Max Subar plays guitar and pedal steel in Case Oats, the Casey Gomez Walker-led band whose debut Last Missouri Exit came out on Merge last year. Anything Could Be, Subar’s solo debut, out now on Merge Records, began with ten days alone in a rented house on a frozen lake in Wisconsin — just him, a mobile rig, live vocals and guitar. The microphones picked up wind chimes, cracking ice and lapping water, and he left those sounds in the recordings.
Back in Chicago, he added parts at his home studio with a small group of collaborators, most of them from his immediate circle. His brother Sam Subar played drums, Spencer Tweedy drums feature on two tracks; Sarah Weddle added vibraphone, organ and electric piano, Scott Daniel violin, Jason Ashworth upright bass, Kelly Hannemann piano, Chet Zenor electric guitar. Several are Case Oats bandmates, and that familiarity shows — these eleven songs have a loose, lived-in quality that comes from people who know how to leave space for each other.
“Performing no more than a few takes of these parts was crucial to keep the songs from ever feeling laborious, tired, or overworked,” Subar says. “If I couldn’t get it in about three takes, something wasn’t right. Maybe the part was too busy. Maybe it was my approach. Whatever it meant, I took it as a sign to move on.”
“There is so much room for newness in the weightiest or seemingly most paralyzing of times,” he adds. “No matter how foreign, frightening, anxiety-ridden, or unfamiliar chapters of life can feel, there is always an opportunity to tap deep into ourselves and land somewhere new, somewhere forward.”
Below, Subar takes us through the album track by track.
Track by Track Guide by Max Subar:
Anything Could Be
I wrote this after waking up one morning from a dream of a spider spinning webs. I was in a pattern of writing just after waking up. Something about being in a semi-conscious morning state really served the lyrics on this one. The verses felt like they kept coming, and I like how that makes for a meditative, slow burn of a title track.
See Saw
One of my favorites on the record. It’s a song about making peace with the pendulum swings of life. I can’t remember if the music or lyrics came first, likely at a similar time, but I like how the chorus really feels like being a kid, reaching the top of a see-saw. Shoutout to Mr Swanson, my high school English teacher who got me excited about the creative writing process and playing with form and function. I love the electric guitar on here, tracked by my friend Chet Zenor. It’s this bouncy, light part that just decorates and glues the music together.
Cat At My Door
I was writing and reflecting on the way I had been feeling out of touch with myself when a crying cat came to my front door. It was a serendipitous moment and felt really meaningful. It helped me put to lyrics how instinct and core values stick around, like a glowing ember from a fire the night before, even when we feel astray from ourselves. I tracked some slide guitars that felt like little cries at the end, just like the cat at my door.
I Never
I layered a couple 12-string guitars on this one and some percussion, and that initially felt like enough to drive the recording. Later on, I had this drum idea that came to me while I was driving…like a lot of other arrangements on this record. I beatboxed it into my phone and sent the idea to my friend Spencer Tweedy, and he ran with it! It fit right into the song, almost like it was there all along. Scott Daniel plays some beautiful layered strings on this one, too.
Like You’ve Known It
This song was initially the title track for the record, but was replaced by Anything Could Be shortly before the delivery deadline! It still holds a lot of meaning and texturally is one of my favorites. I recorded it live: vocals and acoustic guitar. The microphones caught some of the sound from outside the lake house. I decided after to let more of that in and set up some microphones by the water. It was December; the wind was blowing, slapping around wind chimes and the ice was crunching against the shoreline. I’m so glad to have the memory of that time baked into the record.
When I brought the recordings back to Chicago, my close friend and collaborator Sarah Weddle played some organ parts that sound like molten lava and a vibraphone melody that pulls the chorus along. Another long-time friend, Jason Gordon Ashworth, plays upright bass and landed on these really rich bowed parts on the second verse.
History
This is the first track on Side B; it feels like turning a page to me. It’s about letting go of attachment to the past and future and trusting the passing of time. My brother Sam Subar tracked drums after the 12-string part, and then I added in some pedal steel. Sarah added some bowed vibraphone and organ parts that really warm up the recording. This one takes off and lives in an elevated state until the end.
I wrote it for a songwriting group that was getting together weekly at the time called Juice Cleanse. Sarah and Kelly Hannemann (who plays piano on the record) invited me. “History” was the word of the week. I wasn’t expecting to walk away with much, let alone an album song!
As The Weather
I wrote this song right before I left for Wisconsin to track the album. I saved it as a “maybe” until the last couple of recording days. It’s funny when a “maybe track” ends up feeling like it was always supposed to be there, a cornerstone to the record. Like a lot of my songs, it’s fairly autobiographical. I wrote it about coming out of a depression, but the hopeful part is where you start to see the clearing. It acknowledges the humanness and shared experience of loneliness, and a newfound perspective and appreciation for life after hitting these points. Kelly plays some really moving piano on this. I remember after tracking a take, we looked at each other and knew it was the one, without saying a word.
Way Up
Probably the most orchestral track on the record. Spencer plays this sort of rolling drum part that’s tucked into the track. We added this cacophony of bells at the very end too. Scott plays this pizzicato string part that we doubled, kind of a counter melody to the chorus.
When working on the arrangement for this one, I found this exciting new pedal steel sound, using Chet’s pitch shift pedal. It made the steel sound like this deep, sweeping cello that fit right into the song. I ended up using a similar sound on “I Never”.
Everything Is
This track is one of the more bare ones on the record. I wanted it to feel super intimate, honest and vulnerable. I tracked the electric guitar parts right after recording the live take on acoustic and vocal. The way they break through the softness like distorted rubber bands was super exciting to me. Not harsh but awakening or epiphanic, like a thunder clap. Scott added a beautiful lone fiddle part, and Sam plays a super textural drum take throughout, almost more felt than heard.
Words Unkept
This song is the ripper on the album if there were to be one. I had so much fun tracking the slide guitar and cranking it through some pre-amps in mixing with Dave Vettraino. I wanted it to sound Revolver-esque, with a heavy slapback and sort of rip right through the speakers before the end of the album. Sam played an awesome drum part on this one, and Kelly’s piano parts brought the off-center rhythm of the song together in such a perfect way.
The Day Will Be New
I’ve loved this song; it’s something I really needed to write and hold near at the time. It still serves as an important reminder on harder days. I wanted to keep it simple and transparent. Just enough to hold the vocals but nothing more.
The song is a balm for sorrow or hardship, a reminder that it’s okay to be wherever you are. A couple of days ago at the beach, my brother looked up at a cloud morphing from the inside out and sang one of his favorite George Harrison lyrics from All Things Must Pass, “A cloudburst doesn’t last all day”. This song feels like my take on that meaning. I hope it leaves people feeling seen, comforted, lighter and hopeful.
Anything Could Be (July 17th, 2026) Merge Records
Order/Save: https://lnk.to/anythingcouldbe