This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Frontman Reid Stevenson, guitarists Sam Theno and Owen Stevenson, bassist Trevor Gallagher, and drummer Aiden Scheuren have been building something real in the Milwaukee scene – and on October 15th, 2026, they dropped their debut EP "Make Myself Your Favorite Scene," a six-track project that pulls from pop-punk roots while pushing into something darker, more contemporary, and undeniably their own.
The week that EP dropped was, by any measure, a lot. The Tuesday before the release, they opened for WARGASM in Milwaukee — a show Reid described as one of the best nights of his life, with new fans from that night showing up to the EP release show just days later. The release show itself landed on October 17th at Cactus Club in Milwaukee, and from everything I heard, it was a hell of a time. Then straight out of that, a run to Nashville and Saint Louis for co-headline shows with friend and collaborator Nick Karcher. Somehow in the middle of all of it, Reid made time to hop on Zoom and talk about the EP, how the album came together, and what “See You in Hell” actually means.
Rorrie: It sounds like this past week has been a really big one for you guys — can you walk me through it?
Reid: We dropped our debut EP last Thursday — “Make Myself Your Favorite Scene” — so we’re super stoked about that. The Tuesday before, we got the chance to open up for Wargasm here in Milwaukee, and our EP release show was this past Saturday. At first we were like, 'Oh, should we take the Wargasm show? They’re both in Milwaukee and so close to each other' — but we were like, we’d be so stupid not to. And it was like the best night. They were the coolest people for having us. We made some new fans, and some people who were there for the first time came out to our EP release show on Saturday! One of the best nights of my life. And now today we leave for Nashville with our friend Nick Karcher. We’re doing a co-headline show there and in St. Louis. We just keep on rocking'.
The EP title, “Make Myself Your Favorite Scene,” isn’t actually the name of any of the songs. Where did that come from?
It was a lyric pulled from our song “See You in Hell,” which is the closing track. That line stood out to me because I feel like this EP is us really trying to prove ourselves — throwing everything we can do right now at the wall. It’s kind of asking, can we make ourselves your favorite scene? Can we be your next favorite band? That’s what we’re saying with it.
The EP opens with “Showtime” and closes with “See You in Hell” — that’s quite an arc. Was that intentional?
For sure. The opener and the closer were very intentional. “Showtime” was actually the last song written — I’ve always loved intro tracks, and I knew we just needed one. We started rocking with this Ozzy Osbourne-like riff, and it just kind of clicked on the nose like, "Here's the opener!" "It's showtime!" We’re about to show you everything we’ve got. Welcome to the circus in my head. Hope you like it.
And then rounding it out with “See You in Hell” — it’s got that big, confident sound, but the lyrics are really about not being where we want to be yet. In a more literal sense, like I’m down here in this hell of not reaching that level of success yet, but I can see it above me. Rather than the classic “f*** you, I’ll see you in hell” — it’s more like, no, I’m here. I’m just waiting for you to join me as I look up at everyone else’s successes.
That’s a really interesting reframe of that phrase. Sonically, I kept picking up on Cobra Starship, Hawthorne Heights — there’s this retro-futuristic synth thing happening alongside the pop-punk bones. How do you describe where that blend comes from?
Thank you — because we try really hard to have a unique sound, and I feel like that’s genuinely hard to do in rock right now. I grew up on Blink-182 and All Time Low — those are my two GOATs for sure. But more contemporary, you look at Bring Me the Horizon, who started as deathcore and went all the way to pop. I think that’s the coolest thing ever. I’m into that whole spectrum too. So it’s like — how can we hit all of those on one record and have it still make sense? The synths and electronic beats are mixed with big guitars, heavy riffs, and pop melodic verses and choruses. We just try to blend it all into one big hot mess.
Lyrically the EP digs into some personal territory — ambition, relationships, jealousy, self-reflection. Which song was the hardest to write?
“See You in Hell” went through like five or six renditions. With that title, it was like — Okay, how do we pull deeper meaning from this rather than just making it a sh** talky, “f*** you” kind of song? How do we make it personal and make it comment on where I’m actually at in life?
“One More Tear” is pretty personal too, and it’s one of my favorite things to do — write an upbeat song that sounds happy, but if you were to just read the lyrics on a sheet, you’d be like, "Oh, this is kind of sad." Reflecting on a relationship, things like that. Those two were the ones that really dug in.
Final Thoughts, My Hot Messes
Six songs, eighteen minutes, and a band that CLEARLY knows exactly what they're doing straight out of the gate. "Make Myself Your Favorite Scene" is out now on all platforms – stream, it, scream it, and go find your inner hot mess (but don't do anything insane, ok?). Seek them out the next time they hit the road. Reid really isn't kidding when he said they're just going to keep rockin'.
