The Mac DeMarco Interview
What gear Mac is currently obsessed with, the importance of being able to buy the same thing multiple times, selling a pair of Vans for $20,000, and more!
Mac DeMarco is a Canadian singer-songwriter who has birthed some of the most classic indie tunes, including Chamber Of Reflection, My Kind of Woman, and my personal favorite, Passing Out Pieces.
Mac recently released his sixth studio album, “Guitar”, which you can catch on his world tour that him and the band have just begun. As much as I’d love to talk about the music, I’m more interested in finding out what gear Mac is currently obsessed with.
A few weeks ago, we had a chance to hang out before his tour at his secret oasis by the ocean. During this time, Mac prepared for tour by rehearsing with the band early, and then the rest of the day consisted of wholesome activities like fishing, swimming in the ocean, or fixing up his home.
In today’s interview, I spoke to Mac about his signature look, what clothes he’s bringing with him on tour, selling a pair of his Vans for $20,000, stuff he’s obsessed with right now, the importance of being able to buy the same thing multiple times, and more.
SNL: For the people at home, what are you wearing today?
Mac DeMarco: “Today, I'm wearing a pair of Vans Authentics in red...I think that's what those ones are? I think so, yeah they are Authentics. Blue socks from Uniqlo. They have holes in them. They're ready soon for the garbage. On the legs, we've got Prison Blues jeans. I think they're the rigid blue wash, but they've been with me for about a year, so they're a bit tattered now. For the t-shirt I have one from Yazbek in heather gray. Underneath, Uniqlo boxer shorts. Baggy. Blowy.
Ah, in the back pocket, my record label, custom wallet. Amazon Wallet with a badge glued onto it. Nothing too crazy, but hey, does the trick. What else am I wearing. A hat. ‘Advice From a Geyser’. Brandless. Made in Bangladesh, one size fits most. I had to start wearing this hat when the Oilers absolutely took a dump on the Stanley Cup this year. I didn't want to do it anymore.”
The Oilers will bring the cup home one day…maybe.
“Nope.”
You're about to embark on a world tour with 50 stops. Clothing wise, how do you pack for something like that?
“I have two pairs of these Prison Blues jeans. They're exactly the same. I'm gonna take the Vans I'm wearing right now. Just the one pair. I'm gonna take seven pairs of these socks. They may be these or I might do the Smartwool, haven't decided yet. Usually I take more than seven, but this time I'm gonna take seven pairs of this exact identical underwear I'm wearing. And seven pair of this exact Yazbeck shirt in heather gray. They're all going to be the same. Maybe I'll up the numbers depending on what I got back home in L.A.
I'll take the Geyser hat, I'll probably take my Oilers hat, and I've got a belt that I will take, and I think that will be it. I might take maybe two Russell hoodies, but not vintage Russell, brand new off Amazon. Other than that, I guess it'll have to change when we get to Canada, but I'll probably just buy something at Mark's when we land.”
For the people at home, can you explain what Mark's is?
“Mark's Wearhouse is actually a strictly Canadian phenomenon. Maybe they have something similar in the UK, I don't know, but in the States, there's nothing similar. It used to be called Mark's Work Wearhouse, and it's a place to get clothes for people that work.
I don't remember a time in my life that didn't have Mark's in it, and one of my favourite things about Mark's is that the employees will not help you while you're in there, which is good. All the stock is just on the shelves, so you can spend a couple hours in there.”
Has your signature red Vans and cuffed jeans look evolved or are you still sticking to your roots?
“I stopped cuffing my jeans. Big moment for me.”
Why?
“Because I think I looked like a five year old boy. I'm 35 now (laughs). I don't know, I do like a short pant but I don't want to cuff them.”
So you just woke up one day and said, I have to stop the cuff.
“You know what it was, I had these motorcycle pants you can't cuff. They are made out of like bulletproof steel or whatever. So it was like I needed to figure out not living in a cuffed world anymore, so I didn't feel weird in those pants.
