As he gears up to release his new album, This Old Dog, Mac DeMarco stopped by Marc Maron’s podcast “WTF.” They talked in depth about DeMarco’s upbringing in the oil-rich Canadian city of Edmonton (“It’s like cold Texas—even crazier”), discussing his mom’s opera career, the reality of growing up in a “homophobic” “hockey town” where playing in a band was deemed suspect, and the mythology of an old Edmonton mall where runaway ravers supposedly reside among living penguins. Mac touches on his relationship with his dad, and how he reacted upon hearing “My Old Man,” which addresses that relationship: “He gives me a call once in a while: ‘Heard your song about me kid!’ I was like, Wait till you hear the rest, buddy.” They also discussed Mac’s amputee grandfather and his unlikely saxophone career, as well as the music of John Mayer, Jonathan Richman, Steely Dan, and Michael McDonald (with whom DeMarco recently lunched). Listen to the entire podcast here.
The episode also featured a rare conversation with Mark Lanegan, who’s promoting a tour and album. He reflected on his indoctrination into music via an Iggy Pop comic, forming a band in a small town in Washington, Screaming Trees’ signing to SST, becoming addicted to various drugs, working with Nirvana, PJ Harvey, and Isobel Campbell, and finally recouping with Sub Pop “after like 17 years” when he released his 2013 solo anthology.
This Old Dog is the follow-up to DeMarco’s mini-album Another One. It’s also his first full-length since 2014’s Salad Days, and is out May 5 via Captured Tracks. It includes the previously shared title track (and its weird video), “My Old Man,” and “On the Level.”
Read “Mac DeMarco on His Chill New Album, This Old Dog” on the Pitch.
