After flying under the radar for almost ten years, Paul Mac will release his newest album, ‘Holiday From Me’, this Friday (10 April).
Since the release of ‘Panic Room’ in 2005, Paul Mac – Australian electronic-pop musician, singer-songwriter, and producer – has spent the last ten years touring, DJing, writing and collaborating to produce some of his best music yet.
However, he has also spent a lot of his time over the past decade assisting with other people’s music as well. He has taken a particular interest in composing film scores and music for theatre, in which he had the opportunity to write music for ‘Kath And Kimderella’. He’s also toured through Europe with his underground project Stereogamous, worked with huge names like Kylie Minogue and Sia, and has been DJing at his own club in Sydney.
Shortly after ‘Panic Room’ was released, Paul Mac began the early stages of ‘Holiday From Me’ while recording and touring with Daniel Johns as The Dissociatives. He was writing sketches while in tour buses and hotel rooms, and from there he started looking for people to collaborate with and began to record demos. “I ask people that I really like to help out. Sometimes I come up with a really good verse but no chorus yet, or a good chorus but no verse, so I just invite people I really like to get involved... I guess I don't work with people I don't like, or people I think are fake. So I kinda adore everybody on the album because I really believe in them as musicians.”
Paul describes the album as very “break up-y”, as he explored ways to express how he felt about his own breakup during the early stages of the album. When talking to his friend one day, he was still hung up on his ex-boyfriend with which his friend replied: “Why are you so upset? He’s just an idiot.” With that conversation in mind, Paul later met up with Megan Washington and said “Okay, let’s write a song called Idiot”, and it happened.
Following that, someone had suggested collaborating with Kira Puru. After going to one of her band’s shows, he immediately thought “Yeah, she’s great!” and invited her to record a song. He enjoyed recording with her so much that he then asked her to do a second track. “I really loved meeting Kira Puru, and now that we're doing shows together, it's been really cool to get to know her. She's really fresh.”
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Paul then met Brendan Maclean through Twitter. After meeting up for a beer, the two started hanging out and recording demos. One day, while Nathan Hudson was also in town, the trio decided to write a gay duet based on the first night you meet someone at a pub, and all the dumb questions that you ask them. It’s called 'Frequently Asked Questions'.
He finally decided he wanted to finish the album with a track that somewhat reminded him of the song ‘Quasimodo’s Dream’ by the '80s Australian band, The Reels. He also decided he needed the voice of Dave Mason (The Reels’ vocalist) otherwise the song wouldn’t have worked, so Dave agreed to record the track with Paul. “It's like trying different singers, different songs, and different angles. So this album is way more pumping, way more electronic and techy, but it’s still got my thing over top.”
Yet the question remains: why did we have to wait ten years before he finally released his next album? “You know, I'm such a perfectionist. I thought it was finished four years ago, but then I was like 'Na, na, I'm gonna keep going'. Then two years ago I thought it was finished, then finally this time around I thought ‘Yeah’. I wouldn't change a note now. It's cool, I really love this album. It's just Paul Mac.”
