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Biography 
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Max Rayshich (pronounced ray-shick) is a prolific multimedia artist working in digital media, painting, sculpture, film, and music. His current projects include the comical and surreal card game Big Boy Throwdown, an animated spinoff of the game titled “Tales from the Between-Zone,” and the online cryptid-hunting video series Hill Horrors - all under ClownCar, an indie production company he runs with a few close friends. Max is a rabid creator of things, as well as a lover of music, D&D, video games, cats, and works of fantastical horror.

Artist Statement 
My motivation comes from a lot of places. A lot of the time, I think it comes from a place of very raw emotion, where I want things to come out as saturated and evocative as possible. At other times, I want to make something that I like to look at or listen to.

I always listen to music when I work. Always. Music for me is one of the most intimate and expressive modes of self-expression, and as a musician myself, I can’t help but gravitate towards the need for inspiring noise to underscore my every waking moment.

This brings me to \o/Sleep’s Absolute Sanctum\o/ -- a massive, ever-growing music playlist that's over 1400 songs long, adding up to over 90 hours of music. I play it on shuffle, and work for hours. Often, I'll play newly added songs on repeat or in a newer, condensed playlist, and then slowly migrate back to the big one. You'll have the Beatles, deafening EDM, bits of experimental hip-hop, deep cuts from Gorillaz' discography, chunks of movie and game soundtracks, and the freshest bits of Australian neo-psychedelic rock all playing back to back to back. It's a surreal musical cocktail that has become my inspirational fuel for artmaking, and I embrace the chaos in the same way.

I like improvisation. I don't build a plan at the outset because if I did, I’d agonize over how everything "should" look, and I wouldn’t ever start the darn thing. I'd rather just get my hands on some materials, start working, and see where it goes from there. Then, once I feel like I'm on to something, I can walk it back, refine details, and start to make sense of everything. 

Links
Big Boy Throwdown
Instagram
Website
Youtube

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