In an environment filled with indie rockers and singer-songwriters, synth-punk musician Maxwell Reid is a breath of fresh air in the Emerson music scene. The Denver native merges emo-punk aesthetics and screamed vocals with punchy electronic beats in his new EP, Act One: The Occult Superstar Must Emerge, the first part of his upcoming album Occult Superstar.

Although he only began releasing music in September, Reid’s passion for music came at a young age when he started writing emo music at age twelve. His major inspirations include the sounds and imagery of My Chemical Romance and David Bowie, as well as the productions of Kanye West. Reid has also described his music as “My Chemical Romance with 808s” and “emo music that you can shake your ass to.”

Reid began writing for Occult Superstar while living in Europe, gaining inspiration to make the record after his surreal experiences inside clubs in Barcelona. “There was cocaine on the toilet seats; motherfuckers were getting their phones stolen; bartenders treated people like shit and there was the most intense techno music I’ve ever heard,” Reid says of his time at clubs. “Driving, pounding drums and synths that would fucking kill you.”

Reid’s new EP Act One: The Occult Superstar Must Emerge consists of the previously released tracks “Opening Image” and “King Crowley,” alongside a new track titled “Goth Boy Autumn,” named after an inside joke between Reid and his hometown friends. “I was really into the Cure and that was around the time I started dressing up more,” he says, “and I was like ‘It’s a Goth Boy Autumn, y’all.’ It’s not a funny song, but I thought it would be a funny song title.”

On the surface, “Goth Boy Autumn” is about getting back with an ex-partner (“I’m tense and nervous and it’s breaking my heart / You’re saying something, should’ve said from the start”). However, the lyrics also connect Reid’s love life to his experiences with eating disorders. He sings, “You say that I should probably forget her, so I’m counting calories to fit in clothes I can never.”

“I find that they’re tangentially related,” Reid professes. “It more relates to a specific relationship where I was going through a tumultuous time and an eating disorder, and that coincided with breaking up with someone and getting back together with them, just constantly on and off.”

For the album, Reid created his alter-ego King Crowley, a rockstar who has the desire to be an online influencer. Inspired by David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust persona and The Patient, a character from My Chemical Romance’s 2006 concept album The Black Parade, Reid describes King Crowley as the result of “putting glam rock icons into the 21st-century TikTok world."

Prior to the release of Act One, Reid released two singles in September, “Opening Image” and “King Crowley,” alongside a music video for the former track. The video–directed by Charlie Compton–was shot in Reid’s apartment and features him performing the song as King Crowley among clubbers spitting blood, kissing, and killing each other. The horror-influenced video also contains glitchy visual effects akin to the music videos of Death Grips and Scarlxrd.

Now with an EP added to his discography, Reid plans to perform live shows and hopes to go on tour. His dreams of touring stem from My Chemical Romance’s 2006 video diary titled Life on the Murder Scene and watching the band “go across the country, play music and survive off salsa.” Reid also plans to reveal the rest of the Occult Superstar album by releasing a single every two to three weeks. He is currently looking forward to releasing the music video for “King Crowley” in November.

Within the span of a couple of months, Reid has unleashed a universe that combines the throwback aesthetic of 2000s emo, face-melting electronic production and a haunting alter-ego that could live in your nightmares, hinting at a bright future for the King Crowley creator.

Reid can be found on Instagram and on Spotify.

Maxwell Reid Resurrects Synth-punk and Alter-egos in "Act One: The Occult Superstar Must Emerge"