If you're new to this, allow me to catch you up... Aussie drummer Scott Eckel (ex-Satellites and I Am Villain) scored a golden opportunity to join US-based pop punk/rock band MAKEOUT under the guidance of producer John Feldmann.
The boys recorded their debut album The Good Life (our review here) in studio with help from 5 Seconds of Summer and blink-182's Travis Barker. They then went on to open for blink at a few shows, as well as a few US tours of their own and just recently wrapped up the final cross country Vans Warped Tour (our Pomona coverage here) which also serves as the background focal point of their new video for 'Blast Off'.
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While Scott is back in Australia preparing for his next upcoming tour across America with the boys in November, I grabbed him for a quick chat about the last few months and what's ahead for MAKEOUT.
Dude, congrats on surviving the FINAL Cross Country Warped Tour, how does it feel to just scrape in on making history playing the infamous event before it ended?
It was pretty gruelling, but the experience itself was incredible. I don’t think anything will ever come close to the fun we had on that tour. I spent 12 hours a day on my feet in the heat, surrounded by friends and some of my favourite bands. It’s weird though, it’s full of extreme highs and extreme lows too, everyone always forgets about that. Post tour depression never hit so hard after something like that.
Yeah, punters forget how much time and effort goes into doing such a strenuous tour like that, so well done to you and everyone for pulling it off. On a positive though, what was one of your fav memories from the whole tour?
I knocked out my favourite memory out on the last day. I’d been hanging with the Simple Plan guys a bit, we’d always seem to be parked next to each other so I got to know them, and finally asked Pierre if I could steal his spot where he plays drums in 'I’m Just A Kid' while Chuck crowd surfs. It was so last minute too, but we somehow pulled it off.
https://twitter.com/makeoutscott/status/1026207793722863617
So that, a lot of flip cup, and just all round hangs with friends like Tonight Alive, With Con, State Champs, In Hearts Wake etc. there’s literally too many. I’m getting sad just thinking about it all haha.
Fuck yeah, I saw that you lucky prick, sorry not sorry for bringing those memories back up haha Your new video for 'Blast Off' showcases some of the fun you had, was it surprising seeing such large turnouts for you guys, considering you've only been playing together for a couple of years?
Yes absolutely!! We rolled up the first day, thinking we were hardly going to get a crowd. After a few rough months of stuff we had no control over, we could feel and see a lot of negative things being said about us, labelling us under categories and depicting us as people we’re not, so seeing those crowds was amazing for us. Especially to lift us up mentally as a band.
Yeah, the internet can be a shit place at times, but good for you guys for staying above it all. Now give us a rundown, how did this song come about?
‘Blast Off’ actually came from Sam and Feldy. If you can imagine Goldfinger singing this back to you. That’s how we got the scratch demo, with John singing it and that’s the way it’s always been stuck in my head. I even hear Sam emulating Feldy a little bit in his voice. I mean it helps he’s in the backup vocals as well but you catch my drift.
Ahhhh now you say that I can hear it. Does this mean we're approaching the end of The Good Life album cycle and does that mean new music on the way soon?
It’s getting close! We got off to a really rough start though, and the album is already a year old. With so much mismanagement and miscommunication, we are definitely looking forward to the next chapter. New music could be here sooner than expected so who knows.
Nice, well hopefully with round two it gets better for you all. When will you be bringing the boys down under so we can get see a live taste of what you've been working on?
Dude. As soon as someone can bring us. I love travelling over to the US every couple of months but yeah I’m dying to bring the boys down here. Hopefully with what we have in the works, and if the fucking internet let’s us we’ll see what happens 😂
We'll keep doing our part to make it happen buddy, all the best, congrats on the new video, tour and everything you've done.
Interview by Browny @brownypaul
If you want to know more about Scott's time with the band, revisit our Wall of Sound: Up Against The Wall podcast where he co-hosted and told us all about how he joined, the recording process and how he stopped himself from fanboying over T-Barker.
