MAKO just took it to the next level. With the release of their debut album Hourglass, the boys are ready to get you on the dance floor. You have been warned.
You couldn’t ask for a better album to end 2016 on. MAKO just dropped their debut album Hourglass and it is getting the entire music world buzzing. The two guys are taking over the dance scene and there is no stopping their accession to the top of the industry. I recently got the chance to talk with Logan Light and Alex Seaver about the new album and how they came together to become one of the most dominant forces in the electronic space.
The tag team had completely different backgrounds. Logan Light opened up about how he got his start as a DJ. Light told me, “I saw Daft Punk at Coachella in 2006 and I’m sure that anyone else that was there would agree with the sentiment that it was one of the greatest things that they have ever seen. It certainly changed my life more than I ever imagined possible. That’s kind of what inspired me to push me down that way. In terms of the DJ stuff, what sort of happened was the following year I was supposed to go to Colombia in New York. Ironically, Alex was at Juilliard 30 blocks away and we still didn’t know each other. After a semester I dropped out and I was planning to go to Michigan at the time. There was an eight month gap. After I saw the show a year prior, I said, ‘Thats what I want to do with my time.’ My parents weren’t too happy. They said, ‘You know what? You should probably get a job or take community college classes or something like that.’ I got a little money out of them to buy some gear and I did probably some of the most unheard of and random gigs when I got started—in a frat house basement where I wasn’t even in the main room. A little cafe out in Hollywood.” He laughed and continued, “Eventually I paid them back and I ended up going to Michigan. Overtime when a little money came in, they started to realize it was cool. Also ten years ago, being a DJ wasn’t as well received in common pop culture as it is now.”
Alex Seaver agreed with his partner’s sentiment. He was a complete stranger to the EDM world. As a student in Juilliard, he had to bring his best foot forward every single day without missing a beat. “It was really intense. I went there actually as French horn major. When you declare your major and get into a school like that you only have one option. They are not very interested in a multifaceted education. They just dial you into exactly what you do and you just drill it from morning to night,” Seaver told me. He continued, “It’s a very intense environment and if you are a little unsteady about what you want to do in your future you usually won’t make it all the way through school. For everyone that was hunkered down, it was a really inspiring and positive place because a lot of us come from small towns where there is not a whole lot of music going on. All of the sudden the most passionate people in the country and in same cases the world are all just B-lining for this one school. You become so exposed to a lot of schools of thought and personalities and eventually a lot of different artistic styles.” The extreme differences between Light and Seaver made them a force to be reckoned with when they finally met and became friends. The two officially became partners when Light invited Seaver out to the Electric Daisy Carnival back in 2011. That was a game-changing moment for the duo.
Seaver elaborated, “I was so ignorant to everything about dance music so it was a combination of having no expectations and walking up to Tiësto and that massive stage at EDC. It was such a jarring culture shock but it was so intoxicating because it incorporated everything I like about music. Which is this epic, grand scope. It was very emotional. There were a ton of young people going bananas. That was the first time where I really saw music and kids together. It sounds bizarre but because I was so busy with a classical audience it was way different.” He smiled and continued, “After hearing it, I kind of did a little bit of a composer thing and just analyzed it harmonically. I thought it would be easy to make just based on listening to it. Like, ‘Oh, I can absolutely do that’ was what I thought. And then you spend years in the studio realizing it is so much more than chord progressions. It has a whole dimension of electronic composition to it. It was so foreign to me. I had no idea what it was about. Just playing around for awhile got us started and then things progressed from there.” Light had the fortunate opportunity to work with living legends in the business including Above & Beyond and Zedd. When remembering his experience, he told me, “Everyone that I worked with in Michigan were extremely great people. They were nice, friendly and talented. Everything you could imagine. I wasn’t trying to scrape for knowledge. I was just trying to talk and be friendly. In watching their shows I picked up things here and there that I hope I passed on to Alex and I as we have been doing it together in terms of shows and how to create a set in the right way. It’s little pieces here and there. It was a learning experience by watching and hangin’ I guess.” Before we could switch topics, he joked, “I’m sure there were moments that I observed something I wasn’t expecting. That was six or seven years ago. That feels like a lifetime ago. I feel so old!” Being the new kids on the block, the guys are just getting started and have an incredible future together.
The duo known as MAKO are quickly rising through the ranks as the top players in the electronic dance music community.
Hourglass is an album that is making waves today. It was a long and interesting process for the guys. Seaver explained, “It was kind of a scary process putting it together because we were both getting a little collectively fatigued with dance music in general. We both still love it so much but we felt like the community at large—I don’t want to say is phoning it in but the quality of everything around us wasn’t the same as when we were introduced to it. With anything when you are making music or art, you really have to go with whatever inspires you. When we first started, we were really inspired by all of this alternate electronic music. A lot of indie bands. That stuff was really getting in our ear and we were loving what people were making in those forums. We were thinking of our album as almost like a blank slate. ‘If we could do anything, what would we want to sound like?’ With a particular focus on trying to create a unique and original sound which is tough to do and is something that doesn’t happen a lot in dance music. So we turned to our classical background and our love of indie rock and indie electronic music to inform that process.”
Seaver then told me about his favorite tracks on Hourglass. “I think for me personally, I won’t speak for Logan, the two that bookend the album ‘Let Go Of The Wheel’ and ‘Our Story (Hourglass Finale)’ are my two personal songs that I love the most. ‘Look At The Wheel’ started the album and it was the first time I felt where we arrived with a new texture and a new sound that does feel like us but doesn’t feel like anything else we have done before. That song took a year of grueling work to get it done correctly. And then ‘Our Story’ takes one of our oldest, most popular dance songs and reframes it in this new cinematic, giant, electronic rock sound that we were going for. Having those two at the beginning and end is my favorite touch in terms of listening through the album.” Light grinned. He had a unique response. Light laughed, “For me, my thinking is different. A lot of the songs have existed in some form for over two years in different nations. I heard them so many times in so many different ways. The ones that came together at the very end for some reason are the ones that stick with me the most. ‘North Dakota’ and ‘Paradise Lost’—Alex and I are on completely different pages but maybe that’s why it ended up working out the way it did.” That is the reason and why everyone has to go out and buy the album.
Before the guys could celebrate the release of their debut album, Seaver told me what fans can expect from MAKO in 2017. “We would love to take this show that we built and go on the road and start to visit our fans in a lot of these cities. We haven’t been to too many places in the country. It’s awesome because nobody has heard the new album yet. That is a huge goal for us in 2017. We want to keep the ball rolling. And to our fans, we just want to say thank you for being so patient with us and waiting for us to put this project together.”
