This release, entitled 2, was received well by critics, garnering a 'Best New Music' designation from Pitchfork. Rock and Roll Night Club impressed his new label enough that they agreed to release a full-length follow-up album. The four-track-recorded album features skits and slowed-down vocals. In early 2012, he released an LP titled Rock and Roll Night Club. On January 9, 2012, record label Captured Tracks announced the signing of DeMarco. Failing to find work as a musician, he participated in medical experiments for money and worked on a road paving crew. In 2011, DeMarco moved from Vancouver to Montreal to begin recording as a solo artist. He was joined by Alex Calder and Jen Clement, signed to Unfamiliar Records, and toured with Vancouver band Japandroids in 2009. DeMarco worked on 'psychedelic' video projects during this time. Living in the Killarney neighbourhood, he released a self-produced album, Heat Wave, as a part of the indie rock project Makeout Videotape in 2009.

2009–2012: Early projects and first solo album Īfter graduating from Strathcona High School in Edmonton in 2008, DeMarco became a backing musician. He started smoking cigarettes as a teenager, which has now become a big part of his image. During high school he was in several bands, including indie rock band The Meat Cleavers, alternative R&B group The Sound of Love and post-punk band Outdoor Miners (along with current keyboardist, Alec Meen), which was named after a song by English rock band Wire. Around this time he started playing guitar, with lessons from his grandmother. ĭeMarco attended McKernan School for junior high. His mother, Agnes DeMarco, later changed his name to McBriare Samuel Lanyon DeMarco, after his father left when Mac was 4 and refused to pay child support. His great-grandfather is Vernor Smith, Alberta's former Minister of Railways and Telephones, for whom DeMarco was named, and his grandfather (also named Vernor Winfield McBriare Smith) was a judge of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta. Life and career 1990–2008: Early life and education ĭeMarco was born in Duncan, British Columbia on Vancouver Island, and raised in Edmonton, Alberta.

1.6 2021–present: Line-up changes and future.

1.2 2009–2012: Early projects and first solo album.

Mac demarco allmusic