The following interview with MAKEOUT was conducted via email and has been edited for clarity.
[Samantha Warren/AltWire]: Thank you for taking the time to do this interview with me today. For our readers who don’t know, can you tell us who you are and your current band members, and anything else you’d like us to know?
Makeout: Hey, thank you for the interview! We are MAKEOUT and we consist of Sam Boxold on Vocals/Guitar, Tyler Young on Guitar/Vocals, Alex Lofton on Bass, and Scott Eckel on Drums!
[AW]: For your upcoming record, “The Good Life” You worked with John Feldmann. What was it like working with him? Is there any possible musical collaboration in the future with any of his previous artists that he’s worked with? If you had your choice of artists to pick from, who would it be and why?
Makeout: John was an amazing person to do a record with. He really knows how to push and push and push in the right way to get out the best-sounding product. We went into John’s studio with about 40 demos, and we only ended up using two of those on the final record! To answer the second part of the question, we actually had some musical collaborations on the record! Travis Barker helped write some songs, Calum Hood and Ashton Irwin helped write some songs, Lil’ Aaron as well, we had tons of support creating this album!
[AW]: What was the writing process like for this album? How did you decide which songs went on the album, and which ones didn’t?
Makeout: First and foremost, it was hard work, or as John called it “Rock-and-Roll Boot Camp”. We were in the studio for about 11-12 hours a day slaving away at the record for about a month straight, and as I mentioned before, John really keeps pushing you for the best product, so we ended re-writing parts of songs and lyrics 30, 40, 50 times before we settled on the final product. The process was definitely a roller coaster ride, but we couldn’t be any happier with how it turned out. The hardest part about the whole process was choosing the final tracklist, there weren’t any songs we wanted to cut, but the 12 we settled on are the best of the best.
[AW]: What bands were your major musical influences for this record? How did you decide that it was the direction you wanted to go in sound-wise?
Makeout: I don’t think there was ever a conscious choice to make the record sound the way it does, that’s just how it turned out. Sam takes a lot of influence from All Time Low, and I think that definitely shows, but besides that, we all pull from all sorts of different musical influences, ranging from Pop to Hip Hop to Metal, and I think there’s a little hint of all of that on the record!
[AW]: Do you have any tours in the works once your album is released? What are the band’s future plans?
Makeout: We don’t have anything to announce yet, but I promise we’ll be hitting the road before the year is over!
[AW]: Can you tell us what it was like recording your music video, “Crazy!”?
Makeout: It was as fun to make as you’d think it would be! When we showed up at 9amand they had already spent a whole day blowing up balloons and were still at it! As soon as we started doing takes, balloons were popping left and right and I felt so bad that they spent all that time blowing up the balloons just for us to stomp on them and accidentally pop them.
[AW]: What was it like being on the road with Blink-182 and The Naked and Famous?
Makeout: It was one of the best touring experiences we’ve ever had! Blink and their whole crew treated us like family and they never hesitated to help us out with anything. TNAF were also very nice people, amazing musicians!
[AW]: With the music industry always changing and always evolving, what would you tell other bands who are up and coming and trying to catch their big break?
Makeout: Support one another! The best thing you can do for yourself if you’re in a band and trying to make it is to support each other’s bands! We wouldn’t be where we are today if we didn’t have a strong local scene to help support us and get us playing some bigger shows!
[AW]: Knowing what you know now about the industry, if you could do something differently what would it be and why? What would you have changed, or are you happy with the way everything has turned out?
Makeout: I don’t know that any of us would want to do anything differently. We’ve had to make some tough choices to get where we are today and if anything was done differently, who knows where we would have ended up! But we’re in a good place right now and feel right at home on Rise, so can’t say I’d want to change anything we did.
[AW]: Any last words?
Makeout: Make sure to pick up “The Good Life” when it comes out on September 29th, and be on the lookout for another new single in the next few weeks. Can’t wait to have the album out and be on the road!
