{"id":95478,"date":"2023-04-21T11:40:22","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T15:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/?post_type=interviews&p=95478"},"modified":"2023-04-21T11:40:24","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T15:40:24","slug":"youre-interviewing-mac-wetha-talk","status":"publish","type":"interviews","link":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/en\/interviews-panm360\/youre-interviewing-mac-wetha-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"You’re Interviewing Mac Wetha (Talk)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Meet Mac Wetha, a quickly rising producer, DJ, instrumentalist, and vocalist from London, UK. Releasing his debut album Mac Wetha & Friends <\/em>in 2019, his initial success was largely restrained to the underground. Listeners praised his laid-back, meticulously crafted lo-fi takes that took on elements of grime, bedroom pop, and contemporary British R&B, all laid out against jazzy drums, interesting guitar riffs courtesy of Wetha himself, and the distinctly fuzzy overtones shrouding the project as a whole. In 2023 though, the artist has completely transcended this initial offering\u2014and proven he\u2019s ready for the big time\u2014with a direct sequel: Mac Wetha & Friends 2<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout its 20-odd minutes, Mac Wetha & Friends 2<\/em> completely delivers on its title\u2019s promise\u2014friends getting together and simply having fun making music. Each track is imbued with youthful joy and energy that could never be replicated artificially, and a streak of camaraderie and passion runs through the entire album.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spoke with Mac Wetha to discuss reflections on the new album, aspirations for the future, and his fun, collaborative approach to creating music with his friends.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PAN M 360: I expected you to be chilling now that the album is out, but I heard you were already back into sessions this week. Did you take much of a break?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MAC WETHA: <\/strong>Yeah, I haven\u2019t really stopped the whole time. I\u2019ve kind of just kept running. The way the Mac Wetha & Friends<\/em> stuff came about, the first one was very much just working with people and then the song just appeared\u2014stuff the artist wouldn\u2019t put out because it\u2019s too left or not the kind of thing they want to put out under their name just yet. Or maybe I pushed the idea for the beat and they were going along with my thing, as opposed to me producing what they were seeing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s kind of similar with Mac Wetha & Friends 2<\/em>, where it kind of just happened as I went. It didn\u2019t feel like I was locked away like, mad, fucking pulling my hair out. It was a lot of fun to make, which I think is ideally how music should be made. The whole time, I\u2019ve also been in the space on my own and writing for the next thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAN M 360: How does it feel to have this project out in the world? How\u2019s the reception been from people in your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MW: <\/strong>It\u2019s been really good. I think it\u2019s my best work to date and I love all the songs. My family loves it, my friends love it, I know the features love it. And we did a really good release show and it was just a great night.\u00a0I guess, most importantly, I\u2019m very, very critical of the stuff that I make, and I listen to it so much that I lose perspective. But I always think when I truly put it out there, and let it run for a couple of days, and then listen to it on Spotify or whatever, that\u2019s the true reflection. Because now it\u2019s sitting out there and now it\u2019s done. That\u2019s when I\u2019m always the most nervous to listen to it. That’s the scary thing, but I do like the album. I love it.\u00a0When I had that listen, I was having a really bad day actually, and I was listening to it walking around the city and I was like \u2018Well, at least I made a good project.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAN M 360: Has anything surprised you about this album since its release?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MW: <\/strong>There\u2019s always been a running joke between my dad and me\u2014we used to live in Spain when I was a kid. We used to joke about how you\u2019d hear Pitbull on the radio, or you know that U2 song where they\u2019re like \u201cUno, dos, tres, catorze<\/em>,\u201d and then the rest of the song is in English?\u00a0 Our joke was that if you put in even any bit of Spanish, Spanish people will be like \u2018Oh fuck yeah.\u2019 And I did a bit of Spanish on the start of the song with Feux (\u201cFall Again\u201d) and I looked at the playlist it was in and immediately, it was \u2018Musica por trabajar concentrado<\/em>.\u2019 I was just writing this new stuff and I was like, let\u2019s do some more Spanish. Trying to keep it up.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAN M 360: What would you say are the biggest lessons learned between making Friends 1 <\/em>and Friends 2<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MW: <\/strong>Couple of things\u2014first of all, with the collaboration side of it, now that I\u2019m singing more, I\u2019m really glad that I brought in my friends to help with production and engineering and stuff.\u00a0In the first one, my mind wasn\u2019t on melodies or lyrics, or what I’m trying to say, it was more like trying to make the coolest sound and get the textures right, therefore leaving all the other stuff to the artist. But since I was singing on it this time, it felt right to include my friend Kurisu, Chris, who\u2019s a good friend of mine who did a bunch of co-prod. As well as Dan Holloway, Max Wolfgang, and other guys I worked with.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m really glad I did that because there was a second where I was like \u201cNah, I should produce all of it.\u201d And then I was like, \u201cLiterally, why?\u201d That goes against the whole point of Mac Wetha & Friends<\/em>: trying not to be too fucking egocentric about it.\u00a0And then also, there\u2019s this thing I\u2019ve been thinking about lately: how when you first start making music there\u2019s a certain naivety that gives way to this pure, inspired thing. You don\u2019t overthink stuff and whatever sounds good, you do. And the more you do music, and maybe even the more success you have in whatever way you define that, the more you\u2019re like, ‘Oh, people like this. I need to be doing this, or that guy\u2019s doing that. So no one else is gonna find this cool.’ There\u2019s that mindset.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the journey from Friends 1<\/em> and 2<\/em>, I\u2019ve been kind of unlearning stuff that I\u2019ve learned along the way to almost get back to the same spot I was at in Friends 1<\/em>. It was very rough around the edges. I mixed it, so the mixing isn\u2019t amazing. There are a lot of things I would change about it now, but I didn\u2019t make it now, I made it then. So I\u2019m very happy with how it was, but there\u2019s something about the way I made it. The lack of overthinking stuff, or even thinking about stuff at all\u2014just purely making it. It\u2019s a mixture of that mindset and the stuff you learn along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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