Mac DeMarco

Onstage, DeMarco is a bastion of uplifting spirit, even in the wake of the heavily introspective Salad Days. But is it all an act?

“The recording? Definitely no,” he says. “I mean, I’m at home doing it, it’s kind of like a very personal thing for me, so that is definitely [genuine] – and, I mean, I try not to think about what people are gonna think, like, ‘Oh, I should try and write about this kinda song.’ I don’t really think that way while I’m doing it, so that’s definitely pretty straight up.

“With the shows, it can be a little bit different I guess, ’cause people are coming out, you wanna try and please people every night, but if I’m having a weird time or if the crowd is being weird, then the mood may shift – you never know. But I try not to… I mean, I think a lot of certain aspects of my personality are blown way out of proportion; I’m kind of like an internet meme or something at this point, but you know, I try and stay true to myself. I think it’s the only way I can really stay sane doing this. But I try and keep it parallel with the outward persona or whatever that people dig into.”

For an artist like DeMarco, success brings with it a sense of freedom, at least from having to adhere to the daily rigours of nine-to-five employment. But it’s a notion DeMarco has been blessed with from the beginning, rollicking with abandon since his youth.

“I guess I have kind of always had that freedom. I mean, for me, playing music and playing shows and getting paid to do this kind of thing and going around the country, it’s not work, it’s not a job. It’s ridiculous that we’re even able to do this, and now it’s some kind of like industrial, you know, fuckin’, industry-sized whatever thing. You know, we make us money and we make other people money, and it’s like, this has always been… For me, music was always freedom from the nine-to-five job or freedom from the grocery store shift or whatever.

“It’s just the small things that really make the difference as far as keeping it the way I want it to be. The people that I work with, you know, I have to trust them … I wanna keep it close to home. I don’t wanna take tour buses, I don’t wanna do any of that kinda crazy stuff. Even playing big venues – we’ve gotten to a certain point where we’re able to play like 3,000-person venues in some cities, and that’s kind of like pushing it a little bit, and it’s like … I’d rather do a couple smaller shows than a big one,” he says. “I don’t wanna disconnect from what I’m doing and [what] the fans are coming out to see that much. I wanna keep it as down-to-earth as I can.”

In what would be a bold move for anyone in the public eye, DeMarco disclosed his home address on Another One, inviting fans to visit for a cup of coffee. Perhaps it was an existential artistic statement; perhaps he was just throwing rocks to get a response.

“I don’t know what I was thinking,” he says. “I mean, I don’t regret it in any way; I’ve learned a lot from it, but I think it was like… when I make albums, I’m alone, and especially in my neighbourhood, I did it in the winter and nobody comes down to Far Rockaway [in New York] in the winter – like, no-one. So I was very lonely this winter, all alone for months on end, and I recorded the album in that timeframe, and then put that at the end and was like, ‘Ah, there you go, maybe someone will come visit me.’ But then it turns into this big press thing and everyone’s like, ‘Look at Mac, he’s being crazy!’ And it’s like, ‘OK, that’s not really why I put it on there,’ but you know, that came out.

“And you know, people came, it was cool, but after the press thing it got really crazy, and then there’s kids coming and asking for stuff … When I did it, I wasn’t thinking about how many people would listen to it … you know, it’s hard for me. My roommates definitely feel weird about it too. I don’t know,” he says. “It’s different meeting people on the basis where they don’t already know your whole Wikipedia page; it’s a different style of human interaction at this point, which is terrifying, and interesting, and also my own fault. So I can’t really complain about it. But it is crazy.”

Like it or not, DeMarco has already managed to change the world in his own small way. It’s a neat parallel to his recently released cover version of Eric Clapton’s ‘Change The World’ for a New York City magazine’s compilation tape. And if DeMarco had the power to redefine Planet Earth on his own terms, he knows exactly where he’d start.

“I could go two ways with this. I’m gonna say I would invent a tree where hamburgers grow on the tree, fully dressed – you know, there’s veggie patties on some of them, but hamburgers, wrapped up. No wait, no overpackaging – you don’t need that – but just a tree. That grows hamburgers. Yeah.” Delicious.

[Mac DeMarco photo by Coley Brown]

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