Ava Seccuro staff writer
In mid-September, The Radio Airlift club is planning to release a recently discovered 2013 Mac DeMarco interview that they conducted to their YouTube channel.
Radio Airlift got the opportunity to talk to DeMarco through former Radio Airlift president James Fast (‘14). Fast had contacted DeMarco via Facebook about wanting to interview him for Airlift. DeMarco responded by saying that he would be in Los Angeles later that month shooting his music video for “My Kind of Woman.” Once DeMarco arrived in Los Angeles, Fast and some of his friends met up with DeMarco at the site of his shoot on La Brea Avenue and First Street for the interview.
“My dad drove me and my friends there and we met up with Mac and hung out for about an hour or so,” Fast said. “We watched him try to resuscitate an old pinball machine, smoke two packs of cigarettes and talk to my dad about hockey. It was a great night, and we all kept in touch for a couple years after that.”
Current Radio Airlift vice president senior Kate Lieb heard about the interview through former Radio Airlift president Bennett Gershwin (‘17), who then directed them to Fast. She decided with junior president Tohar Zamir to air the interview once Radio Airlift had their first club meeting to draw more traffic toward the club.
DeMarco’s musical presence was not as well known in 2013. However, after his hit sophomore album, Salad Days, he began to gain more attention.
“The people who listen to him now weren’t really listening [to him] as much back then. He was really up and coming, and just starting to get big…it was a pretty big deal,” Lieb said. “We’re really happy that now he’s so big and we have this footage. If we promote it now, [the club will] get a lot more buzz.”
Fan of DeMarco, junior Alessia Badagliacca, is anticipating the release because of her appreciation for his music and her admiration of his authenticity.
“I’m looking forward to hear where he gets his ideas from, because something that I really liked about him is that he’s so original,” Badagliacca said. “There was no one like Mac DeMarco before he created this type of genre of rock, jazz, techno…I just want to know where the genius came from.”
Zamir’s motive behind releasing the interview is to give his audience an insight on DeMarco, so they can understand his point of view in his music.
“Mac DeMarco is a fascinating guy…he spearheaded the lo-fi movement completely,” Zamir said. “[Lo-Fi’s] very authentic sound is something special and he’s the pioneer of that genre…[the interview is] to give people an idea of the man behind the music.”
The goal of releasing this interview, in Lieb’s perspective, is to display the opportunities that Radio Airlift has to offer.
“[The interview] shows what Airlift is all about. The possibilities are endless and that anyone has this opportunity if they want to join Airlift,” Lieb said. “It’s really cool that this club’s been around this long and that they were able to [interview DeMarco] and [the club is] still continuing today and [are] hopefully going to meet that level again.”