Interview by Megan Langley
Photo by Bryce Hall
Back in 2018, you released your debut LP, “Hyperreal.” How has that album impacted your career over the past two years?
Kevin Baljan: It’s been great! It was a good thing for us. We hadn't done a full-length, we had just done a couple of EPs.
We had gone through some serious growing as a group, and we had Andy at that point. We worked really hard on that and we wanted to come out with a bang for our first full-length even though the majority of us had been a group for a while. We worked really hard and I think it went pretty well.
John Tomasso: We had done pre-production for our EPs and stuff, but it was on a whole other level for this one. We stepped up the production by going to [Andrew] Wade instead of working with other producers that we had in the past; we went up and got in contact with him and did our best to take it up a notch.
You’re about to release your new EP, “Continuum.” Is there a meaning behind the title or a reason why you chose that title, and if so, what is it?
KB: We had all been kicking things around and our guitarist, Erik, kind of landed on that term or that word, and it kind of made a lot of sense for us for a lot of reasons. For one, with this EP, we’re on our own and not with a label.
For us, we’re continuing on. It’s a continuation and our growth as a group. Pretty much everything until it ends, anything that exists, is on a continuum, because there’s no final endpoint. For us, it made a lot of sense, it was a continuation.
In the content of the lyrics and the songs… a lot of it has to do with mental health, personality issues, existential questions, and all of these sorts of things are on a continuum. You’re constantly growing, you’re constantly learning, you’re constantly figuring out how to deal with your mental health and the upkeep of the “garden” that we all sort of have.
What was the writing process like for this EP and how would you compare it to the writing process for previous releases?
JT: I used to live with Erik, so we would start working on chord progressions or he would come up with a riff, and then we’d start to build the structure of a song. We would practice once a week and were bringing up either completely fleshed-out, skeleton ideas, or just little ideas that we had, and then we’d sit with them as a group and work through them.
KB: As far as the writing process of this goes, it wasn’t too different from any way we did it in the past. We start out with a guitar part and build it up.
Andy or I will work on the lyrics and melodies. Sometimes he does 100%, sometimes I do 100%, and a lot of times it’s a mixture.
We have the base of the music and then we just really try to figure out melodies. For lyrics… whatever we’re going through, whatever we want to talk about and put out there. I know that music and writing, for all of us, is sort of therapy.
Were there any new or different influences with this EP, and if so, what?
JT: To a degree, I guess. I’m always finding new stuff.
Kevin, as a matter of fact, introduced me to Hippo Campus about a year or two ago, and so I just started listening to them. That kind of pop-rock… I guess it’s influenced the way I write music.
I think our vision of it is pretty much still the same. We’re just finding what makes us unique and developing on that.
KB: This time, I can’t think of too many conscious efforts as far as influences, but I know that all of us in the group always listen to music. We’re always absorbing art, whether it’s subconscious or not.
Whatever we’re going through at the time, whatever we’re feeling… that ends up being what we write and what ends up coming out of us in the studio. With our songs, it’s us personally working through something and hoping someone out there connects with it.
Speaking of the music on the EP - how would you describe the overall sound on this release, and what can people expect when they listen to it for the first time?
KB: If they’ve listened to Makari before, it’s not going to be too outside of what we did with "Hyperreal.” I do think that this time there was a conscious effort to try to make a brighter sounding record overall, even if the subject matter isn’t necessarily what one would consider bright or happy. There was definitely an effort to have more energy and this overall brighter feeling to the songs.
Regarding the lyrics, what are some of the lyrical themes/topics explored on this record?
KB: These five songs deal with mental health; anxiety, depression…things like that that Andy and I deal with, as well as the desire to fit in and the complications that that has for you. I think we also talk about when you see self-destructive behavior...sometimes you just have to let go.
There’s also forgiving yourself for certain things that you’ve gone through and realizing that you shouldn’t be holding on to grief or suffering like a teddy bear or a keepsake. You should allow yourself to use it as a lesson and free it from your grip because if you grip it, it ends up gripping you as well, and it’s hard to go through life that way.
Is there an overall message you want to send with the lyrics on this EP, and if so, what is it?
KB: I think for us, with our songs, it’s us personally working through something and hoping someone out there connects with it. I always say that if our music seems like a shared experience or a perspective that can be useful to you in your own life with what you’re going through, then that means the world to us. We put this music out there and it’s like therapy for us, so if it’s like therapy or just something positive for anyone else, we’ve achieved our end goal there.
To anyone out there who’s struggling with their mental health, I just hope that people know that there are others out there who are there for them, and realize that you don’t have to be at your endpoint. You can move on, things can continue and go on, and you can find relief, at the very least.
What does the band have planned in support of this EP, and what can people expect next?
JT: I know we’d love to be out on tour, but we have done talks about doing a live stream type of show around the time of the release, just as a celebration for it.
KB: Yeah, we’ve kicked that around. It’s very difficult in these times to get that together.
I know a lot of bands are doing it. I think we’re just kind of figuring out what way we want to do it.
There’s going to be some more content out there with this EP… a video, and some other content. We’ve put so much into this, doing it all ourselves, and we’re figuring it out, deciding what we want to do and how we want to do it.
There will be more stuff. Some of it we’re figuring out, and some of it you’ll see November 6th and beyond.
Huge thanks to Makari for taking the time to do this interview with us! You can support them by streaming "Continuum", which is out on all listening platforms now, as well as checking out some of their merch and following them on Twitter @MakariBand.
We put out a full review of Makari's new EP earlier today, which you can read here! If there's anyone in particular you'd like to see us interview next, let us know by tweeting us @lgndsoftmrw.
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