Superchunk singer-guitarist Mac McCaughan (left) performs during the tour for his new album “Non-Believers,” the first under his own name. (Photo by Matt Condon, courtesy of Merge Records)
As leader of indie-rock stalwarts and co-owner/founder of Chapel Hill, N.C.-based label (Spoon, Arcade Fire), Mac McCaughan is intimately acquainted with the fickle tastes of the music world.
His nearly three-decade career has seen defining sounds — and industries — rise and fall. But through it all, the 48-year-old has cultivated an improbably earnest, accessible persona that makes him one of the most consistent voices in DIY music.
We talked to him before his rare acoustic set at 7 p.m. on July 24 on the main stage of .
So this doesn’t look like a huge tour behind the new album, but you are coming all the way out to play The UMS. How did this show come about?
I’ve been trying to get to as many places as I could with this record, but without doing an extended, be-away-for-six-weeks kind of tour. So really the best way to do that is to do some stuff in the van, like the east coast and the south, as I’ve been doing with a band, but then also to get into a plane and fly to some places that I most likely won’t be driving through anytime soon, like Denver. The cool thing is that I could line up the Denver festival with a show I’m doing in Chicago at Schuba’s the day before, and for that show I recruited (Tortoise, The Sea and Cake, Red Krayola) to play with me. Since itap not too bad of a trip from Chicago to Denver, I also convinced him to come do the fest with me, so I’m looking forward to those two shows because they’re going to be different than pretty much any of the other shows I’m doing on this record.
That’s great, since McEntire is pretty much a legend to old-school indie rockers, or fans of Chicago’s post-rock scene. What do you think he’ll bring to playing with you, both technically and creatively?
I’ve been a fan of John’s for a long time. I was trying to think about this the other day, but I’m pretty sure the first time I saw him play was with Bastro. Just a duo of him and Dave Grubbs — at least I think it was duo — and it was amazing. And then obviously he’s gone onto do so many things and play in so many cool bands. But I was just excited that he was up for it because I know he’s a busy guy (note: McEntire is also a studio producer) and we’ve never played together, so itap one of those things where you’re looking for opportunities to make music with people that you think are great, and this is just happened.
Have you practiced much or will these shows be your first run-through?
We actually rehearsed once because I was in Chicago to play a one-off thing at a comedy festival there. We ran through a bunch of songs from “Non-Believers,” and then for these actual shows it may be a couple Superchunk things and Portastatic songs. I’ll probably do some Superchunk songs by myself as well, so itap going to be a mix of material. Technically John is obviously incredible, but I also think he has a cool sensibility and sense of restraint thatap really interesting. I think he’s going to be playing drums and keyboards — sometimes at the same time, based on the rehearsals (laughs) — but it will not be anything flashy. What’s cool about it is the subtlety and the restraint. When you’re playing as a duo, which I haven’t really done very much, ever, whatap hard for me is to get used to that idea that you’re not going to sound like four people. You’re going to sound like two people, so do what makes sense for that and enjoy that space instead of feeling like you’re going have to just fill up this space.
Superchunk is such a loud band. You’ve still got dynamics in there, but often it’s a wall of guitars and wailing, which is part of why so many people love it. But I remember also loving a song like “Throwing Things” (from the 1995 B-sides comp “Incidental Music”) rendered acoustically. Is it tough to fight that urge to be loud and heavy all the time?
Itap not my instinct to let it breathe but I’m always happy when I can actually do that. Itap one of those things just from playing in band a like Superchunk for so long, where all the space often is filled up. You get used to hearing that and so you can imagine all the things you could do in all those space. To not do that is the challenge.
This is the first solo album under your real name. Why now? Is it because it’s a more personal album than some of your other work?
I don’t even think the record is necessarily that much more personal than any other record I’ve made. I would also say that I’m not necessarily totally comfortable with my own name, but I kind of backed myself into a corner in the sense that I already had Superchunk, and felt like I had retired Portastatic. It was the option that I had left.
Which is potentially daunting, since you’re not trading on the name recognition of your other projects and starting from scratch in some ways.
That sounded exhausting, so the good thing about it, and one of the positive things I was thinking about when making the decision, was that I’ve been doing shows under my own name for a couple years now. It gives me so much flexibility in terms of what I can play, whereas under any other name people come expecting to hear a specific thing. I liked that it was opening it up to be whatever. And itap been been fun playing the songs from the new album, which when I’m playing them totally by myself, or with another person, or with a rock band like on some of this tour, they really don’t sound like the album. The songs are the songs, but I’m not bringing a bunch of keyboards and drum machines with me, so it’s also been interesting to play all these different versions of these songs. Thatap fun for me.
