Hi, everyone! A couple of weeks ago, I sat down to chat with Elliott Douglas, the LA-based based rocker going under the name of M.A.G.S. Originally from the snow haven that is Buffalo, NY, Elliott brought his talents out to Los Angeles a few short years ago and began working on his amazing garage rock tunes. I've been a fan of Elliott's music for a while now and I'm glad he was down to chat!
bazzreviews: Which albums or artists inspired you to start a music career in the first place?
Elliott Douglas: Well, I grew up in the Buffalo area, and got to know the local scene there very well. A lot of my friends were in bands, so I’d say a majority of my influences came from those bands I knew from the area I lived in. I also really got inspired by a lot of bands on the record label called Equal Vision Records based in Albany. They had hardcore and punk bands like Circa Survive and Coheed and Cambria, and they were really big for me in the mid-2000s, no doubt.
br: What was it like to be homeschooled from first grade through the end of high school?
E.D.: It had its pros and cons. I didn’t have a big friend group or a lot of outside interactions, but I grew tight with my three siblings growing up, which was nice. We were always making music in the house, so any time I wouldn’t be doing schoolwork, it’d be me writing songs and recording them. It came to practically take over my life.
br: I know you have a huge love for skateboarding, but what made you want to switch from going pro to being a musician?
E.D.: I think it was because I was spending all my time on making music. I never really forgot about skateboarding, it just wasn’t as big of a priority for me. I still skate today, don’t get me wrong. I don’t drive as much as I used to because I’m out in California, so it’s a much more practical way for me to get around out there. When you grow up in a place like Buffalo, you can only really skate outside for three or four months, if that. It snows a lot there. We did have a few indoor skate parks, but it wasn’t super easy to convince my parents to drive me out there every time. I didn’t really have a lot of money at that time either, so I focused more of my energy on music because it was free.
br: What’s the significance behind your stage names, M.A.G.S.?
E.D.: There’s a long version to that story, and a short version of it. Back in 2014 when I just started writing all of the songs for M.A.G.S., I was trying to think of a name. It lined up perfectly, because I was talking a lot with my grandma at that time. She was always giving me little pearls of wisdom, and I thought it would be a nice way to pay tribute to all she’s done for me. Her name is Maggie, but for short, I figured Mags would sound really cool. The shorter version was that I had signed with the label that I put out my first two records on, Admirable Traits, and we had run into an issue with putting my music on certain streaming services. Turns out, there was another artist named Mags, and all my music was going under their discography. I ended up stylizing it to the way it is now, with the periods in between each letter. I thought I would make it into an acronym, and people started asking me what it stood for. I didn’t really know what to say, so I just one up. What came into my head, for some reason, was “Marijuana And Good Sex”.
br: I know you were originally a solo act, but how did you meet the other members that form the group now?
E.D.: As of right now, I’m still solo. When I first started the band, I was still living in Buffalo, and I had a couple of different lineups of friends I had from different bands. When I first started playing all my shows, I would ask them to all fill in. We ended up playing shows for a year or so until I moved out to LA. I decided I wanted to continue as M.A.G.S., but only as a solo act. I haven’t really played a lot of shows since I moved out here, because I’ve been putting a lot of effort into this new record. As I did originally, I’ve just been finding different people to fill in for live sets. I think one of my biggest goals for the future is to have a more permanent lineup set up.
br: I’ve heard you’re known for putting on some awesome live shows, would you say that you prefer performing live rather than working on new songs?
E.D.: It’s half-and-half, honestly. When it comes to shows, all the energy I hold inside when I’m writing and being introspective comes out when I go on stage. The relationship between recording and playing live is cyclical, in my eye. When you’re working on a song, you may want to consider the type of energy you want to bring when you play the piece live.
br: Can you walk me through your song process from start to finish?
E.D.: I’ll typically start with an idea or an inspiration. Sometimes, the lyrics may come to me when I’m in the shower or skating around, and I’ll figure out what I want to say. Other times, I might just be playing the guitar and come across something cool and write more parts for it. Some of my earlier songs were written on the drums, which was a little more unusual, but now it just starts with the guitar. What will happen from there is I’ll have ideas for each part once I get the guitar line solidified. I’ll make a demo and then see if there’s anything I can fix before I record it for real. I’ve found that in some cases, the demos I do actually sound better than the final recording. Take my recent song, “Sutter”, for example, I had about three or four demos going for that song. The song got better as I did more demos of it, and most of the time, I don’t really finish “writing” songs until I’m in the studio and about to record.
br: As you said, you recently released a single, “Stutter”, back in November. Are there any other projects in the works for you right now?
E.D.: I touched on it a little earlier, but yes, there is stuff in the work. I’m about to release either an album or an EP. It’s up in the air, really. Based on the way that the industry is structured right now, it’s very single-based. I like putting out a body of work rather than just a flash-in-the-pan idea. I want to try and tell a story with my work, and I think it’s kind of difficult to do that with little bits and pieces at the time. I’m thinking it’s going to be around a five or six-track EP. I don’t know when it’s coming out, but I can say it will be out sometime before the summer begins.
br: What do you tend to focus more on- lyricism or production?
E.D.: It depends on the song and what I want to focus more on. I think I do spend a lot of time writing my songs, because even though the songs themselves sound simplistic and catchy, a lot of time goes into the lyrics. There might be a song that might be really personal to me, so I might want the lyrics and vocal energy to have more of a prominent showing. There might also be a really good guitar part that I’m proud of, so I might want that to be the center of attention for the song. Above all, the production is the most important to me. As we talked about at the top of the interview, I’ve been recording from a very young age. I taught myself how to use ProTools, and the science of EQ, compression and effects.
I’ve mixed and engineered my first two records by myself, and my self-titled LP was the first one I’d done professionally on a computer. Before, I was moreso just guessing and recording onto a digital workspace without much thought or effort. I find myself spending a lot of time nerding out on production, maybe helping a friend or two mix their projects along the way.
br: Do you have any songs that you’re proud of making over the years? If so, are there any fun stories behind the scenes?
E.D.: I’ve got a bunch of record that no one knows about. I was in this band in Buffalo called the Malones, right before I started M.A.G.S., and I played bass. We did a record together, and we did it very quickly. However, it blew up locally, which we were all very surprised about. There aren’t really many “fun” stories behind it, but I cherish it because it was a very rewarding artistic experience. I used to do a lot of recording with my younger brother, too, and we had a joke band for a while. I have a whole back catalog of all of these songs we made so many years ago sitting on my hard drive. They were some of my favorites because we were just going about it very spontaneously. We would decide, “Hey, let’s make a funk song”, or “Hey, wanna make a country song?” All irony aside, that music actually really helped me out because now I’m versed in playing in a lot of different styles.
br: What music goals do you have for the future?
E.D.: My manager and I work very closely together and figure out what we want to do going forward. I don’t want to give it all away, but we’re definitely talking with more industry people about tours and booking. I think most of all, getting that record out is the biggest thing I want to do.
I wanna give a big thanks to Elliott once again for sitting down to chat. I wish him the best of luck with his new EP! In the meantime, go check out some of his music in the link down below. Thanks so much to you guys, and I'll see you guys back here soon with some more bazzreviews content.
To hear some of Elliott's music, log on to https://magsbuffalo.bandcamp.com/