At the end of July, Ava Max disappeared from the internet. The pop star's final TikTok contained cryptic musings about growth and the passage of time. "Busy over here evolving," she captioned the post before effectively going radio silent across all her social platforms.

The online vanishing act was particularly disorienting considering the singer was in the middle of rolling out her third studio album, Don't Click Play. She'd already released a trio of singles over the last several months and the album's official release date was set for Aug. 22. Her final public appearance ahead of its unveiling was at the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular, where she performed her song "Wet, Hot American Dream." 

Since that last performance, the lead-up to Don't Click Play has taken a confusing turn. First, Max announced a North American tour to support the album, only to abruptly postpone the whole endeavor two weeks later. Fans began flooding her comments section with messages of concern, disappointment and speculation. Media outlets scrambled to confirm whether the album was still coming out at all. (Spoiler alert: it was.)

Twelve hours before Don't Click Play hits streaming services, Max is finally coming up for air. Having flown into New York City the night before, she's feeling a mixture of emotions: excited, calm and, most importantly, ready to get the album into the hands of her fans. She's also ready to do some explaining.

"It's been a huge reset for me, creatively and emotionally," Max tells GRAMMY.com. "Mentally, physically, everything — I feel like I've been through the ringer the last year."

The singer is still going through a period of self-described "transformation and shedding," and Don't Click Play represents an empowered stop along that journey rather than a triumphant arrival at some kind of proverbial finish line. ("This is my third album, it is a big deal, but in the grand scheme of things, I have so many albums left in me," she insists early in our conversation.)

The new album is also the first body of work she's created without help from songwriter Madison Love and producer Cirkut, longtime collaborators credited across her first two albums — 2020's Heaven & Hell and 2023's Diamonds & Dancefloors — who also happen to be the artist's erstwhile best friend and ex-boyfriend, respectively. Rumors of a dramatic falling out between Max and the pair have permeated online since the summer of 2023, the same time the singer acknowledges in our interview that she discovered some "bombshell crazy news" that left her "falling to my knees" in tears. 

"I think sometimes chapters end … and that one ended abruptly," Max says with a shrewd laugh. She's not quite ready to spill any tea on the situation yet, however, only going as far as to promise, "I will talk about this in the future, in the next coming months about why. It's very personal, obviously." (Instead, she may be hinting at the rift in her new music: "You think you really know somebody/ But all you really know is their name/ You think it's gonna last forever/ You're only just a pawn in their game," she sings on heartbroken album cut "Know Somebody.")

Regardless of the details, Max headed into the studio the very next day and spent months writing nothing but sad songs. Eventually, she dusted herself off and became determined to prove that she could write the new album on her own terms.

"Imagine doing your entire career with a few collaborators, and then all of a sudden never talking to them again," she says. "And then having to figure [out] a new way, a new sound, but also going back to my sound. Because the reason why 'Kings and Queens' sounds the way it sounds and 'Sweet but Psycho' sounds the way it sounds — lyrically and emotionally and production-wise — is 'cause I was there every step of the way. I wanted people to know that it was me in the end. I write all of my songs, I'm there every step of the way, I'm a perfectionist and I did the same on this album."

After dropping a couple of dance-ready one-offs throughout 2024 ("retro-glamorous, modern fabulous" bop "My Oh My" and candy-coated diss track "Spot a Fake"), "Lost Your Faith" served as the official first taste of the full-length, and the midtempo anthem was one Max had to fight to release. 

"Everybody was against 'Lost Your Faith' being the first single," she recalls. "No one really understood … I really did lose myself. I lost everything: my faith, my being, my mind, who I was. I mean, imagine being with someone for eight to 10 years and you're working with the same people, and then it just gets ripped from underneath you … "Lost Your Faith" is about that; it's about the rebirth."

Next came "Lovin Myself," a pulsating reclamation of self-worth that serves as Don't Click Play's feel-good centerpiece. Not only did the triumphant single bring Max back to life musically, it also brought the return of the Max Cut, the asymmetrical lob she became famous for sporting when she first broke out at the start of the decade with inescapable radio hits like "Sweet but Psycho" and "Kings and Queens."

At the time, the jagged, one-of-a-kind hairstyle gave the newly minted pop star an edgy and singular aesthetic to go along with her maximalist stage persona, and helped her stand out as one of the most promising (and instantly recognizable) new faces of the 2020s. The look disappeared, however, during her sophomore album cycle, replaced by more uniform locks in brunette, blonde and fire-engine red for videos like "Maybe You're the Problem," "Million Dollar Baby" and "Weapons."

"To be completely honest with you, when I took away the Max Cut in 2022, so many people told me to get rid of it," Max confesses. "I feel like they thought it was too powerful. Because I felt that in my soul; it is so recognizable … It almost was like the dark trying to take away my light. And I felt that. 

"Looking back, I mean, there were, like, 20 people in my circle telling me to take it away," she continues. "And it was because it was a very powerful statement of, 'Be who you are, don't care what anyone wants you to be.' And it was almost like people thought it was a gimmick. It really wasn't. It meant so much to me, and it still does. Because it just means that I was on my own path."

Learning to stand her ground in the face of so much resistance has also helped Max tap back into the roots of why she wanted to be a pop star in the first place.

In fact, a big part of why she wears the Max Cut now is for her younger self — the girl who first taught herself how to sing, much to her brother's chagrin, on a karaoke machine in her basement and was introduced to pop music through dance class. The one who fell head over heels for Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore, and Jessica Simpson ("Britney Spears taught me how to be a woman — from a girl to woman, right?" she quips. "They taught me that pop music was, like, it for me") but was bullied relentlessly throughout her middle school years. 

"Imagining having that haircut back then, it would honestly make me cool," she says now. "And why? Because doing your own thing makes you cool. And that's what's important."

Another major factor in Max's overall "reset" has been hiring music industry veteran Ron Laffitte as her new manager, a shake-up the singer insists was necessary despite the inconvenient timing of changing management right in the middle of an album campaign. According to Max, it's also part of why the Don't Click Play Tour was pushed back.

"We're collectively deciding that we want to make this show spectacular. Like, massive," she asserts. "When I go back on tour, I want people to not only remember it, but feel like they're not in the real world. Like they're almost in their own little imaginary reality … And to do that, to give fans the best show, I need a little bit more time."

Max is quick to emphasize that the tour is "postponed, it's not cancelled." And while she's not ready to announce plans for a live show as of press time, she manages to offer up a tease that "a lot of things are happening right now behind the scenes."

Whenever she does hit the road to promote Don't Click Play, expect to see a whole new Ava Max. "I don't want to be in a place where I'm putting myself in a box anymore. I feel like for the longest time, I was putting myself in a box. And from this moment, from the album dropping, people are gonna see a different version of me, for sure. I'm gonna be more open with the fans now. I think I was really scared for so many years … I wasn't ready then. I am now."

Indeed, that newfound commitment to vulnerability is exactly the message Max shares when she finally returns to social media the day after our interview and the album was finally out in the world. "In due time, I have so much to say," she vows on Instagram, staring down the camera. "But for now, Don't Click Play."