Karl Martin Sandberg born 26 February , [ 1 ] [ 2 ] known professionally as Max Martin , is a Swedish record producer and songwriter.
He rose to prominence in the late s with songwriting credits on a string of hit singles, such as Britney Spears 's " Martin has written or co-written 27 Billboard Hot number-one singles; 25 of which he has produced or co-produced, an all-time record for the chart as of March In early , The Hollywood Reporter tallied his singles sales at over million copies.
His mother was a middle school teacher and his father was a police officer. As a teenager he sang in a variety of bands before joining a glam-style metal band called It's Alive in as their singer and frontman. Martin eventually dropped out of high school to pursue a career in music with his band under the nickname "Martin White".
The band got a breakthrough in , as Dave Constable of Megarock Records offered them to make a demo record. The later debut album was originally pressed in 1, copies and later on given away as a free cover tape in the UK by the Metal Forces magazine. The decision to focus on a music career paid off as they landed a record deal on producer Denniz Pop 's label Cheiron Records , a BMG affiliate.
After recording their second album Earthquake Visions , they released three singles in conjunction with the record and toured through Europe in supporting Kingdom Come. Earthquake Visions eventually sold a disappointing 30, copies, despite being released in as many as 30 countries. More importantly though, Martin also began collaborating on songs with Denniz Pop. I didn't even know what a producer did, I spent two yearsβday and nightβin that studio trying to learn what the hell was going on.
