ultimately it meant that this song has more of me in it than any of my others have before.
You describe “Pockets” as “quintessentially me.” What makes this song feel more representative of who you are as an artist than your earlier work?
I don’t know exactly. It just feels like something I would make! I think a lot of my previous work has been created through the lens of a medium of sorts— I’d write a few lines, figure out who was talking, and then write the rest from their perspective. But for “Pockets,” there was no middle man. The same goes for the instrumentation. In a lot of my previous works, I’d just figure out the genre that the song fit the best and go off of that. For “Pockets,” I just did whatever I wanted. It’s born out of my taste and my taste alone (although my taste does vary greatly, as you’ll see in the rest of the album).
The song touches on gratitude, growing apart, and anxiety without feeling heavy. How did you find that balance while writing it?
I mean, it’s hard. Again, “Pockets” was written over the course of multiple years, and in those years I went through wildly different stages of feeling many different things. I had a lot of health issues—mental and physical—in my freshman year, and my other single off of this album (“Year One”) was written kind of in the depths of all of that. Honestly, after writing that song, I would listen back to it and just be like “man, that’s depressing.” And although “Pockets” was written about some similar issues and experiences, I just realized over the course of those years that I didn’t want to feel depressed when listening to my music anymore. I wanted to be able to write about these experiences that had been such a big part of my life, but to take it all in context with all of the amazing things that have happened too. Especially after my experience with anxiety and its effects on my life, it became really important to me to be able to acknowledge when things go wrong without it feeling like the end of the world. By the end of the writing process it was much easier, because I had gone through such a big shift in perspective personally, so when I put my feelings into words, I just found that they weren‘t quite so negative anymore.
Your debut album ROY G BIV was written and recorded when you were just 18. How do you think your songwriting has evolved since then?
I’ve always been down to experiment in different genres and try out new things, and that much has definitely stayed the same. I think the main thing that’s different now is the amount that I’m willing to pull from my own life and talk about things that are very personal to me, something that I was hesitant to do as a teenager. And that gives me the freedom to be a little more abstract at times and dive deeper into sensations and experiences in a more creative way, because no matter whether or not the audience understands it, I have a clear idea of what I’m talking about and what it feels like to me, rather than just repeating what I’ve heard from books and movies and other people in my life.
This new music feels more self-assured. What have you learned about trusting your own creative instincts over the past few years?
Honestly, the more I make music — and the more I make art — the more I realize that the stuff I dwell on forever is always the stuff that I don’t end up liking all that much. I’ll be the first to say that I’m not God’s gift to music. I’m not thinking about theory, or chord progressions. But I listen to a hell of a lot of music, and I like to think I’ve got a pretty good ear, so who am I to say I don’t know what I’m talking about? Music is about creativity, and every art teacher I’ve ever had has told me that the moment you start judging your art on whether it’s “good” or not, it gets infinitely worse. So I try not to worry about that anymore. I like it, and my mom says it’s pretty good (she’s very hard to please), and that’s enough for me.
You’re balancing life as a Harvard student, musician, filmmaker, and visual artist. Do those different creative disciplines influence one another?
Oh for sure. It’s really nice to have multiple creative outputs, because when I get stuck with one, I’ll just jump to another for a while. Often, that’s when my album covers materialize— when I’m in a rut with my music. And whatever I go through in my life is carried through all of my art— no matter the medium. I find that whatever I experiment with in one informs the others, as they’re all just different means of expression. Anything I try out helps me understand what I like and don’t like and helps me figure out my style.
What do you hope listeners who are navigating change or uncertainty take away from this song?
In my experience, the thesis of the song is “give it time.” Whatever happens, and however I feel in that moment, I always try to remember that I won’t always feel that way. It’s hard to do, and it took me a while to get there, but it’s a much better way to live life than assuming that everything lasts forever. I hope that anyone listening can find the courage to feel hope when looking ahead and have gratitude for all they have left behind.
Your sophomore album arrives this fall.
How does “Pockets” set the tone for what listeners can expect from the full record?
I think they can expect me on guitar using more than four chords! Which is huge. And they can expect some fun storytelling. But beyond that, I will always caution against having strong expectations when it comes to my music, because I’m always experimenting, and no two of my songs sound the same.
If someone is discovering your music for the first time through “Pockets,” what do you hope they learn about Riley Max?
I hope they learn that she loves to look back, but will always be moving forward.
Official website of Riley Max.
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