A Skylit Drive: On The Sunset Strip

A Skylit Drive is an American post-hardcore band originally from Lodi, California. The band’s current lineup consists of lead singer Michael “Jag” Jagmin, guitarist Jonathan Kintz, guitarist/vocalist Louie Caycoya and drummer KC Marotta. The band has released one DVD, one EP, and five studio albums: Wires…and the Concept of Breathing (2008), Adelphia (2009), Identity on Fire (2011), Rise (2013), ASD (2015) - and has recently unveiled a few new singles entitled Dead Serious and Sucker.

Highwire Daze recently caught up with lead vocalist Jag backstage at the world famous Whisky A Go-Go on the Sunset Strip to discuss their ongoing Wires…and The Concept of Breathing 15th Anniversary Tour, the loss of

We’re here with Jag, from A Skylit Drive. First of all, how has this tour been going, and what have been some of the highlights so far?

It’s been fantastic. Really just getting on the stage again, playing these songs. Some of them I haven’t even thought about in fifteen years because some we never even considered playing live. It’s exciting just to be able to kind of relive something that I may have only really sang once ever.

What are you looking forward to the most about playing here at the world-famous Whisky on the Sunset Strip?

A Skylit Drive - we just played here just many times and played songs that span just kind of the entire discography of our band over the years. I just kinda look forward to just

July/August 2023 HIGHWIRE DAZE playing here, it’s iconic. It’s

The Whisky

What has it been like to revisit Wires…and The Concept of Breathing and play it live? Did you have to completely relearn some of the songs?

Even in our first rehearsals, there were a few songs where I would come in and I was pulling it up on my phone, and I was like, “Hey, that’s what I used to say,” or “I said that once because we never played it live.” It was exciting and daunting at the same time.

You have another album about to celebrate its fifteenth anniversary. Adelphia. Looking back on that album, what do you think, in retrospect, would you like to do a celebration for that album?

I’m not sure if I would go as far as just kind of singling out a whole year for it, kind of how we did for this one. I think there’s more of a celebratory feel for me, it was the group’s first full-length album. It was the first real big “this is who we are.” There are other aspects that I love about Adelphia and kind of the more experimental direction that we took with it, but I definitely wouldn’t shy away from saying that some of those songs would get thrown into a set in celebration of it.

The original vocalist Jordan Blake recently passed away. How did his passing affect you and possibly affect this tour?

Jordan and I had known each other for a very long time, but we never really got to sit down, chat, and understand one another. That wasn’t really until late March, he reached out to both my wife and me. He was just in a bad spot, he really needed help, and we decided to help him out, and we got close to him from there and started to really just learn more about him as a person, which was really cool. To see how many similarities him and I had. We were able to bond about a lot of different struggles that we’ve had in the music scene. Both her and I became really close with him in his last two months or so.

He even texted us the night before everything kind of went silent. We were talking to him consistently up until then. But the one thing that I knew going into it was that the whole reason why he initially reached out to me was that he wanted me to be able to have the same fifteen years that he had. And that was really important to him because he looks at the legacy as more than just him as well. I’ve never shied away from saying that the EP is a part of the history of the band, and I would never say that people shouldn’t be excited about it. I was like, that totally makes sense to me. Why they would want to do it and everything. And that’s super exciting to do those types of things, and I wanted to be able to do it as well, and he showed his full support of that. That’s where we really felt that it would be more of a disser- vice to not do what he initially reached out was because he was to share that sentiment with me.

That’s just amazing that he reached out to you and then he passed away.

It is terribly sad. He was going through a lot, and he had a lot of health complications, which he was always very transparent about. He was always very open with all of that. Which is crazy because he was in such a healthy headspace. He was clean. We kept in constant contact with his grandma, and he was clean because he was in the hospital a few times during that stint of talking to him; every time he was clean. It’s just, his health was just kind of the kicker.

Looking back on your work in Odd Project, what do you think of it now in retrospect?

Honestly, it was a real wake-up call. It got me ready for A Skylit Drive because I’d never toured, I had never really done back-to-back shows, having to think about vocal stamina and all this, where Odd Project was my intro to that. Where all of a sudden, the first time that we went out, day 2, I was like, my gosh! People do this every day? That’s where I started honing my techniques and get better at having a better grasp on my stamina and better technique to withstand all of the abuse that I was about to bestow on my throat [laugh].

You could just say yes or no to this if you like, but do you still keep in touch with any of the other members of A Skylit Drive? No.

I want to talk about some of the new songs. There are new songs out. Dead Serious. Is there any story or concept behind the lyrics to that song?

That one was about my dad who passed away a few years back. I’ve written a few songs about him but kind of from different perspectives. Usually, when I write lyrics to a song, I don’t really know what I’m going to write about until I start writing, and it’s just kind of whatever the music makes me feel, and this one kind of put me in this dark headspace of what it must have felt like for him, knowing that, unfortunately, he died alone and what that must have felt like. How terrifying that must have been to be in the know of, “Why isn’t somebody here to help?” And that was kind of the mindset of that song.

And there’s another song called Sucker. Tell me about that.

Sucker was kind of - I’ve been asked this in a few interviews, what would I say to my younger self or younger bands? And it’s just, don’t let people walk on you, don’t be a sucker for their bullshit, stand up for yourself, don’t let people walk on you because you’re going to look back. Be- cause once you grow some balls later in life, you’re going to look back and be like, man, I really wish I would have stuck up for myself because maybe I would have gotten more out of that opportunity. Or maybe just something greater would have happened had I just understood my worth and put my foot down.

Is there any new music, EP, or albums on the way?

We are writing, but nothing is slated to come out this year because this year, I really wanted to focus on celebrating Wires and not bring up anything. For 2024, definitely new music.

Do you have a message for A Skylit Drive fans who are reading this right now?

I hope that they’re able to come out to one of these shows. This one we’re on now is only phase one. There are going to be multiple phases. There’s the plan to touch as many of the wonderful places I’ve been over the years. To play in front of not only people in the South and over on the West coast, but East coast, Midwest, Northeast, Northwest. As much as we can pack in with our schedules because things are different now with touring.

Especially once you get married, you have kids and every- thing. Doing these phases makes more sense. It makes it doable. I guess it’s one of the few good things that came out of COVID. COVID kind of forced this new way of touring, which all of a sudden makes it where - it’s like, hey I can do tours again because while I can’t go jumping onto a bus or into a van or something for 2 months, I can do a week and a half here, a week and a half there, a weekend here, and it’s not weird because many bands do it nowadays.

Imagine if World Tours around here, you have to explain that to your wife...

Well, she came out with me for a few days of the last World Tour we did in 2014, and she was like, “I’m never coming out with you on a tour again.” https://askylitdriveofficial.com/

It’s brutal.

Well, yeah. And we were even in a nice vehicle, but still, the days are long. It’s a lot of sitting around. Most people think it’s super glamorous. Especially on a World Tour, you’re probably out in a dirt field and it’s disgusting and it’s just hot...