Max Subar Sets Debut Album Anything Could Be, Shares Title Track

Max Subar has announced his debut solo album, Anything Could Be. The record arrives July 17 via Merge Records, and the title track is out now.

The timing is notable if you caught Subar recently with Case Oats, the Chicago indie folk-rock band fronted by Casey Gomez Walker and featuring Spencer Tweedy on drums. Walker’s songs already had shape on last year’s Last Missouri Exit, but Subar’s guitar work stood out onstage. His new solo material moves in a different register: quieter, more measured, and centered on weary singer-songwriter writing that recalls late-period Wilco and solo Jeff Tweedy, which only adds another Chicago thread to the story.

On the song, Subar sings,

“Walking through our memories / I guess they’re really mine / You can have any you please.”

The track leans on patient guitar patterns and a restrained vocal, keeping the focus on the line and the mood.

Subar also shared a note on the song’s meaning:

This song is about waking up to life and its offerings. How choosing curiosity can spark, growth, meaning and a sense of possibility when we’re left feeling stagnant or lost. I hope it’s a beacon for others, a reminder during trying times that anything could really be.

When I was a kid, my friend and I would sneak onto a nearby golf course late at night just to fish some pond with headlamps on. There was pure discovery in it, no expectations, lots of patience and content in that time spent – regardless of the outcome. Life for me has continued to feel better as I learn to live this way. That’s a lot of what this record is about, too.

Anything Could Be includes 11 songs: Anything Could Be, See Saw, Cat At My Door, I Never, Like You’ve Known It, History, As The Weather, Way Up, Everything Is, Words Unkept, and The Day Will Be New.

Subar has also lined up a short run of shows around the release. Dates include Evanston, New York, Philadelphia, Columbus, Chicago, and Green Lake, Wisconsin.

Anything Could Be is out 7/17 on Merge. Pre-order it here.

Tour dates:

07/07 Evanston, IL @ Harbert Payne Park
07/21 New York, NY @ Nightclub 101
07/22 Philadelphia, PA @ Ortlieb’s
07/23 Columbus, OH @ Rumba Cafe
07/24 Chicago, IL @ Hideout
08/22 Green Lake, WI @ Avrom Farm Party

Shannon Marks