“I’m Like A Walking Meme”: A Chat With Mac DeMarco
"Being alive is very strange."
It’s strange to consider the fact that Mac DeMarco, sensitive singer-songwriter, and Mac DeMarco, goofy memelord, are the same person. If you’re a fan of DeMarco’s music, it’s probably easier to think about them as separate people. How could the guy who wrote ‘Still Together’ or ‘A Heart Like Hers’ also be the guy who once performed U2’s ‘Beautiful Day’ with a drum stick up his arse?
DeMarco’s latest album, This Old Dog, is his most delicate record yet, and will do nothing to clear up the conundrum of how his personality all fits together.
The album’s thirteen songs are more akin to the intimate bedroom pop released by labels like Orchid Tapes or Double Double Whammy than DeMarco’s previous work – on This Old Dog he plays with dreamy synths and quiet drum machines and forgoes his electric guitar in favour of an acoustic.
On the whole, it’s his most introspective and painful work yet. While it’s by no means a difficult listen, the album’s main concerns – the death of a loved one, broken familial ties, a breakup – feel more plainspoken (and in turn, more raw) than on any of his previous releases.
Nestled in the middle of the album is ‘Still Beating’, perhaps the most quietly tragic song in the Mac DeMarco catalogue. A typically jaunty guitar line belies the sadness of the lyrics: “I cry too, you better believe it / Honey, my heart still beats for you, even though you don’t feel it” goes the song’s hook, repeated over and over like clockwork.
Speaking to me over the phone from his home in Los Angeles, DeMarco is thoughtful and softly spoken, eager to discuss family, touring, and getting older.
A lot of your persona in the media is based around this idea of you being quite a ‘goofy’ character, but your music is actually quite straight-faced and introspective. How do you deal with that tension?
I don’t really find that there’s a tension. I think the songs, as soon as I’ve finished them or they’re on the internet or on a record or whatever, they’re not really mine anymore. It’s the same for interviews or videos or whatever else. It’s kinda up to whoever is editing it or writing it, they can mould me into whatever they want.
“I don’t read record reviews”
I don’t read anything, I don’t read record reviews. I like Instagram, but other than that I don’t really do social media. I’m putty for whoever wants to play with it. I’m like a walking meme, in a way. I think that most of the internet operates in that way, at this point.
It is funny nowadays because a lot of people, especially younger kids, haven’t necessarily heard my music, but they’ve seen me in a video or something and they’re like ‘Oh, that guy’s funny.’ It’s strange, very strange, but there’s nothing I can do about it, so I’m just going for the ride.
Do you ever feel like you’re not taken seriously enough?
It’s in the eye of the beholder. People will take one thing away from it, someone else will take another thing. Everything is there, it’s all available. As a person I talk earnestly, I can be funny, I can play a show, I can sit on my ass. I don’t really have expectations for how people see me. Just the fact that people are engaging in the first place is good enough for me, on whatever level they wanna do that.
Kids write me emails a lot and I get people laughing at the jokes but I also get a lot of people who hit me up and [are] like ‘Yo, your music really helped me through this weird thing’ and I’m like ‘Woah, that’s crazy.’ I don’t really ever find myself looking for one or the other. It’s just a crazy thing. I’m happy to be able to do it and I’m happy to see the world and hang out with my friends. It’s good.
This album deals with the dual sadness of heartbreak from a relationship ending and a family member passing away; are these threads inspired by real life, or were you aiming at hitting something more universal?
All my songs are all based on things in my life. This time I kind of didn’t make the lyrics as vague as I usually do, so it’s a bit easier to read a story, but at the same time the whole vagueness of the lyrics thing… I kinda think of it as a songwriting tool, where you don’t wanna put a diary entry out, per se, but you wanna put out something people can connect to, or reflect on in their own way. It’s funny.
With this record I wrote a lot of the songs before I [decided to make the record]. I was just thinking about what’s going on in my world, and stuff, and I didn’t think anybody would hear a lot of them. And then the time comes when you have to put everything together and you have to get it mastered and send it to the label and you’re like ‘Oh! People are gonna hear these!’ It can be a bit jarring at first, but it felt right to me.
“Being alive is very strange”
There’s a lot of stuff that had been on my mind. I’m not necessarily complaining about anything or trying to get some attention brought to it, but it’s more just me trying to understand.
There’s a lot of stuff about my family, my friends, even just being alive. Being alive is very strange. I didn’t have a long time to think about that in the last five years. It’s just an amalgamation of like, you’re off tour for six months, what are you gonna do while you’re home?
Do you worry about getting older?
Sometimes. I’m excited for it, more than anything. It can be a scary thought and it can be strange, but the part that terrifies me is when I stop and I’m just like ‘Woah, what did I do for the last five years?’.
On some level, as most human beings are at some point or another, I’m just scared of the sheer madness of being alive. Not in a bad way, just in a way that’s like ‘Wow, this is so crazy.’ It’s so beautiful, and insane, and terrifying, and great. It’s just nuts. I think more than getting old it’s about like, becoming complacent, or getting bored. I’m taking steps to not do that.
What steps are you taking?
Even in these songs – a lot of them are just check-ups on myself. I dunno. Just keeping it fresh, meeting new people. I moved to Los Angeles, that’s a change of pace for me. It’s easy, I think — I’m in a weird position, I guess — but it’s like, you do things and you get bored or you become jaded. I hope I’m not like that, but it’s just important to count your blessings.
[Music is] pretty dope, and for a lot of people [their jobs are] not as dope. So you just gotta love it, and try and be happy. That’s my motto.
—
Mac DeMarco’s new album This Old Dog is out now via Remote Control Records.
Shaad D’Souza is a freelance writer from Melbourne. Follow him on Twitter here.