Motorcycle gear is tough for me. I want to be safe, but I want to look like me, you know? It's hard to do. I go this place Aerostitch that makes full suits. I got them to make the pants and the arms on the jacket super short. It's not safe. I made them to make it not safe, so I felt normal.”
Was Aerostitch against making pants that short?
“They do adjustments. I just had to pretend that I was a lot shorter than I was on the phone. Because they want to do the right thing to keep you safe. Not the fashionable thing.”
People online used to describe your style as "bum-chic". What do you think it is now?
“My style now is kind of grease stains. I think I'm like, if what's his nuts from Apple? If Steve Jobs was a tradesman. That's where I'd like to land. Cause he wore the same thing every day. I do too, and I remember when I started doing it, I thought it was weird but I don't even think about it anymore.”
Was getting dressed or trying to pick something to wear become difficult for you at any point?
“No. It's fun. You know, the feeling when you get a new vintage thing, and you're like, ohh, this is cool. But I get a fear immediately that it's like, well how am I gonna find another one of these when this one’s destroyed? What I need is something that I can get again and again because I'm really hard on stuff. It's the same with guitars, cars, tools, everything.”
What about hats? You’re someone who’s gone through many of them.
“See, but that's tricky because hats kind of suck now. We went through so much trying to make the merch for this tour, trying to find just like a blank that didn’t suck. It's really hard. I don't know what happened to everything.
It's tricky for me too, because my head is huge. So I want the shape to fit my head, but then like most of the kids buying them say "why is this hat so big? Or, "I like this shirt that we do the merch on, we use the Yazbek shirt, and it fits my body good, but I'm sure other kids are like, what the f-ck is this piece of sh-t t-shirt? Clothes are f-cked.”
I heard kids often steal your hats at shows. How does that happen?
“I'll tell you exactly how it happens. A lot of hats get thrown on a stage during the show. My hat comes off at some point, you know, maybe I go crowd surfing or whatever. A lot of the time, I would leave it on the stage when we would go off for the encore after the end of the show. And then all these kids start asking the security guards, like, ‘Can you give me my hat? That's my hat.’ And then they take my hat. It's very smart, very sneaky.
Sometimes they come up and just take it, though. A kid came up to me once, looked me in the eyes, picked my hat off and chucked it into the crowd.”
You've always come across as someone who doesn't overthink their fashion choices. Has that approach evolved or has it remained the same?
“I've kind of dressed the same since I was like 18, with tiny tweaks here and there. I feel like I don't care, like I'm pretty easy going about it, but then, I remember there was this one scenario where my pants got all f-cked up or something, or maybe they were soaking wet or something. And I had to wear a bunch of Keira's dad’s clothes for a day. And it was like the most f-cked up I've ever felt, you know? Cause it wasn't mine. It's just like, not right, you know? It's just f-cked up.”
Going back to the staple Vans. How many pairs do you think you've been through in your life?
“I would probably toast a pair in like, five months. Okay. So let's see, two and a half pairs… we'll round it up three per year. Multiply that by 15 years of touring. What is that 45? Yeah. Sometimes they get lost. Yea, Let's say 50. That’s a lot.”
Is it true that you once sold a pair of them for over $20,000?
“They didn't actually sell. I put them on eBay for charity and everyone was like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing. It's amazing they are going for so much.’ I was like, this is crazy, and it was for charity, so I thought, ‘Wow, I'm such a philanthropist. It's amazing.’ But obviously it was just a bunch of troll kids on the internet. So when the time came to finish the deal, and I was gonna give the money to the charity, but the kid didn't pay, so I split the donation with Vans. They stepped into it, which was cool of them.”
Have there been any recent purchases that you've been obsessed with?
“I bought a Stihl trimmer. Oof, that's good. I used to cut lawns for a living 15 years ago, and we all used gas powered ones. Everyone would make fun of the electric trimmers because they sucked back then, but now they're pretty good. I'm quite pleased with it.
I also got a Stihl chainsaw. That's good.”
The content we require.
Such a genuine dude