A few reviews of the new album have mentioned the maturity factor — lyrically, structurally, and instrumentally — but does it feel a little overwhelming to be constantly put in this place of “Think back on your life at all times!” by critics?
I could just ignore it, and I figure I do that when I’m thinking about other bands. But as an artist you don’t want to repeat yourself, so you can’t help but take your past into account, if only to make sure that you’re not doing something you’ve already done. Know what I mean? But thatap really everyone’s else’s job. That’s your job to put it in a larger context.
Itap a lovely album, with a lot of simple sentiments richly felt. How strategic was the writing of it? Was it a lot of songs that came together over awhile, or did you sort of sit down and say, “I’m going to make a new solo album.”
It started out really not strategic at all. I knew it wasn’t going to be a Superchunk record and that alone does give a certain amount of framework to it, because I know I’m not writing for that band. Once I wrote the song “Your Hologram,” the first song on the record, that kind of gave me a direction for the rest of the record because I really liked the way that song came out. It felt like a starting point, like a reference for the rest of it. I kind of did have a strategy after that in the sense that I had established the way things were kind of going to sound. Not that every song sounds remotely the same, but just a general framework.
So when I was writing and recording the rest of the record, I was also choosing some songs I’d already written to throw away. They didn’t seem to fit anymore, and that was what I was basing it on and, to me, itap helpful to have some kind of rules and framework like that when making a record. It’s almost like rules of a game; it both gives you a direction and something to work against, or to help you make decisions. Especially when you’re making a solo record in your home studio, you really could do anything and could work on it forever if you wanted to. So having something to help give it shape is awesome, and lot of that was about what sounds I was going to use. And again, not trying to make every song sound the same, but to have it be in the same world.
You’ve always seemed pretty hands-on, given your reputation and position in the indie music sphere. Now that the game has changed so much, with blogs replacing zines and the delivery going digital, whatap your preferred way of keeping up with new sounds and ideas in music?
Itap kind of a combo of both new and super traditional ways of listening to music. I have almost exclusively been buying records lately and listening to vinyl at home. I mean, I haven’t gotten rid of my CDs, because I like CDs actually and they sound good. But I still just buy a ton of records and listen to records. At the same time I travel a lot and I do have an iPod that is highly convenient for taking your music with you. I don’t love the way MP3s sound and I can’t listen for too long of a time. But I love having an iPod and listening to whatever I want to listen to. When I buy an expensive album that doesn’t have a download code in it, I get annoyed. I’m used to it, to that extent.
I remember Merge Records one being one of the first labels to offer a download code with every vinyl purchase a few years ago. You seem to just want to get the music out, whatever the method. Despite being old-school in some ways, like being personable and accessible and unpretentious, you’re also still adapting.
The people I always looked up to and saw as role models are always people who were approachable and kind, and so I think it’s important to try to be that way. But also one of the things about technology, like say checking your phone or looking at Twitter or Instagram or whatever, is that it gives you both a fun way to communicate with your fans or friends, but also on the business side you need to be in that realm for anyone to know what you’re doing. That’s where everyone else is looking for your information, so you’ve got to be advertising it somewhere, and thatap the place to do it. And there’s a way to use those tools in a way that’s not purely promotional. If I follow someone and it just feels like that, it’s boring to me. Whatap interesting is, whether I’m following a painter or musician or writer or comedian, is finding out about stuff they like or are into, not just the announcements for their new book or whatever. I feel like there’s a way to use those things that’s informative or interesting or kind of create a community of your fans. It might be people who are into a certain type of music or a band or a hockey team.
But with the Internet it’s also easy to shut yourself off to new things and build a wall of like-minded people around yourself, so you have to be careful.
Yeah, the danger of the whole thing and the Internet in general, and why it sometimes feels more productive or interesting than it is, is because itap just so easy to create your own world and not know about anything else. You can go so far down a rabbit hole or only surround yourself with things interesting to you, and you don’t have to hear about anything else if you don’t want to. I don’t think thatap the best way to be. The thing is, you have to deliberately go out and find stuff thatap outside of your normal purview. You have to spend the effort.
Which is not unlike the pre-Internet days. So last question: what else are you doing while you’re here? Will you check out any other bands, or is it a whistle-stop tour?
I’m looking forward to coming back. The last time I was there was for . I’m hoping I’ll have time to go to one of my favorite museums, the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver. It’s such a cool place and I got to go through it last time I was there. Itap great building and itap so interesting to got to a place thatap dedicated to one artist like that.
