(*both laugh*) Episode 34: Half Past Two’s Max Beckman!

When we started doing this "show" (is it okay to call it a show? It feels weird...), the initial point was to talk to bands and people in the music scene who had their plans for 2020 put on indefinite hold and who, somehow, used the time of uncertainty to remain connected and creative and to put their previously unforeseen downtime to good use. To paraphrase guitarist Max Beckman, for Orange County ska punks Half Past Two, 2020 ended up having a much more productive silver lining than they had initially planned.

The nine-piece band have stayed busy, putting out a series of covers (with corresponding music videos) of artists as diverse as Madonna and Ludo and Fountains of Wayne and Save Ferris and, my personal favorite, Dance Hall Crashers. The videos are all up on YouTube - check them out. But more importantly, the band have remained hard at work on their upcoming full-length release. They've put out a handful of singles from said album thus-far: a heart-warming, full band version of the previously acoustic "Shine," followed by "All About You" and, most recently, the absolutely killer "Mean Green."

We caught up with Beckman for a chat about how the band has used their quarantine wisely, their plans for their upcoming release (hint hint: while Half Past Two's 2017 Kickstarter was 400% successful, they have a different avenue planned this time out), what it's like to work - and get Covid vaccinated - at Disneyland, and when they may, finally, get their first chance to make it to the East Coast as a band.