What does it really mean to come home? For Mac DeMarco, after more than a decade of chasing tours and bending his sound in unexpected directions, home isn’t a fixed place. It’s something looser, more fluid, a mood that shifts with the day. With Guitar (released via Mac’s Record Label), his first album since 2023’s wandering instrumental Five Easy Hotdogs, he’s turned that feeling into a sonic self-portrait: a stripped-down, quietly vivid roadmap of exactly where he’s at in life right now. “It’s all part of unpacking this idea that everyone has a place, but the questions are: why that place, where it is, and what it means? I don’t really have the answer,” DeMarco tells us.

Written and recorded over the course of a month in November 2024 at his Los Angeles home, Guitar leaves the edges raw. There’s tape hiss lingering in the background, an intentional looseness, and a voice that slides effortlessly into an ethereal falsetto. “I didn’t overthink too much about what I’m doing. It felt like magic, and I just trusted the natural flow,” he shares. It’s a contrast to the sprawling 199-track expanse of One Wayne G or the wandering instrumentals of Five Easy Hot Dogs. Tracks like Terror confront mortality with naked honesty, while Home drifts between affection and distance – all twelve tracks charting the terrain of a man reckoning with his place in the world.

During our conversation, DeMarco recalls a tour stop in Canada years ago, where, after a show, the band was invited to a fan’s maple syrup family farm. “They had all these lines running off the trees,” he shares. “The next morning, they made pancakes for about fifteen people. Everyone walked up the hill in the snow, and her dad was in the sugar shack playing electric guitar. I want to get back to the sugar shacks of the world, to farms, to those kinds of experiences, to living life and seeing it. Really, I’m just trying to get back to that maple syrup farm.”

J.L. Sirisuk: This album feels like a great reintroduction to your voice and where you are in life. You recently released the track Home and filmed the video near your mom’s place in Canada. What did home mean to you when you wrote it?
Mac DeMarco: I think over the past couple of years – maybe it’s just the age I’m at now – I’ve been thinking more about certain aspects of life. I’m not in my early twenties anymore; I’m halfway through my thirties. Things shift. I want to be around my family or my partner’s family more. I’ve been thinking about this idea of ‘home’ a lot, and I like the concept. I’ve lived in LA for ten years – functionally, it’s my home – but I don’t have family there. I have a lot of friends I truly love, but it’s different. I’m Canadian, and I’ve been spending more time in Canada lately. Even that identity is something I’ve been trying to make sense of, what it means to me. There are times where I feel like I’m almost pretending to be Canadian, which is strange. It’s all part of unpacking this idea that everyone has a place, but the questions are: why that place, where it is, and what it means? I don’t really have the answer.

Sure, I could say, “Home is where my girl is, my dog, whatever” – and that’s true – but I think there are more layers to it. Even the place I grew up, there was a time when I wanted nothing to do with it. But you get to a point where that doesn’t matter. Whatever your experience was, it shaped you. It’s like having an absent parent. You can spend your whole life saying, “Yeah, that sucked,” or, “Piss off.” But eventually, you might get curious – absent or not – about what that actually did to you. It’s about cracking open that little nugget and taking a look inside the human.

JLS: And that feeling of home, it can change, too. This is your first mainly vocal record in quite a few years after going instrumental for a while
MD: With One Wayne G, there are songs with vocals, but most of it, like nine of the nine and a half hours – is instrumental. All of that felt like a good clearing of the plate for me. Even with the songs I’d been sitting on, I didn’t want them just lying around forever like, “Don’t forget about me! Don’t you want to put me on a record someday?” I did want to, but they were from so many years ago. So it became this exercise in starting fresh, seeing what happens when everything’s cleared away. And what happened was Guitar. The funny thing is, I made another record before Guitar, so it’s like I re-dirtied my plate before I could even put it out. But Guitar – songwriting in general – has always been like journaling for me. It’s my time to reflect. I think now it’s taken a different form than it used to, maybe just because of where I’m at in life. And the other side of it is, I want to travel. I want to play shows. Making music is one part of the rock-and-roll equation, but going out and sharing it with people is the part I’ve missed the most. I’m really excited to do that again.

“Everyone has a place, but the questions are: why that place, where it is, and what it means?”

JLS: I know you recorded and mixed everything at home – in like a month?
MD: I had a pretty strict deadline hanging over me for part of it. But I’ve always worked at home – that’s where I feel most comfortable. Like I mentioned, I’d actually made another record before Guitar. That one drove me a little crazy. I wrote fourteen songs and kept trying to re-record them, but nothing sounded right. Eventually, I did something I’d never done before: I took the whole collection of songs and was like, “Nope. You’re not coming out, even if I like a couple of you. I’m not using anything. Goodbye.” I pushed them aside and started from scratch. Once I made that decision, the process became surprisingly meditative and peaceful. It was still stressful – I had two weeks and needed to get back up to Canada – but the new songs came out quite easily. I’m really happy with how it worked out. It almost felt like magic, like, “How did that work?” I’m sure it was just me hunkering down and getting it done, but it feels good. 

JLS: When putting the album together, did it naturally shape?
MD: I think once one of those songs with that kind of tone came out – maybe Sweeter, the second track – I realised what was really bubbling up inside me and needed to come out. After that, the tone set itself for the whole album. There’s definitely a through line, whether in the lyrics, vibe, or whatever. I didn’t overthink too much about what I’m doing. It felt like magic, and I just trusted the natural flow. The more natural something feels, the more satisfied I am. So I just let it flow.

