Top 90 Quotes & Sayings by Mac DeMarco - Page 2

I'm not very good at playing piano, so I usually hit chords with my right hand. And those chords came, and I was just singing a little bit.

My music is kind of laid back, it doesn't have super crispy, shiny production, and I'm not singing my heart out or whatever. But that whole idea of blogs declaring: "this is the new denomination for this sound" is ridiculous to me.

I've recorded at home since I was a teenager, and I'm able to sit here in my underwear and keep trying different things until something works. I think if I did that in a studio the engineer would be like, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

[My House By The Water] is a nice instrumental track. The sound of the water is from the same place where the front photo was taken. I live really close to the airport, so there's also planes going over. It's kind of to remind me of living in there, because I'm not gonna be living in there for very much longer.

Connan Mockasin from New Zealand. I met him a little while ago, I love his music.

I do like touring. Sometimes it's crazy. We're really lucky and we've gone all over the world. You can't complain about getting paid to see the world. I've had to reel myself in a little bit at some points.

I never liked living in Montreal. And I don't really like the music scene there. It was never my cup of tea, and I never felt like I ever fit in.

If I feel like I'm going too far in one direction, I just can it. It's a weird thing. Some of my songs might be cheesy; I try and keep it light. It's hard to explain.

It was weird [touring with them]. It felt more like we were playing for Phoenix. They asked us because they're fans of what we do.

With the "old dog" stuff, maybe the term "old" is in there, but I'm 26. I'm not that old. It's mostly like, "Ah, you dirty old dog!" I'm saying it more like that. I'm still ripping. I'm ready to rip. I'll make a bunch more records and have a nice time. We'll see what happens.

I recorded this album in a windowless room in Brooklyn by myself. I think Chamber of Reflection sums the album up better than Salad Days to tell you the truth.

I didn't want to play music because the whole family did it. I wanted to work in a cubicle. I saw Office Space as a young tween and missed the point of the movie. I was like, "This looks good!".

[Making music] only turned into this weird job in the last year or so. Once I figured that out, I was having a blast.

I'm getting paid to tour and travel and I don't have to work a shitty job. And it's weird because you like start getting pissed off about that.

I thought I knew Elton John, but then it was like, "Woah, Elton's a pimp! He's really amazing." And since Billy and Elton are homies, I'm finally getting it - the two piano boys.

I've never done an album in the same place really - I like to be able to remember where I did every single one of them .

I mean, Manhattan is cool. But weird parts, I like that. Jamaica, Queens, that's great.

I don't think anybody has a choice. Everybody has to kind of interact with all the craziness right now. I don't like to engage - a lot of people made a point of doing the social media thing, and I think that social media is complete trash, so I treat it like that. I like Instagram. I like the funny photos. Other than that, it's not for me.

Over a year before I started recording Salad Days, so I finally sat down and was like I have to do this. And it did feel like a chore. I was looking at it in a completely wrong way, trying to one up myself. Just the typical sophomore album bullshit. The main thing I got out of it is I eventually gave up on all that stuff. I had to re-learn why I liked making music in the first place, why I liked recording in my room all the time. Because it's fun. It's fun for me.

Going on tour, you don't have a lot of time to mull things over. You're just kind of, "Another beer, another show, another song."

We went on tour with Phoenix. I don't really know anything about Phoenix I'd heard a couple songs. And I thought, I don't really know if I want to go on this, it's kind of weird, kind of a pain in the ass for us. But everyone was like YOU HAVE TO DO IT, it's going to be so good for your career. And I mean I don't know if it was good for our career but the guys in the band were super huge sweethearts.

[Chamber of Reflection off of Salad Days]I think it's probably that one. There's no guitar on that song, I've never recorded a song with absolutely no guitar, which is interesting. The idea behind it, well it's a Free Mason reference because before they become Free Mason's they had to go into this room called the Chamber of Reflection where they think about the life they brought with them, the life they've lived up until this point and all their wrong and right doings. And that's basically what I did with this album.

I get asked that a lot: "What do you think your role is, with all the people that look up to you?" I'm an entertainer, you know? I'm not trying to bombard anybody with anything, but at the same time, face-to-face or in real life, if I'm talking to some kid, I have opinions just like everybody else does.

I do get labeled as a guitar band, but the only reason is that's the instrument I know how to play. The guitar is serving the song I'm writing. But I'm learning how to play keyboard better now so that'll start serving the song as well; it'll be another flavor. I'm not going to switch it up with big, fat drum machine beats and real swoopy synths, but yeah...

I mean it was weird. But Phoenix watched us every night. But it's like they're not even a band, they're like a corporation. They bring a staff of like 40 people.

I think recording at home feels more organic, and injects some more personality into the music.

I lived in Brooklyn for a year and I moved out to Rockaway Beach. I've been living here for two years now. I put my address on the album, so I have a lot of visitors all the time.

[Juan Wauters] got the tips for Queens because he grew up there.So him and my roommate, Matt Volz, they hooked me up, New York Style.

[ If I wasn't making music ] I'd probably end up going to school, I never went to school. Or just give up and get my plumber's ticket and move back to Edmonton and become an alcoholic.

Their [Phoenix] audience wasn't into us at all. The way most of the venues worked was there was no alcohol on the floor so usually during our set most people were in the lobby getting their drink on.