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The Nature of Mac
by Sean Cameron
Mac sat down for a short conversation before his Tokyo Rose set with the touring edition
of Portastatic affable and remarkably well-rested. Like his songs, he lacks any fake-rock
veneer and is just as committed to making great music as he is to putting it on the shelves.
With the impending release of the newest Portastatic album on Merge, The Nature of Sap,
Mac discussed his work and shed some truth on the often mythic world of independent
rock.
D: Is this the same band that plays on the new album? M: No. My brother does play on the new record, though. Mostly the records are me, plus a few other people here and there. D: From Brittle to Slow Note On a Sinking Ship (1995), the songs became quieter and moodier with the addition of the keyboards. Does the new material follow in this trend? M: On the new one, the piano is the thing that changes it the most. I got a piano from this church that was giving one away. So we started writing songs on it. Anytime you get a new instrument, even if it's a different guitar than you're normally used to playing, it tends to influence the songs you're writing. So, having a piano is the big difference here. D: Do you see Portastatic as a side project for your spare time away from Superchunk? M: Yeah, and with the way Superchunk operates it will be really active for a year, and then won't be active for a year, because we'll be so burned out from touring. So that's when I tend to do Portastatic stuff. D: How do you handle being a prolific writer and running Merge? M: Well, being prolific is the easy part, in terms of writing and recording songs, because that's the stuff I enjoy doing the most. Touring takes up a lot of time, Merge takes up a lot of time, but I can write songs in-between all of these other things. You can write a song in the middle of the night after you've already been to work and done all of the other stuff. So it takes up time and energy, but you do it in the in-between time. D: What exactly do you do at Merge these days? M: Laura and I are in there pretty much every day when we're not on tour. And there are also four other people that work there now, so Merge can operate smoothly when we're not there. The others who work there tend to have very specific things that they do, and Laura and I do all kinds of things ... One of the things I do is advertising, talking to people at magazines, talking to bands and arranging their schedules in terms of recording, and putting out records and routine stuff. Same with Laura -- just day to day operations, making sure everything's running smoothly. D: How has running Merge changed from when it was exclusively singles-based? M: It's still very much hands-on, but the difference is that there are a lot more bands to handle, many more releases coming out ... So it's a lot busier, which is why we have four more people working there. It's a lot more complicated in terms of money, release schedules, advertising, and all these different things that when you're just putting out singles you don't have to worry about. D: What does the town mean to you, especially since it was never invaded like Seattle? M: First, it's just a place where we live. It's an easy place to live, it's nice, it's fairly inexpensive ... It's definitely inexpensive to run a business there compared with other places. There was a time when a lot of A&R people came into Chapel Hill looking for bands. But I think that, as is true with most places, the hype didn't hold. It's like they came in and said, "Oh, these are like, a bunch of really weird bands, I don't know if this is what we're looking for." I'm not sure why it died down, but it just did, and I think for the people in Chapel Hill that's just fine with them ... maybe because it's a small town, it's not as easy for bigger businesses and the larger aspects of the music industry to come in and take hold. D: Do you think the kids there are more receptive to new sounds? In Charlottesville, people seem stuck on the jam band thing ... M: Right, the Dave Matthews stuff. In a way I would say they're more open, but at the same time, there was definitely a time in Chapel Hill when no one would go to see local bands. It just took time, and I think that's one good thing the national press has done, because unfortunately, people won't go to see a local act unless they've read about them in a national magazine. People think, "Why should I go see this band, I can see them any time," and would rather see a touring act. But if someone picks up Rolling Stone, it's like "Oh, look, a review of Archers of Loaf! They're from around here; I can go see them." I think the national press made local music more of a commodity for people who live in Chapel Hill. D: How do you feel about scenester pettiness? Especially since Superchunk released its first few albums on Matador, a bigger label, and then switched back to the smaller Merge. M: I think that definitely happens, once you've been around for so long, people think, "Oh, that's old ...," but people still come see us in Chapel Hill, and it's not like we have a problem getting shows or anything. It's fine, it's totally understandable ... even people who still like Superchunk are looking for something new to listen to all the time. You can't just listen to the same thing for eight years. Other people in the band are interested in doing different things ... you get bored doing the same thing over and over again. We're writing songs right now for the new record, and there are some different sounding things, but it still definitely sounds like Superchunk. I don't think we'll make a record that people will think doesn't sound like Superchunk. I've always thought that our gimmick is that we don't have a gimmick. And I think if you do have a gimmick, it's hard to have long life because people are going to get sick of it. If you just write good songs, people won't get sick of that. D: What about the bickering image that Superchunk has? You seem to actively perpetuate it in the "Hyper Enough" video, which portrays the band in counseling. Is it parody or art imitating life? M: It was a collaborative idea with the director. But we just thought it was funny. Part of it came from all the rumors that we were breaking up. There was never any chance of that, so we thought it might be funny to do. D: The tension was frighteningly high at a show in D.C. in summer 1995. It seemed like the band against Jim (Wilbur, guitarist), because people kept shouting for "Slack Motherfucker" and Jim was siding with them saying "I want to play it, but they won't let me!" M: Really? That seems very anti-Jim Wilbur to go along with what the crowd wants to do. Maybe at that show he was feeling especially smart-assed. It's more like Jim against the crowd that Jim against the band, usually! D: Both bands also put out occasional singles on labels other than Merge. Do you think it's important to support other labels in this way? M: Kind of. Plus, I always liked bands that put out random things here and there to keep you on your toes for finding new records. D: And every few years you round up the random stuff on one disc. M: Yes, a lot of people don't live near record stores that carry vinyl. It also prevents things from getting an expensive, collector's item status attached to them. D: What is your approach to songwriting? Is it different between bands? M: People always ask how I know if it's a Portastatic song or a Superchunk song. Superchunk songs are generally written with all four of us, where one will have a main part and we'll play it over and over until everyone adds their own part. Portastatic songs, at least three-quarters of the time, are written as they're recorded. With the four-track recordings, I'll have a drum or guitar or keyboard track and figure out, "Hmm, what goes with this?" and think about where the vocals go. So it's actually written as it's being made, which couldn't really happen with Superchunk. So there's not one formula, it's just about what happens. D: What's new on the scene at Merge? What are you listening to? M: This spring we're putting out the weirdest record we've ever released by The Third Eye Foundation. It's a guy from England who had connections with Flying Saucer Attack and Crescent. The drum beats are like jungle, and the music is very noisy -- a lot of guitar and noise loops, and some things where I can't figure out what he's doing. We're re-issuing stuff by Honor Role from Richmond, who put out two albums and some singles that we're putting on one CD. The Mark Robinson thing will be out (MRG 100, with remixes of six Merge bands) and a new album by Verbena. D: Any grand design for the years ahead? M: Laura has always said that the great strength of Merge and Superchunk is that we've never had any big plan. If you try and set everything up too far in advance it never really works out, and you tend to do things just to make them fit the plan. And that's probably the best thing about it -- not having a general scheme. It keeps us on our toes.
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