Mac DeMarco
photo: raph_ph · cc by 2.0 ↗Vernor Winfield McBriare Smith IV grew up in Edmonton and Vancouver before settling in Montreal, where his 2012 EP Rock and Roll Night Club and full-length 2 introduced a persona equal parts jokey and vulnerable, wrapped around a woozy, chorus-pedal guitar sound he has called 'jizz jazz.' Salad Days (2014) refined that lo-fi, warbly aesthetic into a genuine touchstone for a generation of bedroom-pop and R&B producers, Steve Lacy among them, who has specifically cited DeMarco as a production influence.
DeMarco has named Neil Young among the artists who shaped him, and Young's plainspoken, slightly ragged singer-songwriter mode echoes through DeMarco's own unfussy acoustic material.
listen forSet Young's weathered 'Old Man' beside DeMarco's 'My Kind of Woman' — both trade studio polish for a warm, conversational vocal that sounds like it's aimed at one specific person.
DeMarco has cited Jonathan Richman among his influences; Richman's plainspoken, unguarded songwriting and DIY charm — turning goofy, everyday observations into disarmingly sincere pop songs — maps closely onto DeMarco's own persona.
listen forRichman's chugging, minimal 'Roadrunner' and DeMarco's driving 'Ode to Viceroy' both ride a simple repeated guitar figure under a narrator who sounds thrilled just to be describing his surroundings.
DeMarco has named Shuggie Otis among his favorite artists; the loose, psychedelic-soul guitar tone and hazy, largely self-recorded feel of Otis's early-'70s material runs parallel to DeMarco's own laid-back home-recording sound.
listen forThe dreamy, reverb-soaked guitar of Otis's 'Strawberry Letter 23' and DeMarco's equally hazy 'Freaking Out the Neighborhood' both float over a slack, unhurried groove.