Mac DeMarco embarked on a long drive and brought home a collection of instrumental recordings from his time on the road.
Mac DeMarco has just released his 5th album Five Easy Hot Dogs today. CD/digital streaming is available now, with the Vinyl release landing in stores or via Mac’s Record Label on May 12th.
Chatting with xsnoize about his forthcoming album, De Marco shares “The plan was to start driving north, and not go home to Los Angeles until I was done with a record. Kind of like being on tour, except there, weren’t any shows, and I’d just be burning money.”
The tracklist is ordered chronologically, to match the road he travelled whilst recording the album, and each song was recorded and mixed in each city he stopped at, making for a very immersive experience, both for him, and he hopes for the listener.
“Some places I stayed longer in than others, some of them I knew from the past, others not so much. I tried to keep things busy all the time. If I didn’t know what was up in a city, I’d just walk around ‘til someone recognized me and go from there. I met a lot of interesting people this way, and had a bunch of cool experiences.”
“I had my guitars with me, a bass, a weird little drum kit with a kick drum we sawed in half in Golden Gate Park, all the stands and cabling I’d need, a couple of mics, an old model D, and a TX7.
I wound up picking a bunch of stuff as I went as well, trying to keep it as travel friendly as possible though.”
DeMarco’s recording excursion started out in California and took him around North America before wrapping up in Utah, where the singer songwriter had booked an oversized cabin, which amounted to one of those regrettable moments.
“It probably could have slept about 20 people, but instead it was just me withdrawing from nicotine with a bunch of taxidermy animals all over the place. No other humans for probably 50 miles in any direction. Horrible idea. I lasted one night and went back to Los Angeles the next day.
When I first got back home, I felt as though I had given up on my idea and failed to finish what I was trying to do. But that’s all dog shit.
The nature of ripping around and recording and traveling in this manner doesn’t lend well to sitting around and planning or thinking about what it was that I was setting out to do. I didn’t ever have a sound in mind, or a theme or anything, I would just start recording. Luckily the collection of recordings from this period all shake hands, they have a present musical identity as a whole. I was in it while I was in it, and this is what came out of it, just the way it was.”
“This record sounds like what rolling around like that feels like. I hope you enjoy.”
Five Easy Hot Dogs is out now (CD/digital) and May 12th (vinyl) on Mac’s Record Label.
Five Easy Hot Dogs Tracklist
- Gualala
- Gualala 2
- Crescent City
- Portland
- Portland 2
- Victoria
- Vancouver
- Vancouver 2
- Vancouver 3
- Edmonton
- Edmonton 2
- Chicago 1
- Chicago 2
- Rockaway
