MAKE has been haunting the central North Carolina music scene since 2008, when Scott Endres (Horseback, The Pod, SUNTAN) and Spencer Lee (Systems, Vanishing Point) began collaborating on thematic psychedelic noise-sludge. Drawing on themes of isolation, loss, hope, absurdism, and cataclysm, what started as a space-doom project has since evolved into something far more varied and expressive. During that time the band has been a significant presence in the regional music scene, performing on diverse lineups from Bull City Metal Fest to Hopscotch Music Festival, and touring with a wide range of extreme acts including Crowhurst, Dragged Into Sunlight, Primitive Man, and more.
In 2016, MAKE joined forces with Accident Prone Records for the release of Pilgrimage Of Loathing, which received praise from fans and the media alike.
A decade later, MAKE delivered their monolithic fourth album, Exegesis At The End Of Time (read our review here), once again elevating their place in the genre. Exegesis At The End Of Time sees MAKE welcoming co-conspirators John Crouch (Horseback, Caltrop, Vanishing Point) and Aaron Smithers (In The Year Of The Pig), making them a four-piece for the first time since their first EP (2010) and expanding the band’s cacophonous palate. On this album, the band combines a diversity of influences in building both the music and the concept for the record. Droning repetition, angular noise rock, and massive sludge riffs coalesce to underpin literary themes spanning Pynchon and DeBord to Borges and McCarthy, forging a warning: The order that rules our world represents a cosmic violence that will destroy us if we don’t conquer it.
It’s been a full decade since Pilgrimage of Loathing. What were the biggest obstacles and “wrenches in the works” during that long stretch, and how did the band stay connected creatively through it all?
In this order: I believe it was around January 2020 our previous drummer pulled out of a recording session, when trying to reschedule we learned that our producer was moving to NYC, then COVID dropped a couple months later, I got laid off, then we started a side-project as the worst of the COVID phase was dying down, we had momentum with that project so put MAKE temporarily on hold, I got displaced from the home I’d been at for 17 years (which was also our practice space), we had a really terrible falling-out with our previous drummer, I got laid off again. It was really just a long slog of bad shit happening and trying not to drown.
Spencer and Aaron and I had maintained contact throughout this period, since Aaron was part of the side project, so after the falling out happened Spencer and I decided immediately to boot MAKE back up and naturally we asked Aaron if he wanted to be in MAKE. John was the natural choice because he’s our favorite drummer around, and he was already playing bass in Spencer’s other band Vanishing Point, and had mentioned recently (around that time) itching to play drums in a heavy band again. It hadn’t really occurred to me just how much time had passed since our last record until we started getting asked this question around the release of this one. Yeah…ten years is a LOT of time, turns out.
Exegesis at the End of Time marks the first time MAKE has been a four-piece since the early days. How did bringing in John Crouch and Aaron Smithers (and the addition of synthesizers) expand or shift the band’s sound and songwriting process?
So the most obvious answer is that with Aaron in the band, Spencer was able to switch between bass and guitar duties on all of the new material. This and the synth brought in a lot of new sounds and vibes we either never had, or just never really explored very far before. Even when we had two guitars in the beginning, I was doing more lead and texture stuff, and this time it’s the opposite. And while each of our drummers has been unique in their own ways, John has this fantastic ability to play in and around what the guitars are doing rather than just following the guitars and playing along…which has been a really fantastic additional breath of fresh air. All of this has added a lot more openness to the music. I say that…and it makes sense in my head…but I realize it’s harder to describe on paper. There’s a lot more room for each of us to breathe, right now.
The new album’s title and your comments about hope, despair, and a world “rapidly being destroyed by a perverted ruling class” suggest some heavy themes. What ideas or experiences were you exploring this time around, and how do they connect to the isolation, loss, and absurdism that have run through MAKE’s work since the beginning?
Most of the songs on this record were inspired by books that Spencer and I were either reading literally during the conception of the material, or had the work front and center of mind while writing. Journey to the End of the Night, Blood Meridian, The Garden of Forking Paths, The Society of the Spectacle, and Gravity’s Rainbow were the big ones. This wasn’t intentional at first, but after stepping back and realizing it…we leaned into it and asked “What do all of these pieces of fiction or theory have in common?” And the answer we found was that these are all works where individuals are struggling through life against the forces of power and oppression. Some natural, most man-made, but all detrimental to the human condition, to the ability to truly thrive as a living animal with consciousness on this planet. The single binding thread throughout the history of humanity is watching our own potential either squandered by our own lacking, or squashed by the forces in power extracting said power through our labor and suffering. What does this look like, what does it mean, and what can be done about it? At the very end of the day…we try to help our friends, family, and neighbors and find joy and love and meaning through art and community and, hopefully, fighting back as best we can against these oppressive forces. In every meaningful regard, this is what our music has been about for a very long time.
The songs on Exegesis feel more expansive and monumental than previous material. Can you walk us through the writing or recording of a track like “The Augur” or “Forking Paths” and how the dynamics and structure came together?
That’s nice to hear, and also a little surprising to me as somebody who’s been far too close to it to be objective in the slightest, because the album was essentially a live record with very, very minimal overdubbing or extra tracking which has absolutely not been the approach we’ve taken before. So that’s nice to hear the actual songs still maintain the feeling that we hoped for them. I can’t remember how the heck Forking Paths was written, haha. But The Augur was part of what was going to be Side A of the record we were scheduled to record in January 2020. It was a twenty-odd minute long track that had a kajillion parts to it. After we booted the band back up, one of the first things I did was I started listening back to all the practice recordings I could find between the previous album and COVID. One thing became painfully clear: It’s a good thing we never got to record that record, because that track just didn’t work. But there were a lot of parts of it that were too good to toss.
MAKE has always blended sludge, noise, psychedelic, and post-metal elements. Looking back from the space-doom beginnings to now, how do you see the band’s sound evolving, and which influences (old or new) felt most present while making this record?
In the beginning we were more excited about being in a band together and playing heavy music. We didn’t really have a direction or a personality that felt our own until we lost our second guitarist and had to figure out how to continue incorporating all the elements we wanted but as a three piece. That unintentionally grew into a sound that started becoming something we felt more and more ownership of. There was always a lot of krautrock and post-punk tropes that ended up in there, but by the time Pilgrimage appeared we were starting to focus more on our post-hardcore and noise rock sides. That really came to a head with Exegesis, and we intentionally really leaned into it. I think, too, that I personally feel like I’ve gotten out of my system what I wanted to with Exegesis in that regard, that our next album will almost certainly not be leaning so heavily in the noise direction.
With the album out and some hometown release shows already under your belt, what’s next for MAKE—more live dates, new material, or just enjoying the fact that the band is fully active again after such a long hiatus?
Well, we’d like to tour but being a band our size, and our age with our jobs and families…in 2026 no less…it’s really difficult. So yes, more regional shows when we can swing it, and we’re already hard at work on new material for the next album. We may even have something in between Exegesis and whatever the next proper album is too, but it’s way too early to say any more about that.
A big thank you to Scott for taking the time to talk to Inhale the Heavy!
MAKE‘s latest release, Exegesis at the End of Time, is available on vinyl, cassette and download here.
