On stage, DeMarco is invariably a bastion of uplifting spirit, even in the wake of the heavily introspective Salad Days. Is DeMarco acting up there? “The recording – definitely no. I mean, I’m at home doing it, it’s a very personal thing for me. I try not to think about what people are going think, like ‘Oh, I should try and write this kind of song. I don’t really think that way while I’m doing it, so that’s definitely pretty straight up,” he says. “The shows can be a little bit different I guess, ’cause you know, people are coming out, you want to 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. I think certain aspects of my personality are blown way out of proportion. I’m kind of like an Internet meme at this point. But 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 that people dig into.”
With success comes freedom, at least an ostensible sense of freedom. But even before reaching international acclaim, DeMarco has been rollicking with abandon.
“I guess I have always had that freedom,” he says. “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 fuckin’ industry-sized whatever thing. We make us money and we make other people money. For me music was always freedom from the nine-to-five job, or freedom from the grocery store shift or whatever. It is crazy now that it is my full, full gig.
“For me it’s just the small things that really make the difference, as far as keeping it the way I want it to be. Like the people that I work with, I have to trust them. Say managers or booking agents, yada yada yada, tour managers, sound people, whatever –just small things, I want to keep it close to home. I don’t want to take tour buses; I don’t want to do any of that kind of crazy stuff. Even playing big venues, we’ve gotten to a certain point where we’re able to play 3000-person venues in some cities, and that’s kind of pushing it a little bit. I’d rather do a couple smaller shows than a big one. I want to keep it as down to earth as I can.”
In a bold, but typical move, DeMarco disclosed his home address on Another One’s closing track My House By The Water.Perhaps it was an existential artistic statement, perhaps he was just throwing rocks to see a response.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” he says. “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 the winter. So I was very lonely this winter, all alone for months on end, and I recorded the album in that time frame, 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.
“People came, it was cool, but after the press thing it got really crazy and then there’s kids coming and asking for stuff. I mean it’s cool, but when I did it I wasn’t thinking about how many people would listen to it. My roommates definitely feel weird about it too. 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.”
Recently released on a compilation, DeMarco indulged in his overt dad-rock inclinations with a take on Eric Clapton’s Change The World. So how would he change the world? “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 over packaging, you don’t need that. But just a tree, that grows hamburgers. Yeah.”
BY RICK WICKMAN
