He’s the chillest dude, the sharpest drummer, and the loyalist friend. He’s also the husband-to-be of one of pop’s biggest stars of the century. So who really is Maxx Morando? And is his band, Liily, LA’s next big rock’n’roll phenomenon?
Maxx Morando is recounting the story of how he proposed to his fiancée. “We were in Kyoto, Japan,” he begins, setting the scene, sweeping his signature mop of unkempt dark brown hair out of his eyes. “For some reason – you’ll find this as crazy as I did – she’d never been to Japan before. Neither had I, and we’d both wanted to go for a really long time. There were talks before we went about me popping the question but I was trying to keep it secret. She was not trying to keep it a secret, if you know what I mean. So I had to be really sneaky about it. We went to Tokyo first for a couple days and then on to Kyoto. I think she had a sense that it was coming, so I was waiting until the very last moment of the very last day to throw her off the scent as much as I could.”
“We took a walk around the hotel grounds,” he continues. “There was this little outer garden that you had to cross a plank to get over. There was a sign that said you couldn’t cross; I was like, ‘That’s crazy, let’s go over there.’ She’s like, [teasingly imitates her] ‘No, it’s blocked.’ Eventually I persuaded her and we walked in and it was a little dead end, this beautiful Japanese forest-y situation. She was taking videos, and was turned away. That’s when I got on one knee and tapped her on the shoulder.”
The 27-year-old wasn’t anxious in anticipation of asking for Miley Cyrus’ hand in marriage. At least, not until five or 10 minutes before. “Then I was sweating,” he admits with a smirk. “I could feel my heart pounding. You grow up as a kid watching the movies where the guy gets on one knee and does the whole thing, and you know that’s what you’re supposed to do. But then you realise, ‘Okay, I literally have to get on one knee.’ I didn’t want to fuck up and fumble or drop the [ring].” The slight pre-show stage fright feels valid. It’s one of life’s defining moments, after all, that – if all goes well – you only do once. And one that, you can only assume, is intensified when the person you’re proposing to is one of the most famous musicians on the planet. But that’s Maxx’s life now. And he wouldn’t change it for anything.
Several months on from getting engaged halfway across the world, Maxx is hanging out in his back yard. More specifically, his Airstream, the makeshift studio in which his band, Liily, meet up, shoot the shit, and record most of their music. It’s a funky space, in look and tone, somewhere between a garden shed, a futuristic spaceship, a party bus, and an air raid shelter. There’s just enough room for a large computer monitor and recording desk, an enviable synth rack, a pantheon of guitars, and – of course – its owner’s cherished drum kit.
For some, music is an awakening. For Maxx, it’s woven within the seeds of self. Born and raised in LA, he had a pair of drumsticks in his hand before he could spell the word. Aged seven or eight, he joined an after school club called School of Rock (“I know, it’s a real thing,” he exclaims at my exasperation) with a childhood friend. There, he met Dylan Nash, who would become lead singer of his band a decade later, and guitarist Sam De Le Torre. He then met bassist Charlie Anastasis in a music theory class at their all boys catholic high school, and bonded over a distaste for the lesson and a love of Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Death Grips, et al.
Dylan came back onto the scene as Maxx, Sam and Charlie entered their mid-later teens and began playing gigs as a jam band, and was enlisted as frontman and songwriter. And with that Liily was born. The guys have been a musical unit ever since, for over 10 years, through thick and thin. “I think it’s pretty brotherly,” the drummer pinpoints. “We’ve known each other since we were kids. We’ve grown into each other.”
The seemingly unbreakable bond the four share has paid dividends. Bolstering a raw rock sensibility, a punkish aptitude and a keen ear for experimentation, Liily have touredacross the States and Europe, and appeared on festival bills at Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo. Discography-wise, they’ve shared a 2019 breakout EP “I Can Fool Anybody In This Town”,an acclaimed 2021 debut album, TV Not TV, and most recently, a self-titled EP in 2024.
The latter eponymous project is a re-introduction of sorts. They broke away from their previous label, regained their urgency and artistic autonomy, working with people they knew on a personal level rather than strangers who they’d been put into rooms with. “The EP was us scrounging things together. We used some of our friends as producers – who are great producers, but we met them as our friends first and foremost. We had them come in and help us produce.”
