The hot dogs are supposed to be easy, man. Millionaire(?) and recovered shaken-not-stirred sleazeball Mac DeMarco is nothing if not prolific, having surprise-released a 199-song album, One Wayne G, in quick succession with January's Five Easy Hotdogs — he doesn't have time to get tangled up in all the literal and metaphorical trappings of guitar pedals and their cables. In fact, DeMarco is adamantly anti-pedal and thinks they should all "be put in a big pile and we should light 'em on fire."
In the latest MusicTech cover story, the musician opened up about his DIY approach and reverence for the "way that recordings come to be," setting up his rig wherever he might be at the moment inspiration strikes and capturing what that fleeting instance feels like in time and space.
Consequently, he's not much for meticulous mixing. "It's like this form of 'demo-itis,'" DeMarco told the publication's Sam Willings, "where I don't want to change something because I feel like if I change it, then I'll take away something of its purity, or something like that."
Then perhaps it's not surprising that the indie hero isn't vibing with guitar pedals — the "sound-goodizer" ones, at least. "They're stupid. They're cheap pieces of shit with crappy electronics. It's just crap in the path. I don't like crap," DeMarco said.
He continued, "I don't care if it makes you sound like Jimi Hendrix or whatever. I don't want it. I don't want it! It just stresses me out thinking about it. And the cables that people use in between them. Oh, man. And then the power — crappy. Everything's crappy. It's just crappy. And I don't want them crapping up my shit. No crap."
The singer-songwriter proceeded to admit that he does have a small pedalboard set up for his tour behind One Wayne G, but it's a bare-necessities kind of rig with a tuner, a vibrato pedal and an impulse-response effect for his acoustic guitar.
"Yeah, no more pedals," he reiterated. "All the pedals should be put in a big pile and we should light 'em on fire." Let him cook!
DeMarco remains consistent, having expressed his contempt for effects pedals to Reverb three years ago when describing how he built his signature sound, which they alliteratively described as a "woozy warble." He explained, "I just would plug my guitar right into an old '70s Fender Twin, like the silver-faced one — and obviously, it had Spring Reverb on it. That's an effect. Okay. But that was it; that was all I did."
The musician added that he eventually conceded and got a delay pedal at some point, because it "sounds like John Lennon on the vocal. That's cool, I like that."
In the latest MusicTech cover story, the musician opened up about his DIY approach and reverence for the "way that recordings come to be," setting up his rig wherever he might be at the moment inspiration strikes and capturing what that fleeting instance feels like in time and space.
Consequently, he's not much for meticulous mixing. "It's like this form of 'demo-itis,'" DeMarco told the publication's Sam Willings, "where I don't want to change something because I feel like if I change it, then I'll take away something of its purity, or something like that."
Then perhaps it's not surprising that the indie hero isn't vibing with guitar pedals — the "sound-goodizer" ones, at least. "They're stupid. They're cheap pieces of shit with crappy electronics. It's just crap in the path. I don't like crap," DeMarco said.
He continued, "I don't care if it makes you sound like Jimi Hendrix or whatever. I don't want it. I don't want it! It just stresses me out thinking about it. And the cables that people use in between them. Oh, man. And then the power — crappy. Everything's crappy. It's just crappy. And I don't want them crapping up my shit. No crap."
The singer-songwriter proceeded to admit that he does have a small pedalboard set up for his tour behind One Wayne G, but it's a bare-necessities kind of rig with a tuner, a vibrato pedal and an impulse-response effect for his acoustic guitar.
"Yeah, no more pedals," he reiterated. "All the pedals should be put in a big pile and we should light 'em on fire." Let him cook!
DeMarco remains consistent, having expressed his contempt for effects pedals to Reverb three years ago when describing how he built his signature sound, which they alliteratively described as a "woozy warble." He explained, "I just would plug my guitar right into an old '70s Fender Twin, like the silver-faced one — and obviously, it had Spring Reverb on it. That's an effect. Okay. But that was it; that was all I did."
The musician added that he eventually conceded and got a delay pedal at some point, because it "sounds like John Lennon on the vocal. That's cool, I like that."
