By Dan Taylor
The Press Democrat
SONOMA COUNTY, Calif. — Max Vogel has an interesting resume. The Windsor resident has previously worked as an EMT and a firefighter before moving on to work with a wine and spirits brokerage company.
But through all that, he also has been a singer and songwriter, all the way back to high school.
This week, Vogel, 36, is competing for one of the top four spots in the ARIUM 2024 Sounds of Summer contest, as well as a trip to Atlanta for the finals. Voting continues online through Sunday, with voters allowed to cast a ballot once a day, at ariumliving.com/sounds-of-summer.
The song that got him into the contest’s current top 10 — which was narrowed down from 60 entries — is a country lament titled “Drowning with You.” His entry in the voting to narrow the field to four semifinalists is “Hey Dolly!”
The top four contestants will be named July 2, with the overall winner to be announced Aug. 16.
Originally from Lodi, Vogel moved to Sonoma County in 1981. The move had a big impact on his personal life, as well as his professional life.
“I went through first responder, EMT and fire academy training, started working for Verihealth Ambulance and interning at Rancho Adobe Fire Protection District, which turned into a part-time firefighter job and worked there for about four years,” he said.
“I got hired for AMR Sonoma Life Support during that same time and worked there for about eight years. I met my wife Michaela on her first day being a nurse at Memorial Hospital in Santa Rosa,” he added. “We talked for a little over a year-and-a-half before I asked her out.”
After dating for a couple of years they got married and ultimately had a daughter, Lilah, who will turn 6 on July 4 .
“I quit the fire service so I could be home with my family more and be a stay-at-home dad,” Vogel said. “I worked part time at AMR during this time. I was able to spend more time playing music, whether it was writing music while our daughter was taking naps or entertaining her while she was awake.”
Later, he took a job with flexible hours, working for a wine and spirits brokerage company called Sucellus.
ARIUM is a national apartment rental brand, and the ultimate prize in the contest is free rent for a year. Open only to ARIUM renters when the contest started in 2022, it is now open to all, Vogel explained.
The contestants also have a chance to get the backing of music industry veterans, exposure, free prizes, opportunities to travel and perform, and mentoring from celebrity performers.
After making it into the top 60 competitors in the first round, Vogel made the top 10 with his song “Drowning with You.”
Now he’s vying for a top four spot, and a trip to Atlanta for the contest’s final round, with another original song, “Hey Dolly,” which made its local radio debut on Froggy 92.9 FM last week.
He has been writing songs since 2006, during his junior year of high school.
“I’ve probably written 50 or 60 songs,” Vogel said, adding humbly, “I am proud to sing probably 10 to 20 of them sometimes.”
In his live local gigs — many of them private parties marking anniversaries, birthdays, weddings and other celebrations — Vogel plays a lot of crowd-pleasing country classics from the 1990s.
“People have more fun if they can sing along,” he noted.
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