“Liily” boasts the band’s best collection of songs to date. It’s angry, fearless, compulsive and cinematic. The mixes feel lighter but the music feels heavier, sharpened in execution while looser in approach. And it’s highly eclectic – a track like “MOTIVATION” descends into metalcore mayhem, while the hollowed out droning of “IMITATE” feels like an ‘80s nu-wave jam, and the hazy closer “SWALLOW” comes off like a surf rock anthem. “The EP was in some ways a reset,” Maxx reflects. “Like, this is what Liily is now. Setting the stage for future records.”
Liily are mainstays on the LA gig circuit and social circles, which is how Maxx and Miley first met. “Sam in my band, his sister’s friend knew Miley,” he explains on first meeting the 33-year-old in 2021. “They just put us on a blind date. Which, from Miley’s perspective, I don’t think is really possible, because she’s so in the public eye.”
Maxx, unbothered by pop culture and relatively off-grid from social media, was the perfect antidote for Miley, who had spent her twenties in very public relationships, fatigued by their subsequent fall outs. “So it felt like if there was a way to have a blind date for her, this might be the most blind date that she could do,” he says. They hit it off immediately, and “just never stopped hanging out.”
A handsome drummer in an LA rock band, Maxx is no stranger to the spotlight. But to be the +1 of the Miley Cyrus – a Grammy-winning musician whose name is known and loved by quite literally billions of people across the globe – brings with it endless attention. The type of scrutiny an understated guy like Maxx would rather avoid.
But his temperament seems to have drowned out his sudden cacophony of noise. He favours remaining away from the public’s uncompromising parasocialism and the media’sshallow, judgemental stare. Their relationship is no mining for celebritydom; he sees the “athome” Miley – not Miley on the red carpet, the arena stage, or the television screen.
“When I first met her, that part of it was strange,” he acknowledges on dealing with the newfound spotlight. “I’ve never experienced people waiting outside places for you and things like that. But as time’s gone on, now it’s kind of the inverse. Whenever we go to some event, that’s when I am reminded that she is who she is, you know. But I love going with her to certain things to support whatever she’s doing.”
Their relationship is bountiful professionally too. They’ve collaborated musically over the past few years, with Maxx co-writing and producing “Handstand” and “Violet Chemistry” from Miley’s acclaimed 2023 album, Endless Summer Vacation. She has pushed him to new creative heights, motivating him to be his best self and to make his best work. “I had never really been around someone like that before we met,” he muses on her impact. “It has given me a whole new outlook and perspective on life and art and music. She’s such a workhorse, a go-getter, and when she sets her mind on something – even if it’s down to building a small enclosure for a tortoise that we have – it always gets done. When it comes to music, it’s turned up to 11. Most people who don’t know the pop world have misconceptions, but she is a true artist through and through. She has her hand in every single thing that you see or hear. Music or visuals, business or financial. Whatever you see is very uniquely her.”
Now engaged – as of late last year – the couple are going from strength-to-strength, on an upward trajectory of joy and security. And on the Liily front, things are about to turn up a few notches too; Maxx teases that new music is finished and coming soon. In majority self-produced, the new body of music promises to be the most important release for the band so far. “We’ve learned a lot, and now we’re on a fresh slate even more so than with the self-titled EP,” he says. “What’s coming next is the most honest representation of what we sound like. And a real jumping off point for future stuff.”
Drums, his band of best friends, and Miley Cyrus. Maxx Morando is living the dream. “Yeah,” he chuckles boyishly. “I guess I am.”
WONDERLAND SUMMER 2026. GUEST EDITED BY MILEY CYRUS. SHOP NOW.
Photography Mario Sorrenti
Chief Creative Officer & Styling Alastair McKimm
Words Ben Tibbits
Hair Bob Recine
Make-up Diane Kendal
Set Design Philipp Haemmerle
Executive Producer Dana Brockman
Producer Max Bonbrest
Casting Alexandra Antonova for Samuel Ellis Scheinman
Lighting Technician Lars Beaulieu
1st Photo Assistant Kotaro Kawashima
Photo Assistants Paolo Afante, Kurt Mangum
Digital Tech Charles Meyer
Fashion Assistants Taylor Wood, Kassidy Taylor
Hair Assistant Jeelan Aleem
Make-up Assistants Eduardo Jiminez, Breanna Harmon
Set Assistants Oscar Haemmerle, Xavier Mozejewski
Production Assistant Din Morris