Australian Drummer Scott Eckel Has Been Pretty Busy On The US Band Front

If you've been living under a rock (or just plain ignorant) you might not have known the adventure we followed Australian based drummer Scott Eckel (ex-Satellites/IAmVillain) on who headed over to the states to join MAKEOUT, a pop punk/rock band under the guidance of John Feldmann who collaborated with the 5 Seconds of Summer lads and the G.O.A.T. himself, Travis Barker (play catch up here fools). The guys released a debut album called The Good Life (our review here), signed to Rise Records, jumped on a couple of Vans Warped Tours (revisit our Pomona coverage here), supported blink-182 and, unfortunately, went through a couple of lineup changes including losing frontman Sam Boxold back in January.

That left Scott and guitarist Tyler Young in limbo, but they soldiered through looking for a new vocalist and not too long ago they announced they found not only him, but a new bassist in the process and we're pretty keen for what's to come...

The lads have welcomed Kyle Dee to the fold, who takes on the vocalist role after years of being a fan of the band (full circle stories are great right!). But that's not the only surprising factor about this, guy, he's also a former American Idol contestant too! But he's not the only new face in MAKEOUT, the guys have also welcomed former Sleep On It bassist AJ Khah to the mould who left his ex-pop punk bandmates earlier in the year.

[caption id="attachment_83773" align="alignnone" width="1640"] The new era MAKEOUT (Scott, Tyler, Kyle and AJ)[/caption]

On top of that, Scotty has also announced a new band he's in called Five North which features the one and only Tyler Posey (yes, from Teen Wolf) and bassist Kyle Murphy and their sound is a little more on the alternative rock side of things (e.g. same-same but a lil heavier in parts) and today they've debuted their first single 'This Mess'. In order to get the lowdown on EVERYTHING, we grabbed our boy for a chat...

Scotty, you've been a busy boy lately. Firstly tell us about the next era of MAKEOUT!

So yeah... after our last tour in January/February, I wasn’t too sure what was going to happen with the band. We had tried to make a proper farewell tour happen after to make some money back, particularly for Tyler and myself, as we’ve literally invested tens of thousands into the dream, and it was pretty clear that wasn’t going to happen. So everything was sort of stuck on a sour note until we said fuck it, why throw it away now. That’s how the search for the new singer and bassist started. Eventually we landed on Kyle and AJ, the Chicago Boys.

Nice! You've got Sleep On It's former bassist AJ Khah, does that mean we can expect some more pop punk jams this time?

Yeah so we really started talking to AJ on Warped Tour, and got to know him well throughout the summer and we clicked with him immediately and became friends. Once we found out he was leaving SOI, Tyler called me and just said “Hey, AJ plays bass, we need a bassist”, and I don’t even think I hesitated in saying yes to that idea.

As for the music, we’re trying to merge everything together, so it’s still pop punk, just more rock in the mix. Tyler has been busy working on heavy music, I love heavy music, so why not sneak something a little harder into it you know?

Absolutely go heavy, that'll be sick. When can we expect to hear our first taste of MAKEOUT's new lineup?

I may have just answered that haha. We’ve been chatting with producers and other collaborators that are well established already, we definitely want it to be something fresh.

You collaborated up with Feldy, 5SOS and Travis Barker for the last album, any special guests lined up for the next one?

That last album was already a dream come true, working with those guys was nothing short of amazing, and I love that album still. Like, a lot. But we’ve made more and more friends along the way (and lost a few), but who knows!!! AJ is about to set out on the Champs x Simple Plan tour really soon with We The Kings. Anything is possible right?!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDZDfraIIx4&w=640&h=360]

Five North really has me excited man. After the start to the year everything kind of had me down, and then out of nowhere this band comes along. I had reached out to Feldy about any opportunities for me to take, whether it was a new band, or even Goldfinger, I’d do it! So when they rolled through Australia, he told me about Five North, he was working with and writing songs with Tyler Posey, I didn’t even know the guy and I just said “I’m in”.

He showed me some demos, along with about 12 blink demos on our drive to the airport and I started jamming them the next day. Tyler was in Aus for Supanova, we linked up in Melbourne and just kicked it, and connected instantly. We had a jam, and he asked me to be in the band about 3 days after that. And a week later I was back in LA recording again, I met Kyle for the first time then too (bassist), again, instantly clicked and we went from there! I love it!

How do the two bands differ musically?

Not that much to be honest, but we get to experiment a little more this time around with FN, we have some songs with screaming, some pop tracks, some summer vibe pop punk, anything we can think of really. Tyler LOVES blink too, and he’s been friends with Kyle forever, so the chemistry is awesome too. It’s all just positivity and good times.

Is your intention to just work for as many US-based bands so you can stay over there for good? haha

Hahaha maybe, know any more? I’ll do it.

hahahaha I'll see what I can dig up. What's it going to take to get you and your bands down under so the rest of Australia can see what you've been up to?

Duuuuuude anything at all! I want to bring both bands here, I would love that so much. Hopefully we can tee something up...

What's next for you?

Well!! We release This Mess today... I fly back to LA on Wednesday, we have the Five North EP coming a little later, annnnnnnd, man, honestly, I never know what’s next. I live in a constant state of stress and not knowing at the moment, it’s GREAT haha.

Don't overwork yourself Scotty, we're all fucking stoked and proud of what you've achieved and the efforts put into it. See you real soon!!!

Interview by Browny @brownypaul

Follow Five North on Facebook and MAKEOUT on Facebook too
Scott is on Instagram and Twitter

Grab 'This Mess' Here

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scrv7b5hJVc&w=853&h=480]