Mac Daddy

Just 12 months ago Paul Mac was living out a relatively hermitic existence. You could picture him probably wearing trackie dacks and sipping cups of tea while penning and recording tunes in a rented home in the Blue Mountains.

Well, it’s been a fucking full-throttle 12 months since then.

Those tunes became 3000 Feet High, a runaway hit of 2001/02 that spawned a bundle of hit singles and saw Mac reinvent his image into some sort of animated, happy-go-lucky urban playboy. It’s a year that has transformed his world from that of relaxation to rock-stardom.

3000 Feet High has become like a Michael Jackson album where all the songs are singles. There’s been five singles released off 3000 Feet High. Yeah, it’s out of control, Mac says.

Finally, the Paul Mac juggernaut is on its last leg and it looks like the poor man is going to a little time out to, as Mac puts it, just fuck around travelling in Europe -“ fall in love a few times, have a few laughs and see what happens.

The man’s got a bit of work on his hands before that happens. Mac is in the first few dates of his premier national tour, an event that will see him dragging out a 14-piece ensemble of guest vocalists, musos and his infamous Temple of Ecstasy Choir to seal up the success of 3000 Feet High.

When I play live I’ll just crank up the party atmosphere. I really like to do interesting things with the music from the album -“ maybe speed it up or give it more energy by relying more on the live musicians, so the crowd can really get off on the show.

After all the hype, the 10-city tour (it hits Sydney’s Metro on 9 August and the Castle Hill Tavern on 10 August) will be quite a crescendo to Mac’s year. It’s also a time that sees the release of the new single Stay and a limited edition version of 3000 Feet High featuring a bonus remix album.

I put all of my fave remixes on the extra CD that were only ever available on vinyl and it’s a really sweet 60-minute journey.