More laid-back than a sunbed. More welcoming than a big bouquet of roses. More goofy than Goofy. MAC DEMARCO is all that, yet so much more. Hyper-talented, for example. Even though he is fond of the anything-goes ethic, and may personify the slacker kind of indie singer-songwriter, his songs are often more thoughtful, sincere and refined than what they first might appear. On stage he is the unpredictable show man, altering between raucous humour, crazy antics, mellow tenderness and genuine talent. For the last couple of years and records he has turned to a more downtempo, even minimal, approach to music – as evident on his latest album ‘Here Comes the Cowboy’ (2019). But at the core of it all remains the lo-if production and the typical spaghetti guitar sound we’ve always loved. It’ll be a thrill to have him at Way Out West, it’s always a blast to have Mac around.
Nowadays he resides in Los Angeles. Mac moved there from Brooklyn, but his passport is Canadian, birthplace: Duncan, a small town in British Columbia. In his late teens he moved to Vancouver and it was there he got into music for real, before heading to Montreal where he signed with the New York-based indie label Captured Tracks. After the mini-album ‘Rock and Roll Night Club’, he released his first full-length album ‘2’ which was named ”Best New Music” by Pitchfork and things took off. Album number two, ‘Salad Days’, became his breakthrough and now he is established as a loose but lovable indie rock troubadour.
MAC DEMARCO will play at Way Out West on Thursday 13th August.
FLOATING POINTS is the DJ, producer and composer whose real name is Sam Shepherd. He spent five years engineering his debut album ‘Elaenia’ (released in 2015), while deejaying in cities across the world and working with his PhD in neuroscience. Last year’s follow-up took him five weeks make. Partly a return to the club music he grew up with, ‘Crush’ mixes beats-building with a more contemplative side off his composing skills. Synthesizers such as Buchla, Eurorach and Rhodes Chroma and support slots for The xx provided the catalysts for the record. This August, Floating Points will be bringing his live set to the Linné stage.
Though raised in Manchester, Shepherd’s music is very much shaped by the electronic music scene in London during the late 2000s. Parts of the ‘Crush’ album is the result of him going back to the songs and sounds he played at clubs such as Fabric and Plastic People. Or, as he said: ”I wanted to capture the immediacy of that music and the feeling that I got when I was on the dancefloor.”
FLOATING POINTS will play at Way Out West on Saturday 15th August.