John Maxfield grew up in Highland, Illinois where he taught himself how to record, play guitar, piano, saxophone, drums, and various other instruments. He attended the Saint Louis Symphony Music School as a teenager, where he met and studied classical and jazz music with Dwight Bosman. He also studied at SIUE with guitarist Dave Engelke and privately with Gail Dobbins (piano) and Scott Cullen (woodwinds). He was also fortunate enough to attend a public school that had a music program, and has been fundraising for and donating to Vh1's 'Save The Music' fund to raise money for public school music programs.
After school, John moved to Kansas City, MO to record albums with his brother Dale, who co-produced John's first album "Beautiful Vs" with Elders and Rainmakers guitarist Steve Phillips. John was featured on four albums by his brother Dale on various instruments. After moving to Saint Louis and finishing his first album, John immediately began work on his second record, "Loss Time Accident" and formed a band with Zoran Tasic on bass and Eddie Kozevsky on drums. Zoki and Eddie were featured on John's third album "So Much Commotion" on several tracks and performed live frequently as "The Invaders."
The name was based on the fact that Ed and Zoki are both legal aliens, residing in the United States.
Chris Blakley joined the band as a drummer in 2005, allowing Eddie time to take a break. A falling out with a major record label that same year was followed by the release of the double album "Elevator," the breakup of the band, and a solo tour to promote the album, which quickly outsold all of John's previous albums combined in three months. "Elevator" won several awards, including 'Best Selling Local Album' and 'Best Selling Double Album' from Borders Books And Music.
John recorded "In Stereo" in 2006 and "The Arrival" in 2007, and released the albums on the web at www.johnmaxfield.net for free. The web-only albums were almost completely instrumental and very experimental in sound- but John would soon return to a more pop-friendly sound by reforming his band.
In early 2007, John and Eddie started working together again, regularly rotating their close friends at live performances and studio dates. Some of the recently performing members of the band have been Tay Brown, Derek Lauer, Mitch Jacobs, and Phil Sykes- to name a few.
In November of 2008, John Maxfield released his seventh solo album, "Hullabalooga" on CD and MP3 with Tantrum Niche Records; an artist-owned and operated publisher and record label based out of Saint Louis Missouri. Playback Magazine dubbed John a "master of his craft" with their review of "Hullabalooga," and the Riverfront Times credited Maxfield for "classic pop songcraft."
In July of 2009, John will release "The Status Quo." The album has been gaining a lot of positive buzz from early versions of tracks leaked out onto Myspace and Facebook to massive fan acclaim and unexpected radio support. There will be a CD release show at The Library on July 24th and at Vintage Vinyl in Saint Louis on July 31st.
