Max Larson: Learning to Fly

Max Larson. Photo (cropped) by LaRueBoweRs Photography.

For half a century, Centre Music House has been providing instruments, education, and support to local and touring acts. Today, shop manager Max Larson—navigating big-box competition and a global pandemic—is finding creative ways to ensure the family business is around for years to come.

atac: Max, who are you and how did music become a part of your life?

Max Larson: I’m a musician! Yes. I grew up in the [Centre Music House] music store, and both my parents are musicians, so I’ve been around music my whole life. Growing up I tried out a bunch of different instruments - piano, drums, etc but the first instrument that really stuck was the saxophone. I started playing in the school band at Barbieri Elementary and eventually joined the jazz band in middle school. At around 12 I started playing bass; I remember sitting in my room and reading tabs for Green Day and Coldplay songs thinking “Wow this is pretty cool, I’m playing the songs I hear on the radio!”

atac: Did this lead to bands, or were you more of a solo artist kid?

ML: By the end of middle school I’m playing bass and singing in a band with some friends…one of the guitarists was this dude Tony Sannicandro who grew up playing metal. He was/is a phenomenal player, he steered the band toward more metal and pretty soon we were a death metal band. Long hair, head banging, growling vocals, all that. I loved it. High intensity, high energy, tons of fun. But I was definitely more drawn to straight ahead rock having grown up listening to the Beatles and Beach Boys. I started learning guitar when I was around 15, nothing serious, just for fun. A couple years later I was going to open mics on a weekly basis, and there were a couple more bands in and after college. These days it’s just me and my guitar and I’m having a blast.

Above: Shots of young metal Max, complete with returntothepit.com watermark!

atac: Well it's you, your guitar, and the daily operations of the much-loved Centre Music House. Can we get a long-short history of the shop?

ML: My dad Corbit moved to Framingham in the early 70s and started taking guitar lessons with a teacher at what was then Eli Rabkin’s Drum Studio. He became friends with Eli who hired him to help out at the shop around the holidays. Eli had another business that he was working on so my dad basically took over the day-to-day operation. A few years later in 1973, Eli sold the business to the Agins family Milt and Marilyn and the name was changed to Centre Music House. They bought the business for their son who was a drummer and had just graduated with a business degree, but he wanted nothing to do with it. More into cars, apparently. So Milt and Marilyn kept the store and asked my dad to stay on and manage. My mom grew up in Natick and in the late 70s she started taking piano lessons with a teacher here…that’s how my parents met. Fast forward to 1980, my parents got married and my dad bought the business from Milt and Marilyn. 

Centre Music House, 1975

atac: And you took over around…when? What have been some of the biggest lessons learned over the past decade?

ML: I technically took over as manager in 2020, right before the pandemic, but I started working in the shop back in 2012. Over the past ten years I’ve learned so much about music, musical instruments, how to repair instruments…I’ve learned the ins and outs of the business operation. The business has taught me to be more patient with people and to be okay when life throws you curveballs. If something breaks down on an airplane it doesn't do the pilot any good to get upset, you still have to fly the plane.

atac: Who are some notable performers who the shop’s been affiliated with? Former employees, students?

ML: Our biggest claim to fame may be Zakk Wylde who played guitar with Ozzy Osbourne. In the early 90s we were a Gibson dealer and Zak went on a national tour for Gibson performing and doing meet and greets with fans. In ‘91, Zak came to Framingham and played a concert at the Civic League downtown to promote Gibson and Centre Music House; my dad picked him up at the airport and drove him into town. Zak, my dad, and Ed Barry played a concert for everyone. My dad spent all week learning a bunch of Ozzy tunes but Zak just wanted to play Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Zeppelin. 

Another notable celeb is Mike Gordon, the bass player from Phish. He grew up in Sudbury and either came here for lessons or just to hang out. He stops by every couple of years when he’s in town and says hey. But you don’t have to be a rock star to have a successful music career. Lots of former Centre Music students and teachers have gone on to carve out very lucrative careers as sound engineers, voice over actors, film scorers, university professors, studio musicians, producers, you name it. 

Max’s uncle Pete with Zakk Wylde

atac: Let’s plug an atac event! What’s the best part about hosting / running the Centre Music House Open Mic?

ML: I love hosting the open mic; it’s so much fun. One of the best parts for me is when we get a performer and it’s their first time performing in public—that’s a precious moment. When they get up and they’re super nervous but they do it anyway and push through and play their song and then the crowd bursts into applause and they’re just beaming with happiness and relief. It’s so great. Then they come back next time and they're a little more confident, a little more comfortable on stage and that’s when you start to see people develop their abilities as performers. That and seeing the community develop at the events. Seeing people meet and make connections through music is really cool.

atac: You also host a music camp, Rock Band Adventure. How did the program come to be?

ML: The program started a while ago, almost 25 years I think. It started with a guitar teacher who presented my dad with the idea to get kids together in a rock camp and we’ve been doing it ever since. Kids get together for 2 hours a day for one week and they form a band with other kids and learn a bunch of songs with the help of our camp director. At the end of the week they put on a live concert for family and friends. It’s a great way for young musicians to experience what it’s like to play in a band. Kids not only get better on their instruments, they also develop skills working in a team.

A throwback shot with former guitar teacher Dave Medeiros, former sales staff member Sheryl Walton, Max’s dad Corbit, session player Earl Slick (Bowie, etc), Peter Larson, and Arthur Olins, a guitar teacher and luthier who still teaches and works at CMH.

atac: The shop’s brand and identity is largely built around being a face-to-face community spot—not a big box store. Given that, how have you been able to weather the pandemic?

ML: Maintaining a sense of community was a challenge, but we’re a small team and this is our livelihood so we did whatever it took to survive. We pivoted to doing online lessons almost immediately after the lockdown went into effect…that kept us going even though the store was closed to shoppers. We started doing curbside business and local deliveries; when students would buy a new piano book on our website, we would drive it over to their home. We did a lot of guitar repairs because a lot of people wanted to dust off their old guitars and start playing again while they were stuck at home. 

To keep the team cohesive we had weekly meetings with all the staff and teachers on zoom where we would talk about our experiences teaching online lessons—it was brand new to most of us. We held virtual recitals for our students which were a big hit; those gave students a goal to work toward and seeing everyone else’s performances was fun and motivating. It makes you feel like you’re a part of something bigger. For our broader community we started up virtual Open Mic nights which brought all sorts of people together to share their music. It was tough but we made the most of it and made it out on the other side. We’re chugging along.

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The next Centre Music House Open Mic will be held at atac in Framingham on Thursday February 2. The program runs on first Thursdays through June.