“Making music is one part of the rock-and-roll equation, but going out and sharing it with people is the part I’ve missed the most. I’m really excited to do that again.”

JLS: You mentioned the shift from your 20s to mid-30s – did the writing process feel different this time?
MD: The physical process of how I make records now isn’t that different from when I was 22. I’m still at home, with my gear, sitting down and doing the thing. The big difference is in me, where I’m at in life and how I approach it. Back then, even with personal songs, there was always some kind of guard up. Now I feel more willing to show a side of myself that’s a little more naked. Even in the musical arrangements, it’s very much: “Here’s the song.” Maybe there’s a second guitar, maybe not. It’s simple, and maybe that’s by design. I like the puzzle of trying to make something work with the fewest possible ingredients. So yeah, the change isn’t really in the process, it’s in my state of living. Or just being.

“Now I feel more willing to show a side of myself that’s a little more naked.”

 JLS: Is there anything new you tried on this record that changed the way you hear your own sound?
MD: The way this record sounds is really just an amalgamation of me experimenting. With One Way G, for example, it was like documenting myself learning, trying out different microphones, recording methods – that’s why it shifts sonically here and there. With this one, it’s more like I landed somewhere. I know how I like my drums to sound, how I record them, and what works for me. Having those tried-and-true methods means I can focus less on the technical side and more on the content of the songs. One thing that’s easy to point out is that a lot of the vocals are in falsetto – or at least slightly falsetto. I’m not sure why that started happening, but now most of the songs have me singing pretty high. It feels almost like a character, or a different version of myself. I think it makes the songs feel a little uncanny or a bit strange, but in a way I like.

 JLS: You have a massive tour coming up. After creating something so personal, how does it feel sharing it in front of huge crowds?
MD: I’m excited to get out there and play. By design, I want to give the songs a life of their own. Even with the musicians I’m playing with, or the arrangements we use live, I doubt we’ll sound much like the record. I want to see what happens. The experience of taking them in front of people should feel like a living, breathing thing. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, we’ll adjust. It’s about suspending control and letting it feel natural, which is how we used to do it back in the day. Back then, our musicianship meant we had to paint with whatever colours we had. We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully it goes well, but I don’t know, and that’s exciting for me.

JLS: You brought in David Ives to master the album. After doing so much on your own, what made you bring him in?
MD: Mastering feels like the dark art of the music-making process to me. I don’t fully understand it. David [Ives] is incredible. At this point, he’s a friend, and he’s worked on almost every project I’ve done since I moved to LA. A lot of what he does is mysterious, but I love the sound he’s able to get. He’s very respectful of the music, and if I want to experiment, he’s always happy to meet me there. There aren’t many people I really trust with my work, but I trust David. I’m glad I found him.

JLS: The track Terror jumped out at me, and the lyrics, “You know, I’m terrified of dying, that old gift we all receive like a leech stuck on your heart belongs to me and only me.” What can you tell me about this track?
MD: It’s kind of autobiographical. The way I travel, being on tour as a musician, you’re this wandering terror. Rock and roll is scary, but it’s amazing. I’m scared to die, I think everyone is, in a way – but that fear keeps you on your toes. It makes you want to get out there. I’d like to become that terror again. Not to terrorise people, but to experience things. I always tell this one story: years ago, I was touring with two other bands opening for us. We played somewhere in Canada – Ontario maybe, could have been Quebec – and after the show, this girl said, “You guys can all stay at my family’s farm.” We went, and it turned out they made maple syrup. They had all these lines running off the trees. The next morning, they made us pancakes for about fifteen people. Everyone walked up the hill in the snow, and her dad was in the sugar shack playing electric guitar. I want to get back to the sugar shacks of the world, to farms, to those kinds of experiences, to living life and seeing it. Really, I’m just trying to get back to that maple syrup farm.

JLS: What about the writing of this album, did it take place over the course of the same month you recorded?
MD: I’d wake up and start writing a song in the morning. Sometimes, if I finished early, I’d even start the next day’s song that same evening. I made the whole thing in about fourteen days, maybe less. It felt kind of magical like, “Oh, I got another one today. Oh, my god.” It’s crazy that it works like that. Sometimes it doesn’t even feel real. But yeah, it was pretty much all done day by day.

JLS: You said this album is a personal reflection of your life right now. When you listen to it alone, what parts of yourself do you hear?
MD: I don’t see many people in my life nowadays. I have my partner, my dog, some close friends, and family. I’m not really talking about a lot of the things from this record in my day-to-day life, but I do try to make myself understood as much as I can. This album feels like a distilled version of how I’m operating right now. It really sounds like where my head’s at. I recorded it back in November, and a lot has changed since then. That’s the beautiful thing about music – it’s a snapshot of where I was at that moment. I don’t listen to my own music much once it’s done, except when I’m making it. But years down the line, if I do, I’ll be transported to that place. Maybe people who don’t know me will hear it one way, and people close to me will hear it another. That’s probably the most terrifying part about making something so personal. But it’s also pretty cool. I’m not asking anyone to feel a certain way or anything. It just is what it is, that’s what’s cool about it.

Mac DeMarco Guitar is out now via Mac’s Record Label.
Mac plays Manchester Aviva Studios on 14th and 15th November.