RB Exclusive Double Feature: A Look At Mako’s First Album + An Interview With The Duo Themselves

Mako’s Hourglass is out now! To go track by track on their album would be way too easy, so here’s the deal on what you need to be excited about: Mako’s album contain an almost singer-songwriter vibe that contains a substantial amount of original vocals that rivals a production that is 10x better than the most effective Imagine Dragons song. What might throw off fans of more instrumental work, is the heavy emphasis on lyrics and songwriting. This is indeed an interesting focus in the EDM world, because we all know what we are about: sick drops, awesome parties, and forgetting our existential universal pain through music. Sadly, Mako is giving us an album that will make us dance with tears in our eyes.

Mako – Smoke Filled Room

You may find it pandering that we decided to publicize the lead single, but we would be lying to you if “Smoke Filled Room” didn’t represent the rest of the album like it should. With each track, you will find a story of a piece of time, and that is something you don’t normally find in the world of everything electronic. In essence, “Hourglass” is what the community has been looking for in their own music for quite a while — raw emotion and songwriting that doesn’t sacrifice itself on production. The vocals you hear aren’t just placeholders for saccharine lyrics, but ones that represent a story Mako is trying to tell, and of course, with the indomitable power of dance. Although songs like “Devil May Cry” carry heavy lyrical content like the single mentioned above, you will be frequently rewarded as a listener to absorb some of the more serious drops that would scare some lighter listeners away. As the album flows on, it almost bridges this odd mix somewhere between Dido and Calvin Harris, but meets someone like Sia in the middle for a real pinnacle in songwriting.

Check out the tracklist below: 

Track List:
01 –  Let Go Of The Wheel
02 – Mako & Morgan Page – Real Life
03 –  Smoke Filled Room
04 –Wish You Back feat. Kwesi
05 –  Into The Sunset
06 – Mako & Rat City – Run For Your Life feat. Natalola
07 – Paradise Lost
08 – Craziest Day I Ever Had
09 – North Dakota
10 – Devil May Cry
11 – Way Back Home
12 – Our Story (Hourglass Finale)
13 – Wish You Back feat. Kwesi (The Him)

Finally, what makes this a true gem is not necessarily the singles themselves, but some of the album tracks you might not have caught yet pre-release. Songs like North Dakota, and Paradise Lost don’t always have a large drop in mind, but tap into a mentality that we love to avoid on the dancefloor when we are trying to escape our problems. When you pick up the album on December 9th, it’s imperative you listen to this album from front to back, because it reads exactly like a novel. Yes, we may not know the details of what may be plaguing some of their minds behind the lyrics, but Mako’s Hourglass runs away from the notion that you must be at a party, or taking part in a crazy dance-fest 24/7. Hourglass follows all the conventions of a fantastic electronic album, but instead lets us know that its okay to reflect once in a while, and maybe that is the fresh air this community needs.

When it comes to the music of Mako, Alex Seaver and Logan Light are about to get a little bass drop in their own lives with the release of their 2016 collection of new tracks that might as well be future hits, Hourglass. With three extended plays as well as consistent work that has been non-stop since the year of 2013, and armed with an upbeat and in-your-face house flow that wants you to party just as aggressively as the synths suggest, Relentless Beats are sitting down with the frontrunners of Mako to give us their down-low on what makes this album special:

RB: Some of your older work contains more aggressive synth riffs, and more electronic influences, while we have noticed a more organic sound come from newer tracks like “Let Go Of The Wheel,” and the newer singles you have released. What influenced the entrance of more acoustic and organic sounds?

Alex: A small part of it was fatigue with the big large synth sound you are mentioning, a feeling that we’d done it several times before.  The other was a complete inspiration to dip our toes in all the incredible indie rock + indie electronic music getting put out over the past few years.  Its had a big affect on us.

RB:  If each of you had to pick a track from your past discography and re-tool it specifically for “Hourglass,” which tracks would you choose?

Logan: Hmm, one of my favorite tracks is one we never released called “Lost in the Fire.” So maybe that one. The only one we really wanted to re-tool was “Our Story” which we did and we LOVE the way it came out.

Mako – Our Story

RB: Hourglass has already seen four single releases as of late November showcasing that roots-y organic sort of sound that combines with your usual electric style; are there any tracks like “North Dakota,” or “Paradise Lost” that we haven’t exactly heard yet that might have some surprises that might differ from the singles?

Alex: Keep an ear out for ‘Devil May Cry’ – which delves a little into an angrier side of our production.  ‘Craziest Day I Ever Had’ is another tune that we surprised ourselves with.  That one might tuck into a ‘pop-alternative’ genre more so than anything else we’ve yet released. –

RB: After releasing so many singles and extended plays, was there ever plans to release a full-fledged studio album earlier than 2016?

Logan: That was the plan from the beginning but we just couldn’t get all our ducks in a row. After “Children of the Wild” and “Smoke Filled Room” we really said we need to buckle down and this is what we want to do. From that point forward it was all about creating a sound for the album which really began with “Way Back Home.”

Mako – Let Go of The Wheel

RB: Finally, we at Relentless Beats would like to thank you for taking the time and answering our more pressing questions to satiate our addiction to good music. Is there anything you would like to tell the Phoenix community to get them pumped about Mako and Hourglass?

Logan: We love Phoenix but we’ve never actually been. One of our first shows ever was in Tucson but they are nowhere near the same. As for getting pumped on the music – we put our hearts into and hope you can hear that and enjoy the result.

With the Hourglass album release coming up swift, it’s no question that the excitement in the room is very real and very impending. We at Relentless Beats are also incredibly thankful to have had the oppurtunity to listen to their brand new banger days early, and just like a bad used-car salesman would say, “we are passing these savings onto YOU!” We hope this double-feature album review/artist interview gets you pumped as much as we are for the release of “Hourglass”.

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