12am.com.au : Mixing Music Media


	.: Paul Mac - 3000 Feet!

Date of Interview: 23 August 2001
Contributed by: James Belias

When paulmac’s debut single ‘Heatseeking Pleasure Machine’, a sleazy slab of club land sold out within days of going on sale, the man behind the tunes must have thought something was up.

“It was a bit of a surprise,” paulmac announces, “everything else I’d done was commercially unsuccessful, you know. So to be selling so many copies in a short period of time was interesting!” Sure enough, it was a sign of things to come with the release of the follow up single, ‘Just The Thing’ and the album which spawned the two singles 3000 Feet High. For a guy who has spent over a decade more or less in the underground dance scene, this success may come as a surprise. 12am dutifully investigates matters further....

The chart-topping track ‘Just The Thing’ is a delicious slice of uplifting house, with its memorable vocals courtesy of little known singer Peta Morris and a roof raising choir. The single has since gone on to top various Australian sales and airplay charts thrusting paulmac and crew into the big picture. Live outings have so far included performances on Channel V and a memorable performance on Channel Ten’s Rove. “That was crazy. It was totally live, bar the electronic samples! It was Peta’s fourth gig ever. Her fourth live singing appearance was to 1.3 million people. She was shitting herself and so was I (laughs)”.

Based on the diversity of paulmac’s previous work in Australian dance circle’s (Kiva, Boo Boo & Mace, B(if)Tek and of course Itchee and Scratchee) 3000 Feet High could have been expected to cover so much musical territory. The tranquillity of the Blue Mountains, paulmac’s current residence, is so far removed from the bustling metropolis of Sydney that it must have served as a mental retreat and source of inspiration for paulmac. “I think it was also living alone for the first time and being a bit more isolated. I had six brothers and sisters and from there it was share accommodation and then it was relationships and when that happens, it was kind of confronting and I had no distractions and I was really there with my own thoughts. Being alone for a while and then all these lyrics came out, which I wasn’t really expecting”.

From obvious dance-based moments to moody chill out numbers and spacious instrumental soundscapes, 3000 Feet High covers a lot of unexpected territory. “People had a perception that the album would be more dancey, you know, I think everyone thought it would be more like ‘Just The Thing’, but its not. In lots of ways it is like a chill out album. A lot of influences are there, and it reflects the way it was written and where I was at in my life. It was a bit more introspective and chilled and moody and of course a bit more emotional and that is what came out”.

Upon examination, the album sleeve credits speak for themselves. Written, recorded, produced, and mixed by Paulmac, of course with associated guests like additional vocalists and musicians. Such an arrangement gave Paulmac the ability and the opportunity to control the ideas and what subsequently happened on the album, rather than leaving it to someone else. “For years I did that for other people. Even with Itchee and Scratchee, Itchee started the ideas and then I finished it off, because that’s where my skills were. I was better at completing it and making it happen. So for years I’d acted more as a producer”.

Musically, in my case, it was always the more emotional thing. With Itchee and Scratchee, my thing had always been the moody chords or the beautiful melodies, whereas Andy was always taking care of the drums and the weird head-spacey ideas. But for this album, it was nice to just totally explore my own thing instead of adding my input to something else. So from playing it at the piano, to taking it to the computer then to writing the lyrics and recording it and mixing it, it was nice to actually sculpt the whole song exactly how I wanted it. I think that for that reason alone, this has to be my favourite album so far.

As a classically trained graduate of Sydney’s conservatorium, paulmac obviously draws a lot from his traditional music upbringing. “That was the starting point and when I was fourteen or fifteen, I knew it was all about music and its that or death (laughs) because it was the only thing I wanted to do in my life. It’s been a slow process from there”.

Completing the album from the initial conception of his ideas to the final tweaking of knobs in the production phase has taken paulmac over two years. It may seem like a lengthy period to allocate to a single project, but paulmac willingly distracted himself with other projects. “I was doing a lot of other stuff at the same time. Simultaneously, I did the Itchee and Scratchee album, the thing with Daniel, (Johns from silverchair) I Can’t Believe Its Not Rock, and I was musical director on Good News Week. So I’d be doing one thing and then I’d get a day off so I’d sit down and put down some ideas. When I’m doing it like that, I find I use a different part of my brain so its more stimulating. Jumping from one to the other it energised me”.

3000 Feet High has an unmistakable quality that makes it all seem so real. Paulmac’s use of live instrumentation where possible rather than lifeless samples may well be the source of this almost organic feel. “The live thing is cool, so you get to bring in other people who you know can achieve the sound you want. Then they come in and get what your doing and bring their own ideas and interpretation to the project.

“But hey, you know I got busted for sampling a few years ago and the record got pulled and its to boring to go into so I don’t do it any more! But what I was doing on this record, I was just creating my own samples. Like I got a friend up who was a guitarist and we were mucking around one day and the DAT was rolling and recording. Then I listened back to it and sift through the tape, and I’d get ideas for a loop, which is how the riff of Heatseaker came about.

The commercial potential for ‘Just The Thing’ is plainly clear. Each few months it seems a major house-based club track makes the cross over to radio land, just as Modjo’s ‘Lady’ and Spiller’s ‘Groovejet’. Now the new wave of potential crossover tracks is sweeping through and along with The Superman Lover’s track ‘Starlight’ paulmac’s ‘Just The Thing’ seems poised to explode onto the dials of Fox Fm. This, according to paulmac, is a good thing.

“I’m really happy if ‘Just The Thing’ can clear the way for a few more local artists to come through like Love Tattoo and Sgt Slick, who’s getting a good run now. Then these commercial stations can go “Fuck, there’s this whole local dance thing that we didn’t quite notice. Like Madison Avenue were the first major thing, who opened the doors so I’m hoping that is going to continue for quite a while.”

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