Connor Mac – About the new single I like before

Connor Mack is an artist who originally came from New Zealand but now lives in Switzerland. He is in a state of update here with a single Like I was beforeThen it was his first new solo Hip It was released in the fall of 2020.

Like I was before It is an emotional pop ballad based on a piano arrangement, reinforced with a nice beat and then featured by Connor’s soft voice.
I contacted the artist through Zoom for an interview, which you can read here.

So, who is Connor Mac?

– I am a 24 year old musician from New Zealand, currently living in Switzerland. I work full time as a live musician, but also write and produce songs in my studio in Switzerland.
I think my goal is to somehow break my music and take it to a new level. This is an ongoing project.
I’m into organic pop, but also use some neo-soul and a little down tempo tempo stuff.
I feel now as if I am testing myself to see what people are doing.

Is it temporary or do you live in Switzerland?

– Yes, I live here and have actually been a citizen since last year. Now I live and work at the Verbier Sky Resort, where I play more or less every night. But being here is fun and people love live music. If skiing and alcohol were in one place, you’d love listening to live music, haha.

How many times have you played Happy Home Alabama Last month?

-It’s at least a million, haha. No, but you should definitely play a specific type of music here. As long as people are singing, dancing and having fun, that’s the most important thing.

What are you missing from home?

-In recent years there have been some kiwis in New Zealand who have become very annoyed that it is not possible for us to go home.
But I will say that what I miss the most is my home. We live on a farm in the country. I look forward to going back soon and meeting the family again.

But do you know you have relatives in the UK too?

-Yes, my mom is from England. So some parts of her family still live there. My grandmother and some relatives. Otherwise, many in my family are spread all over the world. My mom’s sister lives in Colorado and another in Texas. And home in New Zealand.
But I still have some connection with Britain. I have a British passport. Whether I am British or Kiwi, this is the most confusing part for me. I even lost my dialect, haha.
All my best friends are British, so my friends at home do not recognize me. So I think this is an identity crisis, haha.

You started by issuing cards. How did you choose the different covers you made?

– My most popular sleep Unforgettable. It is a mix of two or three different songs. Two ScriptVin has songs and a little note James Blake. I found some nice rings and tried to write something of my own on them. I started singing all these weird songs with it all in my head Unforgettable I realized it was so good.
With Happy And East My favorite songs when they came out. So I chose them because they fascinated me and were in the current situation. The songs I listened to the most when I was training or skiing.

Did you still write your own songs or did you come later?

– I still wrote a lot. I have many different songs that I have not released yet. But then I could not get enough sound picture to make myself happy. I produce everything myself, so I didn’t grow enough to make it the way I wanted it to. I’ve grown so much lately, so that’s fine.
My cards are a way to reach a wider audience before I publish anything of my own.

Yes, you have a lot of followers on Instagram. How to build your brand there?

– Lots of marketing in it. When I publish songs, I usually do some marketing, which is my way of reaching out more widely. Instagram has also made it harder for a post to reach the masses without paying, except for the reels, which still look a little different in distribution. But at the same time, I always save a little money for marketing, which is okay anyway.

Tell me a little about Like I was before.

– I wrote this time last year. By then, everything was closed in Switzerland, and from November to June I could not play anything. It was hard because it was like removing a part of me. So that was the effect I had before. Reveal what’s going on in the meantime and lean a little into my relationship, I guess. Especially when I was writing. So that song was a good treatment for me to drop everything in one song.
A year later, I feel like things are being revived now. Now I write a lot, work a lot, have a lot of songs in stock. So that’s good.

I like the retro feel of the new song. It has over 80s. Your first songs are very captivating, almost a little jazzy. Do you want to continue this in style?

– Like I said before, I’m not trying to stick to a particular sound. But, when listening to songs together, I feel like there are still some commonalities. Then I have some more soulful songs. But some poppy songs are a little too much. I absolutely do not think it will be the same in every way, because it will not be fun.

Feeling we have ‘Run out of gas’ emotionally. I feel like you have evolved a lot as a producer. How do you see it for yourself?

One of the benefits of locking is that it works on its own and focuses on doing better. I was able to do even simple things like guitar training during this period.
When I finally finally perform the songs live again, I feel that my development as an artist is really visible.
I did a lot of production work during the lockout, so I hope people see progress. Then I want to prepare myself. Sitting in one room was weird, someone else was producing for me.

You did the song Be With Zac Pajak. Want to work with others on writing and creating for others?

– Absolutely. Now I am a little more selfish about my time and more focused on my own work. But in the long run, I can definitely see myself preparing and writing for others.
One of the disadvantages of living in the Alps is that if I lived in a big city, on the contrary, there are not enough musicians here that you can work with. If I really wanted to work on something I would have to move.

What do you think about the coming year?

– I have a team I work with now. So the next step is to take the Connor Mac package and offer it to different companies and labels. So that may be the big goal of this year. But I have some small goals this year, such as reaching a total of ten million streams on Spotify. I got about three million streams last year without even releasing a single song, so I think this is possible until I release something. I hope this catches my eye more as it will be easier to sell if you have a few streams behind you.

Connor Mac is currently up to date with the single I Like, and you can listen to the song below.