Velvet April 2017 | Page 4

Sheep’s Clothes, seem to set a much more toned down and personal vibe than any of his previous work. Whilst discussing whether he struggled with revealing so much of himself within the lyrics of This Old Dog, he mentions that it was almost accidental. “Because I wrote a lot of the songs without thinking about them being made into a record, I wasn’t thinking about how I was gonna play them to a bunch of people. You don’t put up quite as much of a barrier when you’re writing songs for the fun of writing them.” However, Mac DeMarco reveals that he’s completely comfortable with the content of the album, as he’s happiest with his music when it’s at its most honest. “I’m not afraid of it I guess, well I mean I am in some ways, but it’ll be 3 fine.” This Old Dog is driven by acoustic guitars, l a y e r e d with drum machines and video g a m e - like synth keyboard patterns, with the majority of melodies on the album having an incredibly soothing and simplistic sound. The singer concludes that this is largely due to the artists that he was listening to whilst writing the album. “There was a lot of James Taylor and Paul Simon, mostly acoustic guitar/songwriter musicians. I’ve also been stuck on this Japanese synthesiser music hype for the last three years or so, and that’s generally the sound that I tend to move towards the most.” Before I even ask, Mac DeMarco starts to tell me about the artwork for the record - as if he feels the need to justify its’ doodles and scribbles. “I just drew it in my kitchen one day, actually…” Originally, he had an old photo from a trip to Disneyland with his girlfriend that he wanted to use, but his team and himself became rather terrified at the thought of a lawsuit from Disney, as it featured a Mickey Mouse Doll. “…But the drawing just felt right to me. It fits the album and reminds me of how I used to do things many moons ago” - referring to the hand drawn artwork included in the CD booklets of Salad Days and it’s predecessor, debut album 2. " Album leaks are a fact of life as a musician " During his Coachella set the day before, Mac DeMarco addressed the issue of This Old Dog having been leaked onto the internet, almost an entire month before it’s official release date. Unlike many other artists of this era, he seems to brush it off relatively easily. “It’s out of my hands, and I, personally, don’t care. Although I’m pretty sure my record label cares. But it’s happened before with both of my previous albums, and I guess it’s just an effect of the internet nowadays and a fact of life as a musician.” H a v i n g performed an intimate solo gig just two weeks ago at London’s Nambucca, and due to play multiple shows next month in the UK as part of his tour for This Old Dog, the musician speaks about his fears of per forming the new record live, as “the songs don’t sound quite like they do on the record” because of the impossibility of recreating d r u m machines and certain synth sounds in a live setting. “Although my band and I have played a bunch of the new songs over the last week during a couple of shows we’ve done and it’s working out cool - I’m enjoying it.” Mac DeMarco returns to the UK for two shows at Brixton’s O2 Academy, London on the 30th and 31st May, and for End of The Road Festival 2017 from 31st August- 3rd September Written by Tatjana Harrington-Steward 4