Heather Latter
Emo native Maverick Judson is calling his latest release his biggest to date.
The local aspiring pop artist released the video “Just Drive,” featuring Canadian singer/songwriter Danny Fernandes, on YouTube on Friday while the single will be available to purchase on iTunes and other digital platforms this week.
“I am so excited,” Judson enthused last Thursday afternoon.
“I feel like my tires have been spinning for the last three months waiting on this day.
“Everything is in place [and] now comes the fun part,” he added.
“All the hard work is done and now I just get to share what I created.”
Judson said the single has been at least a year in the making.
“It was approximately one year ago from today when Danny Fernandes called me,” Judson recalled, noting he initially had reached out with a Facebook message and an e-mail.
“I went out on a limb knowing that if I wanted to keep going with my dreams, that I needed something bigger to happen,” he reasoned.
“So when he [Fernandes] texted me that night about a year ago now, and then called me, I knew I had to prove myself.”
Judson travelled to Toronto in September to shoot the video with Fernandes.
“It was really a different experience for me for a number of reasons,” he had noted upon his return home.
“Expenses, unfamiliar territory, a larger production crew, a bigger song, an agent, a contract, the list goes on.”
Since the song is titled “Just Drive,” they did a lot of driving and stopping at different locations—some that were set up for specific shots.
Judson said each location represented a different part of this wild, exciting night he and his love interest were having as portrayed in the song.
“The song’s theme is ‘be your chauffeur for the night,’ so I take this new love interest and drive around showing her another side of the world,” he explained.
Judson said the whole shoot was a lot of fun to experience.
“The people that I was working with, too, were a little bit more into the music industry,” he noted.
“The highlight of my entire trip was the people I got to meet while I was down there,” added Judson.
“The whole music industry is about networking and I felt like I just hit the jackpot while I was down there.”
Judson also said he’s learned a lot in the past year.
“I feel like taking this step forward helped me learn a lot of things about the music industry in a huge hurry,” he remarked.
“There are little secrets here and there that you kind of pick up on.
“You get a better understanding of why those stars like Danny Fernandes are who they are and how they maintain that reputation,” he stressed.
While Judson originally had expected to release the video last fall, his radio promoter and publicist decided to hold off until the new year.
“When everything was finally done, there was Christmas music flooding the airwaves,” he explained, noting there were worries “Just Drive” would get lost in the mix.
But he’s thrilled with the final product.
“I am very happy with what we made,” Judson enthused. “You have old vibes, some new vibes, something to get the people dancing and something to get them rocking.
“It’s just so many things in one package, and I’m happy to put my name on it and say that I did that,” he said, adding he’s glad he was able to collaborate with Fernandes.
“I latched on to someone I idolized and whom is already a force to be reckoned with in the music business,” he noted.
“The idea was to let my talents shine and use Danny’s name as leverage for instant credibility.
“All in a struggle to get my foot in the door.”
And Judson may be getting the break he’s been hoping for as he pushes the “Just Drive” single.
“I’m just trying to focus on the next two months because I’ll be going on a promotional tour hitting up TV news stations and radio,” he said, adding he’ll also be releasing a new album soon.
“The album is done,” he remarked.
“Basically we are using the single to get the buzz going and once things are fired up, I’ll be dropping the album.”
Judson said the significance of releasing the “Just Drive” video is that the whole music industry is based around the video nowadays.
He added you don’t make money off the video but it’s an advertisement.
“The better you can make it look, and the more hype you can build around the video, the more singles or albums you are going to sell,” he explained.
With “Just Drive,” Judson is hoping people will get a real feel for everything he can do and what he is about.
“It kind of has my style embedded in the song,” he indicated. “So I’m hoping it will catch their ears, and the video catch their eyes.
“And it will be enough attention to make people care about the rest of the things I have going on.”
Two separate versions of “Just Drive” will be available later this week on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, and many more digital platforms.
“I’ve literally dedicated the last year of my life to recording an entire album to follow the footsteps of this single,” Judson stressed.
“This will be my first-ever collaboration with an established pop singer.
“And this single is being backed by an experienced team of music industry professionals who I know are going to familiarize Canadians with what I can do.”
Judson added he hopes others get to experience what it’s like to have a dream like this come true.
“[But] it didn’t happen overnight and there were a lot of things that led up to this moment,” Judson conceded.
“And even when the opportunity came around, I still needed to know what to do with it once it was in my hands.
“This is only the beginning—I have many big surprises coming,” he vowed.
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