For anyone who has called past the Drift shop in the last 12 months, you will doubtless have heard Mac DeMarco’s second album “2”, we’ve played it. A lot. It’s a record that never quite lets on how much it’s joking, and that is its disarming charm.
MAC. Illustrated by Nik Greasy.
They don’t let up live either, DeMarco and his backing band belch, swagger and strut through the album, firing off love songs and ballads amongst cover songs and screaming guitar solos. It all looks like they’re having a lot of fun. We called up Mac during a rare moment of downtime from touring to talk about the live show, the reception to his album and of course... record shops.
Deluxe: We managed to catch you twice during the SXSW week. You looked progressively more mad, how was the week for you?
Mac Demarco: It was really, really nuts. We’d been touring for quite a few months before that: we did like two months in the states right before the record came out and no one was coming out to those shows, so that was kinda weird, but also kinda mellow as it wasn’t too hectic; then we went to Europe, then we went to SXSW, so ‘south by’ was right in the middle of the two so it was a little bit crazy. I don’t know, man, I was drinking way too much and it was way too hot... slept in the car most nights, I think people could tell as the shows went on. We played like sixteen shows so maybe one in five was pretty good, but some I was just like yelling at the crowd... I was completely trashed... getting drunk five times a day at different shows.
D: I managed to talk my way into the Captured Tracks showcase in Austin. I got pretty close to the front and you seemed pretty loaded... Did muscle memory just kick in?
MD: [Laughing] That show especially: I had a beer rash, I got an allergic reaction from the beer I was drinking and my face was all blood shot... and yeah, it was essentially muscle memory as it was the last show of the whole week and we just ran through what we were doing, but in-between shows we were all like, “what the fuck are we doing?!”
D: The audiences are getting bigger, how much of this is down to hard work and how much of this is down to the killer reviews? Or is it a balancing act? - I mean, a great record will find an audience eventually right?
MD: I think it was defiantly partly the reviews, a big part of it really. We played a handful of shows opening for bands at like Bowery Ballroom, Musical Hall and some bigger shows in New York... you know it’s funny. Before you get in the Pitchfork realm... playing music, live, is about trying to impress people. So when you get a big review and you’re playing a show, it’s like people don’t really give a shit, you know, how good the show is... maybe they don’t? It’s weird, you start selling out venues and people have no idea what the live show is gonna be like, it’s all just based on hype. Luckily, we have some bullshit that we do that people like, also the internet side of things. There’s a video of us playing in the Pitchfork offices. That video made A LOT of eighteen year olds very interested. That was like eight/nine months ago and they still come and scream stuff at us that we said when we were playing half drunk at two in the afternoon on some stream... we have a very strange effect on some young men.
D: You’ve been playing pretty constantly all year - I saw you break out ‘Take Five’ (by Dave Brubeck), I also heard a live recording with you guys running through a medley of covers. Is this primarily for your own amusement?
MD: I think the medley is a strange thing to me... doing something like that every single night. People get excited when we do it, it’s fun and stuff, but it’s also like, good god, this is so silly, we’re covering Metallica and it’s ridiculous. Initially me and my guys were playing shows to no one who gave a fuck for a pretty long time and it’s just us trying to entertain each other. It started as us trying to just have a laugh and now it’s become part of the set, a thing. One of my things about live shows is that they shouldn’t be that serious. I couldn’t even play the songs like they are on the record if I tried. Half of them are slowed down and I sing really soft... so first off it’s always going to be different. I think it makes it more inviting for people if people aren’t... well, scared. You know, when they go to a show and they’re like, “this band’s really cool” and I’m just gonna go and cross my arms and stand by the wall over there. We’re not like that, we’re not cool guys. Just come and relax, I guess that’s why people get this weird attachment to us.
D: Touring can be pretty hard [it was Peter’s birthday on the day of the Driskill for example] besides the good bits on stage, how do you make it bearable?
MD: [Laughing] He was so drunk.... it’s weird, but it’s like the best job ever. I try to drink less, I cut back a lot. Also, on the intake of other unnamed substances. I’m the only one who drives on the tours. All the other guys have like expired licenses or yadda yadda yadda... so for me, waking up and trying to pop like study pills to drive all day then play a fucking show, it rots your brain. It’s still fun but you gotta look out, you can end up getting pretty sick and fucking yourself up pretty badly. It’s also hard when a load of kids come up after and they’re like, “we know you’re a party guy... come with us, we’ve got like a bong and a case of beer.. lets do it!!” Man, I’m like, “I did this every night this week.” I also try and avoid McDonalds and all that other shit.
“Mike Snipper, get that fucking Adams Family pinball table or I’m lIke outta here”
D: Where did you grow up? And which record shops (or outlets) were your earliest experiences?
MD: I grew up in a city called Edmonton, in Alberta, Canada. As far as record shops went there, when I was really young I’d go to the HMV and buy like “AC/DC BACK IN BLACK REISSUE TO BLACK CD $10 DEAL” and I was like, “wow this is pretty cool”, but I got older and I’d finally realise that I could go to the cool street in town and there was a place called Blackford Music and I remember going in the first couple of times and I was like, “this isn’t like HMV?!” the clerk looks so cool, and he’s playing something really cool over the stereo too. So I grew up and became part of the music community and a lot of my friends started working there. It was a great sport, I bought like loads of my first CD’s there. Well... [laughing] what we’d actually do is go to the thrift store, Value Village, and we’d get a load of CD’s that I wouldn’t necessarily listen to, but were in good enough shape for them to take at the record store. So we’d steal them all from the vintage store and take them all over there and get store credit with our stolen shit so we could get what we wanted.
D: Do you remember the first record you bought and format?
MD: Yeah, when I was first trying to buy vinyl (I mean, my mum had some records kicking around and I had some Beatles records...) but going in there, I think I got… it was right when the French disco thing was really kicking off... and it hit my little city by storm and kids were going crazy. I didn’t really get it but I already liked Justice and stuff so I got a Phoenix single 12”. I also got Thom Yorke’s ‘Eraser’ I think, and some Pavement and Black Flag.
D: Have you played in record stores much? Good times?
MD: What, like instore shows? Yeah, we’ve done a few. It really depends on which store and how equipped they are to having you play. I tried to book a show in Winnipeg on one of the old self-booked tours like 4 years ago and we ended up playing in a store. In that instance no one knew we were playing and no one knew who we were or why we were playing, you know, trying to get on with their shopping for Christmas presents and shit. Afterwards, they were like, “yo, we can’t pay you, but you can have like $20 store credit” so we all got Robin Williams comedy albums for the 30 hour drive coming up. Some are good though, what is that store in Toronto... Sonic Boom. Man, they had like a stage and shit. That was great.
D: Do you still shop regularly, and if so, where?
MD: I’ve been on the run so much that I usually don’t get time, but when we do... there is a place in Montreal called ‘La Fin Du Vinyle’, they have a discount bin... new stock too, but you can spend a day there. Get on a little milk crate and dig through... you can find some seriously crazy shit. Mike from Captured Tracks owns a store in Greenpoint in Brooklyn called Co-Op 87 and they have a lot of cool stuff in there. He’s also starting a new Captured Tracks store soon. He made me move a bunch of records in for the opening, they’re gonna have a lot of stock... broke my fucking back... it was alright.
D: So Captured is the 360 label then, you’re humping ass to move vinyl?
MD: Hell ya, we’re all friends, I just pop in when ever I can. I’m like, “do you have merch for me?” and they’re like “no, maybe next time”... but nah, they’re great. One problem though, you’re Captured Tracks and you’re opening a record store, what one thing do you need to put in there? A fucking pin ball table! Mike was playing with the idea of getting an Addams Family pinball table and now he’s fucking retracted that idea cause it will be noisy and take up too much real estate and stuff. You know what, you want one fucking quote for this article: Mike Snipper, get that Fucking Addams Family pinball table or I’m like outta here.
I think it’d be great, I mean you’d be getting in all these other people and pinball nerds and those guys would get into the records and shit.
This interview ran in print in Deluxe Issue Four, first published in 2013.