Local punk band moves into mainstream

By Alex Roman
Daily Forty Niner

With the sudden success of a few Christian-oriented rock bands, Makeshift3 is hoping this is the perfect time for their brand of punk to be heard.

"Since our lyrics are Christian-oriented, we have a tremendous success with the Christian youth audience," said Eric Mattson, Cal State Long Beach information systems major and the drummer for Makeshift3.

The band, consisting of Mattson, Tyler Bochenek on bass and vocals and Jeff Lascola playing guitar and lead vocals, got started when Mattson and Lascola, who attended high school together in San Diego County, got together to mess around and play music.

"In the beginning it was me, Jeff and Ryan Coughlin," said Mattson. "In September of 1996, Ryan went away to college so Jeff and I replaced him with my cousin Tyler."

Since then, the band has played many shows and has been part of a few compilation albums, as well as releasing their newest full length CD, the 16-song "Fuel for Life," on Pious records and on their Web site, makeshift3.com.

Makeshift3's neo-punk brand of music is similar to mainstream bands like Blink 182, Pennywise and Lagwagon. But their message is inherently different than any of these bands.

"Our beliefs are expressed through our lyrics," said Mattson. "Depending on the crowd and the onstage agenda that was planned, our beliefs are expressed onstage in-between songs sometimes."

The band has also enjoyed a considerable amount of success since putting their music on mp3.com, where their songs average over 1,000 listeners per day and have ranked all the way up to the No. 1 spot on mp3.com's charts.

"We get tons of offers for shows, record deals and compilation albums from people who see our rankings at mp3.com," said Mattson.

Makeshift3 credits most of the current success not to the technological revolution, but from learning to play onstage through trial and error.

"Our first couple of shows were really bad because we had no experience onstage and no knowledge of entertaining the crowd through stage presence," said Mattson. "Our following has been growing large ever since we learned how to entertain crowds live."

Through their learning experiences, they continue to grow. This is evident in the expanding audience gained through touring during semester breaks.

"At our last show, there were at least 5,000 people," said Mattson. "When we play live, our goal is to have the audience remember us as the funniest, craziest and most memorable band they have ever seen, while receiving a positive message."

Makeshift3 believes that now is a good time for them to make a breakthrough to the mainstream.

"With huge Christian bands like Jars of Clay and P.O.D. opening a path for Christian artists, it gives us an opportunity to get even more exposure in the mainstream scene," said Mattson. "Every band, including us, would want to have their band as being their career. Radio airplay, MTV and international touring are things that any band wants, some bands just don't admit it."