Marking our lives and times with music can feel like we are in a conversation with the bands we love. Sometimes those conversations only last for a few records or years. Other times, we are lucky enough to continue that conversation for decades. As I wrestle with middle age, I’m glad that many of the artists of my youth are still out there, helping me through this stage, sharing their musings on life and tackling the feelings on my mind now. I still love the records from my teens and 20s, but I am happy to be able to keep checking in with artists I love who are still around.
While it’s been over a decade since we’ve had new music fromGirls Against Boys, lead singer Scott McCloud’s latest record,Make It to Forever, is an invitation to listen to him in conversation with his past, boththematically and literally. McCloud recorded much of this record in Greece about a decade ago, and then set the recordings aside. He didn’t plan on waiting a decade to revisit them, but it turned out to be worth the wait. It’s a provocative collection of songs that crackle with an energy different from GVSB.
“This record is about my relationship with the past and memories,” he tells PopMatters. “Hopefully, some of these songs will resonate with people who like GVSB and others who are new to me. The conversation in life that we have the longest is the one with ourselves. It’s the first and the last one we have. If I can conjure that for the listener, a conversation with self, that’s what I hope the songs do.
“All relationships are conversations,” he continues. “I passed a pay phone the other day, and I started to think about how it was so important to find those at one point, how many relationships hinged on them. What a rich tapestry one’s memory becomes as you age. I’m 58 now, and I really enjoy visiting memories. They’re still alive. They’re still changing in my head. Many GVSB lyrics were overheard conversations and conversations I had with other people. It’s interesting to be in a place where I am reflecting on those now.”
The decision to record Make It to Forever in Greece was an easy one, also inspired by a vivid memory. “I recorded in Athens with Dimitris Dimitriades, who is a friend of a friend. GVSB had this amazing show there in 1996, one of those nights bands talk about where everything was perfect. The city always had a magic for me because of that show. I have been going back there once in a while with my acoustic guitar to play some shows, so I decided to record these new songs there, too. I like recording in new places so I am not distracted by my usual routines.”
Make It to Forever is a collection that might surprise longtime fans, especially if they aren’t familiar with his post-GVSB project, Paramount Styles, which favors acoustic guitars over noise. “I wanted to see what it would be like to record with just my acoustic guitar,” McCloud notes. “It was a profound experience. This is more in the Paramount Styles lane than GVSB, but it’s different enough from both that I decided to call it a solo record. Funny enough, Paramount Styles is still finding an audience all these years later. Some people who come to shows in Europe aren’t even aware of GVSB.”
When Scott McCloud first recorded Make It to Forever, he told Dimitriades he wanted to set it aside for a while because he wasn’t sure how he felt about it yet. Leaving the Make It to Forever songs alone for a decade wasn’t the plan, but it turned out to have a profound effect on McCloud, stirring feelings about his process and perfectionist tendencies.
“In GVSB, we made records at a furious clip. We didn’t have time to reflect,” he explains. “Sometimes I’m so self-critical that I won’t let things rest. I’ve got to give Dimitris credit for hanging on to these songs for a decade. He saw something in them that made him keep them.
“I wasn’t sure if this was what people would want from me, but the only way I can be sure people won’t criticize it is if I don’t do it at all,” he continues. “It’s something for me to work on. Over the years, I’ve allowed fears to twist the garden hose. Now I’m relearning the idea that I can untie the hose, because I already know I’ll be self-critical.”
Returning to the songs after a decade gave Scott McCloud clarity that would have been tough to have otherwise. “I wasn’t sure how I felt about it right after I recorded it, but when I did listen, it felt like listening to a different version of myself. I decided right then that these songs don’t need to be changed, because the person who recorded the songs felt this way at the time,” he shares.
Still, Make It to Forever is a sonic shift from Scott McCloud’s sound, and that is a risk. “I remember reading a book on the Hollywood star system. Once you establish yourself and have some success, your career becomes about maintaining that, and that made me wonder how these songs would be received, but then I realized that what was compelling to our fans was that we weren’t calculated or safe. That was the draw.
“This record opened my mind to a way to be less critical of myself,” he continues. “I wound up redoing almost nothing. I have to thank Dimitris because he quietly believed in these songs for a decade. Many of us have an inner bully. There’s a voice in our heads. It’s not about silencing it, but about allowing ourselves to feel worthy, to feel that what we made is good. That’s even part of me doing this record, allowing oneself to be worthy enough to do it.”
Scott McCloud praises Dimitriades for his ability to know just how much tinkering is necessary. “Dimitris is very good at editing, and part of his genius is that he’s not obsessed with making things sound perfect. Real is better than perfect. Anyone could come in and find things to make it ‘better’, but it comes down to the ideology for this record. What’s ‘good enough’ or ‘better’?” McCloud recollects.
McCloud’s 2026 is shaping up to be very busy, with January bringing Make It to Forever and a reissue of Girls Against Boys’ classic Cruise Yourself that includes tour dates in Australia in February. The legend Bob Weston worked on the remaster of Cruise Yourself, and McCloud was genuinely impressed by his work on the project. “As a person in the band, it was fun to listen to the music again and hear things that I didn’t hear before. A person like Bob is not going to change the record in a dramatic way. He’s just going to bring out new things in the recording,” he says.
Scott McCloud is working out a plan for how to play Make It to Forever on the road, too, but for now, he is just excited for fans to hear it. “I find myself wondering what some artists are thinking about now and what they think about what they did before. Above all, when people listen to Make It to Forever, I hope people think that I still care about having the conversation with them.”
