Q&A with MAKO – Dynamic Dance Duo, Logan Light + Alex Seaver Talk Lollapalooza, Working With Singer: MADISON BEER and Much More!

MAKO  is made up of dynamic duo, Logan Light and Alex Seaver, and they are burning up this summer, quickly becoming mainstays on the festival circuit with performances at EDC Las Vegas, Electric Forest, Global Dance Festival, Sunset Music Festival, Something Wonderful, and Miami Music Week; festival performances in the coming weeks include Electric Zoo: Transformed (9/5) and Tomorroworld (9/27).

Following their stellar performance at Lollapalooza, MAKO just debuted their intoxicating new track “Smoke Filled Room”. The song was co-produced by rising New York City producer Prince Fox and mixed by Grammy award-winning engineer Miles Walker (Rihanna, Kygo, Deorro).

MAKO also recently released back-to-back collaboration tracks that are garnering serious looks. “I Won’t Let You Walk Away” featuring vocals from Island Records recording artist Madison Beer has over three million Spotify streams and recently climbed into the Top 5 of the radio charts. Heavy rotation on SiriusXM’s BPM and iHeart Radio’s Evolution propelled the track into the Top 5 on the Mediabase Dance Radio charts.

In an era where unexpected ingredients thrive, MAKO offers a truly unique experience. Before an introduction was made, the two budding artists spent their early life progressing musically in radically different worlds. Alex attended The Juilliard School on full scholarship as musician and played with some of the world’s elite classical artists in the most storied of venues. Meanwhile, Logan was quietly mastering the art of DJing and within only a few years, began opening for some of dance music’s biggest international acts, including Tiesto and Avicii, and major appearances including Lollapalooza.

The duo’s first release “Beam” quickly circulated on blogs and YouTube, logging more than 4.6 million views to date. The track was featured on SiriusXM’s Beta Test Tuesday which then prompted them to proclaim MAKO is “the next big thing.” Since then, the duo has found themselves in studio with some of dance music’s top artists: Avicii, Steve Angello, Sander Van Doorn, R3hab, DubVision, Heather Bright, Le Castle Vania and many others.

All Access Music writer, Nicole DeRosa had the pleasure of catching up with the busy duo. Read more in Nicole’s interview with Alex and Logan below!

Hi Logan and/or Alex! How are you today? What’s on the agenda today besides our interview?

Alex: Helllllo! Just finished up some things in studio and prepping for our new release this week!

So, first things first, you just played at Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC). How was that incredible experience?! What were the highlights for you?

Logan: Incredible doesn’t do it justice. Mako was birthed at EDC a few years earlier and we’ve gotten to play there once on the “Discovery Stage” but to move up in terms of stages and set time at the biggest dance festival there shows us that our music is connecting with people and that’s what we really aim for. Having Madison Beer come out and sing with us along with Corey Lee playing violin was definitely awesome. As for me, seeing Above & Beyond was pretty special too – I thought they were amazing.

For those that are not familiar with you and your music, how did you get your start? Who or what was the catalyst for you?

Logan: For me, it all started with Daft Punk. I love their music and I was fortunate enough to see them at Coachella in 2006. To prove how big of an influence that was I ended up seeing them another 6 times on the Alive 2007 tour. From there it snowballed forward into DJing for me until I met Alex and things changed, and we started to produce music.

Alex: Logan was the catalyst for all things Mako related. He introduced me to all electronic music after I finished up college with my sights set on being a classical musician.

You recently worked with Steve Angello on the track “Children of the Wild”.The  song received over 5 million Spotify plays in its first month, with all of those proceeds going to Save The Children Fund. How did that track come about? What was the inspiration there?

Alex: The song was written maybe over 2 years ago now. It has a very personal text compared to some of our other songs, when we started working with our current manager he sent it to Steve who really seemed to bond with the themes lying inside of it all and called us in. I would say working through the track in studio with Steve is so far an all time high for us when it comes to our music. Really unforgettable, and Steve was very genuine and great with us.

Who have been your musical inspirations growing up?

Logan: Radiohead and Daft Punk – no one beats those two. They are each brilliant in their own way from music to art to marketing. I think those are the bands that will define our generation.

Alex: For me it’s all classical music and film music, my two deep passions before I had heard about electronic.

Your new single, “I Won’t Let You Walk Away” features Island Records recording artist Madison Beer (via Ultra Records). Did you also help come up with the treatment for the video as well?

Alex: We didn’t come up with the treatment ourselves, it was actually our talented director and his team that brought it up. Since it was utilizing a pretty unique style of filming, we were partly hedging our bets that it wouldn’t turn out strange and awkward. Haha! It was actually pretty sweet!

Mako with singer, Madison Beer

Who would you love to collaborate with next? Who is on your wish list?

Alex: If there’s a dream list, I would DO ANYTHING if it lead me to collaborate with John Powell; he’s my favorite film composer. If we’re talking reality! I don’t have sights narrowed down too fine, I think you’ll find we get in studio with any kind of writer or artist under the sun – if somebody brings something special to the table our doors are wide open. That said, our collaboration with Madison Beer definitely opened our eyes to working with more pop singers!

What has been the highlight of your year so far?

Logan: I think it has been getting to be out on the road more and interact with fans both on and off the stage. Getting a chance to meet with and play for the people who support and enjoy our music is something special.

Who is in your current playlist? What artists or bands are in current rotation for you?

Logan: I just downloaded a bunch of dance records and remixes from 2005-2010 we used for our silent disco set at Electric Forest. Now I can’t stop playing them! Early MSTRKRFT, Justice, Digitalism and some Shinici Osawa.

Alex: I’m listening to a lot of guys I’ve met recently in LA: Prince Fox, Ghastly, SNBRN, and they’ve exposed me to other artists I hadn’t yet seen like Jauz, Ember Island, Didrick. Caught two Alison Wonderland sets the last two festivals we played, real dope.

What’s on tap next for you? What are you most excited about for this year?

Logan: We just played Lollapalooza in Chicago, which we were beyond excited for! It was a big one for us and we had some fun surprises in store. We brought a violinist and harpist on stage. Alex played keys, and Madison Beer performed “I Won’t Let You Walk Away” live.

Alex: We also have a new single “Smoke Filled Room”!

Catch MAKO on the road this year (more dates TBA):

TOUR DATES
Wed 9/2 Ann Arbor, MI Necto
Sat 9/5 New York, NY Electric Zoo
Sat 9/12 Los Angeles, CA Create
Thu 9/24 Boston, MA Naga
Sun 9/27 Atlanta, GA Tommorroworld
Fri 10/16 Costa Mesa, CA Sutra
Sat 10/17 San Francisco, CA Ruby Skye
Thu 10/29 Washington, DC Soundcheck

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