Madison DubeFew artists willingly give out their address to their fans, and even fewer include an open invitation for coffee with that.
Mac DeMarco is different though. His laid-back mini-LP, Another One, ends on an open invite that goes, “Stop on by, I’ll make you a cup of coffee.” The album’s brought DeMarco closer to his listeners, literally — around 600 people have taken up the offer. They’ve brought the artist all sorts of gifts. Some are as simple as a mug, while others are less standard, like tobacco plants and musical instruments.
“You’ve gotta be a special kind of person to take somebody up on an offer like that,” he says. “And so I’ve met a lot of cool people and I’ve met a lot of weird people but I don’t regret it.”
Conversations with DeMarco’s visitors have ranged from long and deep to awkward and “just wanting to get a photo.” It’s fine either way, Demarco says.
For the past couple years, DeMarco’s home has been New York. It’s fast-paced in comparison to Canada. And expensive, he says.
“It’s got its own flavour and it’s got its own thing going on,” he says. “There’s tons of Canadians, Australians, Chinese people, Europeans … It’s just a huge crazy zone.”
There was no clear goal of Another One. Writing the album has been more about self-reflection for DeMarco, which is really the only time he has to himself. Though writing is his hobby, touring for most of the past four years hasn’t given DeMarco too much time to write. He’s only able to write when he’s alone, and only alone in the snippet of time where he’s not on tour.
“(Writing is) a reflection period for having been away and from having been on the road for so long,” he says.
Another One was written with a more whimsical tone than his past work. Instead of trying to write songs with meaning, DeMarco just wrote to reflect how he’s been feeling lately, which he describes as “lovey-dovey.”
“I just had some fun writing some songs and if people want to take them and use them for their own devices they can,” DeMarco says. “The last album I did a lot of ‘This is about this,’ and ‘This is about that,’ and this time I just kind of decided that’s not really that important.”
DeMarco’s time in New York has opened him up to many different influences. So many different bands roll through, making the music scene “oversaturated.” It’s a way to try new, cool things, he says. In the future, he might leave the city, but he might not.
“It’s kind of always up in the air for me,” he says.
DeMarco has been touring Canada recently, including a recent Halloween performance in Vancouver. It’s been a few years since the band has performed on Halloween, in costume. This year’s theme was Star Wars — the entire band went as Darth Maul. It was funny, so it was worth it in the end, DeMarco says.
“If one person does Darth Maul then it’s not funny,” he says. “But if (everyone) does Darth Maul then I think that’s kind of funny.”
