Q: Have you learned anything that you’ve been able to apply to your music?Ī: In high school, I would be taking geometry class and I’d be like, okay I understand how this is training a certain part of my brain and indirectly connecting it to whatever I want to do. I guess my themes are existential, coming-of-age, average-white-20-year-old-bullsh*t. I have a song called Everything is Temporary that is about things being transient. The new EP is about coming to terms with your own insecurities. Not everything is a fact about my life but I try to connect to the things that I write so I can sing them with some sort of conviction. I try not to think about it before hand - like “I’m going to write a song about fear.” That feels backwards to me. Q: What kind of themes do you write about in your songs?Ī: A lot of it is just whatever I’m going through at the time when I write. The undercurrent is people being themselves in a cool way. Sometimes I listen to Hank Williams and sometimes Kendrick Lamar and Jelly Roll Morton and Ben Folds Five. I definitely have a pretty eclectic taste in music. Q: Do you have a favorite genre of music?Ī: I really like sad-guitar music. Every time we would come out of rehearsal it would just be there and it seemed appropriate and a nice artifact that tied everything together. There’s Carter Couron, he plays the drums and then there’s Larry Scanniello, he plays the lead guitar.Ī: There’s Felix, the car dealership up on Figueroa and that was close to where we rehearsed. There’s Cooper Bell, who plays keyboards and shaker and tambourine and sings - one of those miscellaneous guys. My friend, Jack DeMeo, plays guitar and sings. Q: What are the names of your band members?Ī: I’m Mackin Carroll, bassist. We were all waiting to meet like-minded people and so there was no waste in time when we got started. As for the band we are hoping to play at some cool clubs and stuff after the release of the EP.Ī: In January, actually. A lot of times you’re playing at a place where people don’t really want to hear music. Because it’s upstairs at this Italian restaurant and so its all wooden. Q: What’s been your favorite venue to perform at?Ī: For me, personally, there’s this place called Room 5 in La Brea and it’s really nice because the people that are there are really there to listen. It’s frightening but there’s also this wonderful emotional reward if you perform it successfully and connect with people. There’s an emotional risk performing your own material that happens. Because I love playing and stuff like that, but I love playing stuff that I’ve had a hand in shaping. I would like to have a career where I have a hand in what’s being played. Anything on that would be gravy.Ī: Yeah, I love performing as well, but I love writing. I want to make a comfortable living from my creative efforts - that would be awesome. If I can build a lifestyle that allows me to make albums and just do creative stuff. Q: As a musician, what are some of your dreams and aspirations?Ī: I really just want to make records. It’s his music –– I’m just playing the bass guitar. I’m playing bass in my friend Andrew Stogel’s band called LOVEYOU. A lot of people collaborate and help each other out. I’m playing bass –– you know there’s a cool music scene here at USC. One of the EPs is with the band, which is very collaborative. I’m also recording a five song EP of my own - like acoustic kind of folk stuff. We’ll be playing around campus and hopefully Hollywood. It’s five songs recorded here on campus, and then partially off campus as well. We have an EP coming out that we’re mixing right now. We’re called Felix right now but we’re looking to change our name. Q: What kind of projects are you working on in this coming year? Combined with Carroll’s introspective songwriting and the rest of the group’s devotion to music, their band is sure to be a hit. We talked about his personal musical ventures and Felix, a new band he formed with fellow students Jack DeMeo, Cooper Bell, Carter Couron and Larry Scanniello. Last Friday, I had the opportunity to sit down with Mackin Carroll, a sophomore majoring in popular music with an emphasis in songwriting and bass at the Thornton School of Music. Student Mackin Carroll, the bassist of newly-found band Felix, sat down with the Daily Trojan for a Q & A about the band’s projects, direction, and musical inspirations.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |