Mac DeMarco is a Canadian funny quirky guy with a strange sense of humor. He did things that feels wrong yet he have a heart to apologize for his behavior to his Mum. He is a romantic person, a sweet talker (Kiki is probably will be his last, who knows?!) and a smooth rocker. He”s also a weird skank, and he doesn”t give a shit. We”ve seen him three times last week, so we decided to ask him and his buds some regular stuffs.

How does it feel to have your album receive good feedback from various medias and now you are travelling across Europe and Asia. Did you imagine as a kid that you would grow up and make music, touring the world?

Mac : Feels great. Now we”re in kuala lumpur and people paying us a lot of money nowadays. I get a lot of under aged fans now, which is pretty strange and weird but also good. I’ve known I wanted to do music for a long time, ive been doing music since I was 15/16 and at one point I thought I was gonna be a loser if I didn’t go to university, everybody’s going to university but then I started playing shows all the time and I told myself look at those fu**** jokers going to university. I’ve always wanted to do music but it never seemed like a good idea, but now it seems sort of like a good idea but its still not the best. Whatever, who gives a sh*t anyway.

You’ve been complimented as quirkier version of John Mayer, with a cool taste of music to go with not having many conventional celebs in your inspirations list. How d’you describe yourself in terms of your music taste?

Mac : Like Bruce Wayne, half man half myth [Batman voice]. Nah, I’m just here to write some lyrics and have fun. I do have some conventional musicians in my inspirations list, maybe not John Mayer/Rick Johnson. If you ask me I gotta love the Beatles. Rock & Roll baby! I’d give it to him that motherf**ker can shred though.

Tell us how did you get into Captured Tracks? Did they find you or did you find them?

Mac : I’ve been recording years and years before I ever ran into Captured Tracks. I was with a couple of record labels before that and yea they helped a bit here and there but not as much as Capture Tracks did. With Capture Tracks it was funny. I’ve been touring round the states, meeting kids and yada-yada but I met this kid in Lexington, Kentucky and he ended up moving to Brooklyn. He worked with the guys that owns Capture Tracks record store (Mike). Before that I did put my sh*I up on Myspace, Bandcamp or whatever but it was when my song played at the store, and Mike came in and heard it playing and was like “What is this”. Then I got the weird e-mail from Capture Tracks. Kinda worked in a weird way. I did try to send it out to labels but I mostly sent them out to blogs because I was like ‘I gotta get famous out of this one’ so I mass send em’ out to blogs but it never really works though, they get so many dumb e-mails like that. The plan was pretty stupid. The thing I realized with the whole ordeal is that like, who gives a f*ck anyway. Don’t make the f*cking music if you just wanna put it on blogs. Who gives a sh*t. There you go.

You’re notorious for you wild on stage behavior. You’ve gotten naked on stage once even. So is there anything at the top of your head that you’ve wanted to do on stage that hasn’t been done yet?

Mac : It’s not really about what I want to do, because I’ve never wanted to get naked on stage. I’ve never wanted to do any of these things but they just “happen”. Even the cover sets in our shows, it kinda just happens. We didn’t casino really sit down and decided to cover these classic rock songs. I did have one thing I’ve always wanted to do on stage though, which is take a full piss but my friend Trevor beat me to it at our show in Montreal a couple of weeks ago. He was in his underwear on stage and took like a full-blown piss on stage, a full piss. I’ve always thought that would be really funny but, he did it. He took a piss in front of a thousand people in his underwear. It’s f*ckin weird.

Since that’s been done, what else do you have in mind?

Mac : Drinking a donkey’s cum would be really tight but I don’t know, the thought of blowing a donkey. It’ll be pretty cool if a donkey came in from the roof slowly declining down. Okay, this is how it would have to go. I’ll start with a whaling falsetto while the donkey comes down, already erect and his d*ick just comes in. Yea that would probably be it.

You’ve stormed the Canadian music scene off late. Does Canadian music inspire you to develop your music?

Mac : A lot of Canadian bands do, there’s a lot of great Canadian bands but the great ones are not the ones anybody from the rest of the world would know. I’m not going to bad mouth anybody but the side of music where the giants are is not where I feel like we’re a part of and most of our friends aren’t really a part of. Its weird, the Canadian music industry is weird. There are giant bands and there are really little bands. There’s no middle ground.

So if you could describe the Canadian music scene in one sentence, what would it be?

Pierce : P*ssy Lickin’ Fun.

Mac : That’s great actually yea, or if you want something less explicit I’d say…pretty close to The States.

You apologized to your mom because she saw your video on Youtube. What crossed your mind when she did and did you expect her to see it?

Mac : Yea, she listens to my music. At that point I already apologized in real life, it just gave me something funny to write about. It wasn’t even her that got so pissed off, it was my Aunt that was freaking out. I just thought it would be funny. I don’t think anybody would take that apology seriously. They’d probably take it as some form of bullshit.

You’ve once said in Fact Magazine that you feel as though you have the same effect on young adolescents like Weezer did in the 1990’s. Does Weezer have an influence to your music?

Mac : I like Weezer but I’ve never actually sat down and told myself “Yea im gonna write a Weezer song”. I enjoy Weezer for what it is though its never been something I wanted to emulate. Weezer for me when I was going up was big. Kids all round we’re like “Man this band is cool” but I’ve never actually seen them live. Young kids do treat us like that. They’re just like “Yea! Party boy!”.

 Are there any particular names whom you’ve been dreaming to collaborate with in the future?

Mac : Yea, definitely. Ryuichi Sakamoto, Shuggie Otis, Michael McDonald, Donald Fagen, Bruce Wayne and Bruce Willis. Yeap that’s about it. Bruce Willis will play the harmonica on my next song, check it out, coming out soon and its going to be called “Daddy’s Day Dream”.

When I listened to his albums this summer, first thing in mind was these albums were definitely worth listen. But to be honest I was never really interested to know who is him like in person, I’ve always wanted to surprise my self when it comes to relating music to its creator, let-the-tracks-speak-for-itself kinda thing. We’re about to see him at Pitchfork festival this year but reality brought us back home, so when we knew his doing Asian tour, we just have to see who’s Mac.

We’re lucky enough to be able to review some cool festivals around, including Clockenflap Festival this year. Mac was one of the line ups on the last day, so one thing we’ve noticed was this guy likes to blend with the crowd. After their Hongkong trip, they played in Bangkok, where he and his band buds learnt how to differentiate lady boy with a regular girl.

So, last Saturday night we arrived at Home Club, Singapore when the two Kiwi’s Carb on Carb played their rock setlist, they just directly heated up the stage on the first place. Not long after them 4 piece Filipinos indie band, Bee Eyes, went up stage with their fun rock songs and a bit of pop and slacky style, loosened up the crowd. Consisting of guitarists Julius and Idris, along with drummer and bassist Miguel and Diego they played “Someone Else”, and provide what “The Best Band In The Philippines” had to offer.

Bee Eyes was pretty much impressed us, but since we were excited to see the guy who sings “Ode to Viceroy” we put down our beers and straight to the front stage. Ok not that front, but front enough to have the opportunity to touch his butt (d’uh!). We were totally amazed by how sweet his songs are, yet how crazy he is in real. The only thing on my mind was who the fuck is this guy? Mac alongside with his (also) talented band buds, Pierce McGarry (bassist / Walter TV and weird video maker), Peter Sagar (guitarist / Homeshake) and Joe McMurray (drum) totally introduced us to the wilderness of Canada. Remind us again where the heck Drake comes from?

The setlist was pretty much the same as in the festival or other small gigs like in Bangkok. Which is very nice, it gave the impression that he doesn’t differentiate the crowds. Starting with “Cooking Up Something Good”, continued with “The Stars Keep On Calling My Name”, “Rock and Roll Night Club”, “Ode to Viceroy”, “Annie”, “Freaking Out the Neighborhood” and making funny jokes (while trying hard to make the crowd go wild) with “Baby’s Wearin’ Blue Jeans” and did his thing by crowd surfing in the middle of “Still Together”. The Gig was pretty much chilled out rock n roll night. After the gig we had the chance to chat with the bands. So might as well say saturday night well spent!

Not much different with Singapore, when we headed to The Bee, in Kuala Lumpur. Just face it, nobody likes Mondays. It’s always a day associated with stress, anxiety, and fatigue but this monday wasn’t just any ordinary monday. After our interview with Mac and his buds, we knew today will be the day where fans of Mac DeMarco can remember as the night where they can go back to the rock and roll night!

Bee Eyes was also opening for Mac DeMarco that night. After an eight song set, Bee Eye’s gets the crowd to let DeMarco know that they’re ready for him. And from the moment DeMarco and the band walked up the stage we foresaw the show to be as raw as possible. “We love rock & Roll, and we hope you do too” professed DeMarco to greet the floor. He unhooked the barrier lines and called forward every soul in the room to move up (not forgetting to smoke in the midst) and start rocking to “Cookin Up Something Good”, this time “Rock & Roll Night Club” came next, with an end unexpected to all. Pierce wrapped up the song with a screamo-ish spinoff, engulfing our inner rock demons to claw out. 3 songs in and it’s already a floor-quaking show. DeMarco loves his casual intermissions between songs to interact with the floor, or call it smoke breaks even, they even dedicated the next song to the couture brand, Dolce & Gabbana. Gracing the band with “Ode to Viceroy”, Lead guitarist, DeMarco shreds an intense guitar solo, one of many at least. Jumping across the stage and kneeling down, emotion is well apparent throughout the set.

After playing “Annie”, the venue became an open mic night. DeMarco decides to “Shake it up” and pass the mic to someone in the crowd, singing along to “Stairway To Heaven”. By this point it was like being in their very own garage chilling together drinking beers listening to their music. The lack of boundaries gave the opportunity for the crowd to interact with the band with freedom. “My Kind Of Woman” followed after, relaxing the crowd while they sing to every lyric.

Climaxing the show with “She’s Really All I Need” meshed together with an electrifying guitar solo emulating the greats. From here on, it was full on rock and roll, but with a twist. Pierce announces that there were only two songs left, evidently lying. Stirring things up and not following the rule book is just their style, not to mention the extensive swearing to cherry the feel. Stringing together his song together with a cover of Status Quo’s “Takin’ Care Of Business” slyly changing the lyrics from “You get up every morning/From your alarm clock’s warning” to “Wake up in the morning/Suck my dads cock”. Jumping from Limp Bizkits “Break Stuff” to The Beatles “Blackbird” to a heavy metal scream of “Stairway To Heaven”. It didn’t make sense, but it somewhat did because the audience was just into the whole ensemble reciprocating DeMarco’s humor. Whatever you’d expect to see at a gig is present, but twisted in all sorts and shapes to DeMarco’s liking, ending his set crowd surf during “Still Together”

Justifying DeMarco’s statement at the start, we do love rock and roll. Infused with his slackery, sloppy style of music. He just bled out effortless charisma and charm, turning this not-so-ordinary Monday to a raw, interactive massacre of fun.

By the end of the days, we know now there’s something noteworthy about Canada besides Ryan Gosling, Robin Scherbatsky and Chuck Hughes.

[Text: Dorothy/Zafran. Photo: Dorothy/Kristy Chong]