Mac Miller: With the sound off

Mac Miller, real name Malcolm McCormick, is not your average 21 year old. From releasing his first mixtape in 2007 at age 15, getting signed to Rostrum Records (also home to fellow Pittsburgh native Wiz Khalifa) and selling out his debut tour at 18, to having his first albumBlue Side Park (2011) debut at #1 on the Billboard charts, age 20, it suffice to say his career trajectory has been incredible.

Despite all this success, Miller remains humble and determined for more. Yet it’s hard to reconcile Mac Miller the wildly successfully rapper from Pennsylvania with Mac Miller your average 21 year old, chain-smoking and hungover from going out in Kings Cross the night before.

When asked about his thoughts regarding his accomplishments, he sagely replies, “Your level of success is self-determined. I guess I’m kinda successful but not close to where I want to be. It’s not necessarily a financial thing, I want to be producing and writing records for other people all the time. I want to have my music be looked at and appreciated for what it is. I think this year is a big year for me.”

Indeed it is, this year sees him touring in the southern hemisphere for the first time, declaring that “Auckland was one of my favourite shows I’ve ever done”, but also the year of his much anticipated sophomore album Watching Movies With the Sound Off, the name derived from Miller’s habit of making music in the studio while watching films on mute.

Miller cites films such as Space is the Place, Moonrise Kingdom andBeetlejuice, to nature documentaries, (Birds of God being a particular favourite) and the Secret Life of Plants, as visual inspiration for the album. Miller likes to imagine that “there’s a certain movie that’s playing inside my head and I’m just making the music to it.”

The album remains just one song away from completion. Due for a May/June release, Miller says “I have to put a hook on one song and Schoolboy Q has to lay his verse. Me and Q have done like nine songs, he’s going to kill me but we have to do another one.”

When questioned why none of the nine already finished songs will make the cut, Miller reveals some of the perfectionist qualities under his seemingly insouciant exterior. “I love them, but the album isn’t necessarily about putting all the best songs in a playlist, it’s putting together something that makes sense.” Miller gestures to the sky, “There’s a lot of curiosity about whatever’s going on about there. God…heaven…aliens…”

The first song to be released off the album is produced by Earl Sweatshirt, of Odd Future notoriety. Miller describes the track as “one of the illest songs I’ve ever done”. He remains cagey about further details, but reveals that through Earl he met Vince Staples, the Tumblr-darling rapper from Long Beach, California who gave us the line, “Look, you know it’s not rape if you like it, bitch/So sit down like a pretty ho and don’t fight the shit” on the track epaR off Sweatshirt’s 2010 debut album Earl. Miller describes Staples as one of his favourite people to work with and reveals that they are working on a whole project together.

“I love producing, it’s my favourite shit. I want to be a super producer. I’m blessed that I have a lot of friends so I’m able to get a head start on production. I already produced tracks for like Ab-Soul and Schoolboy Q. The producing thing I’m taking really seriously. I think that I’m onto something with production. It’s a different way of expressing yourself without using words, which is nice. Trying to express yourself with words gets frustrating, there’s not enough words in the English language.”

Speaking of super producers, Miller and Pharrell Williams are collaborating on a joint EP entitled Pink Slime, inspired by, of all things, anarchy. The EP, slated for release once the album’s run is over, is “going to be wild. It’s a symbolism of anarchy. I like the idea of starting a revolution, that’s what we’re trying to do here.” From the sounds of the first two tracks that have been released, Onaroll andGlow, we can expect dance-y club synths and 808 drum beats paired with Miller’s rhymes, which may not be anarchic but are definitely unusual and different.