DIY culture may not be the same as it was in the heyday of hardcore, but it’s far from gone. When Make Do and Mend decided the time had come to record a follow-up to their 2012 record, Everything You Ever Loved, they wanted to do it on their own terms.

Stay Close Records, the band’s own imprint ran through Rise Records, made the whole release cycle for Don’t Be Long all the more personal and genuine. Through this, a lot of the excess tied in with releasing music doesn’t need to be tolerated, but instead, could be avoided altogether. The idea of a band teasing studio activity, putting out a record, doing a tour (or three), and then repeating the process every two years isn’t just a widely-held tradition – it’s practically the standard.

Through busting out the gates with their album announcement and premiere of their title track, Make Do and Mend slapped their cards on the table to blatantly inform us that there’s no nonsense this time around. “We just like making music, we like playing music with our friends, and we like playing music for people,” said frontman/guitarist James Carroll over the phone during the week DBL was released.

While expressed in such a positive and respectful way, Carroll’s unabashed attitude within the interview lies pretty consistent to the band’s operation as a unit.

“I was hanging out with a friend of mine who said something along the lines of ‘Oh my god – Matt [Carroll, drummer of MDAM] said the funniest thing to Property of Zack!’ I was like, ‘Oh boy, what did he say? Here comes an internet battle…’ Because you know, that’s what it usually turns into, thanks to the power of the internet. He showed me the tweet and I laughed hysterically, I thought it was the funniest thing in the world.”

“@PropertyOfZack: “This could easily be the last record we ever make” — @makedoandmendyo’s James Carroll” Sick click bait.

— Make Do And Mend (@makedoandmendyo) February 5, 2015

Clearly, trivial moments like that carry zero weight to the group, who exclusively care about the basics. “I can’t imagine they’re upset with us, we’re not upset with them,” he says. “It’s sort of the way things go, and that’s really part of the reason why we’ve decided to take ourselves out of the whole news-machine game when it came to putting out this new record.”

In today’s modern music landscape where 10-year commemorations have become as commonplace as YouTube cover videos, a band’s discography begins to get looked at from a “bigger picture” perspective. Especially seeing as how the band is approaching the five-year anniversary of its seminal debut album, End Measured Mile.

What significance will Don’t Be Long hold in the future? Will it be seen as the beginning of a completely new era for Make Do And Mend? Or just another entry?

“This is not a comeback record by any means. I would never want to paint it as such,” concludes Carroll. “This is just another Make Do And Mend record, and I’m sure there’s a lot of people out there who kind of figured that we didn’t have another one in us, and we’re just keeping on keeping on.”

Interview written and conducted by Adrian Garza (@adriangarza_)

• Author
• Recent Posts

Adrian Garza

Latest posts by Adrian Garza (see all)

• Substances, death, and purpose fueled Culture Abuse for their most imaginative release yet - April 15, 2016
• UTG PREMIERE: The Go Ahead – “Closer” (Nine Inch Nails Cover) - April 6, 2016
• UTG’s 31 Days Of Halloween: ‘Rubber’ - October 21, 2015