[00:00:00] Welcome to Trevor McCormack Music Podcast. I'm Chrissie Mack from Radio Northern Beaches and I couldn't be more excited to kick off this musical journey with you. Joining me is my brother, the legendary Trevor McCormack, known as Mack, a true storyteller and music enthusiast.
[00:00:18] With each episode, we're peeling back the layers behind the hits, sharing untold stories from artists and exploring what sparks the creativity behind the music that moves us all. Whether you're a diehard music fan or just love discovering new sounds, this is the place where passion meets storytelling.
[00:00:38] So, hit the follow button, share this with your fellow music lovers and leave a review. Your support keeps the vibe alive. Turn up the volume and get ready to be inspired. And let's dive into the world of music together. Let's go! Hello listeners, it's Chrissie Mack again talking to her brother Trevor. Hi Trev. Hey, hi everybody. How are we going today? So, you've been busy working on the house this week?
[00:01:04] I have been, yes, up, pick a guitar, put a guitar down, pick a guitar, put a guitar down. Then I went, I need to do these jobs. I have Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoon free. I haven't booked anything now. I'm good to go. Right, now's the time.
[00:01:21] So, I've been putting jobs off around the house. Just repairs and little things that are fix-ups and paint and touch-ups. And I just never, I put everybody else first. My jobs come first. The RSL where I work comes first. I get all that done and I come home and I think, I'll start something.
[00:01:37] Then I've got to clean it all up and then I've got to go to work. So, it never gets done. So, that's my challenge. So, today I woke up this morning and went, I have a day clear. This is what I'm going to do. And away I went. So, I've been up and down the six metre ladder because my place is two storeys in the back all day. Up and down, up and down. So, you're going to feel that in the morning.
[00:01:58] Oh, I never thought about that. Tomorrow, yes. Yeah. And I didn't have my work boots because I threw them in the bin because they were too old, worn out. And I've been wearing some runners for work. So, I actually was up and down this ladder all day out there in the beautiful sunshine, which is amazing. It's lovely to just get a bit of sun and just, you know, a pair of shorts and a pair of thongs. Makes you feel really healthy. I was wearing a pair of thongs all day, up and down the ladder. That's not good. That is a bad thing for your back and your legs.
[00:02:28] Well, not an ache, not a pain. Wait till tomorrow morning. It might have been a workout and stretch everything really well. We'll soon see. I'll ring you tomorrow and say, help me. You won't be able to move. Anyway, I got the job done. I got it all finished. Well, not finished. I got everything I wanted to do in the day done. And that was, well, I'll be pretty impressed. I should have had scaffolding. But no, up, down, up, down, up, down.
[00:02:57] And you can only work so far left and right when you're going up a ladder. That's correct. You're painting and cutting in around things. It's like, well, I'll paint the left side. I'll paint the right side. The ladder's in the way. Move the ladder over two feet. Go back up. And then you paint the middle bit. You missed. And you went, oh, maybe I should have just started the left and just went. And just kept going left. Exactly. Anyway, either or either. I had to go up and down, up and down. All right. Well, getting on to music.
[00:03:26] You've been playing with your new guitar and you actually got to plug it in. Tell me about that. Oh, well, yes. Only one. So my little tailor, my mini tailor, as beautiful as it is, I haven't had a chance to plug that in and put it through an amplifier or a PA yet. But my mate, Pete, he rang me. He said, we're going for dinner. Steak night. I said, yep, Thursday night. We have a steak down here. So let's go. In saying that, I said, oh, I've got to plug this cold Clark in.
[00:03:52] Like, it's, mate, I've read the reviews on it and it's supposed to be, like, amazing. Like, I need to hear it. I said, I bought it. So what do you say? He says, well, bring it around. I'll put it into my Fender amp and we'll give it a run. Well, it's actually got two connections, two plugs where you plug the lead into. You can plug one into the first connection, which is an acoustic guitar. And there's another one you plug into and it is the lead guitar, which I didn't realise.
[00:04:20] I thought you just switched the switch over from one to the other. So I thought, all right, this is going to be different on stage because I don't want to be pulling plugs in and out. And we come up with the idea of, well, it's got two inputs. If we can run two inputs into it, we'll run two wireless. I've got a couple of wireless. We'll plug one into the acoustic jack and we'll plug one into the electric guitar jack. Then we can run one to a PA, the acoustic guitar through my Evolve PA.
[00:04:47] And we can run the electric and have it hook into one of the amps. That way you just turn one on, turn one off. We did this last night anyway and put it through the Fender amp. And oh my goodness, it has got the most mellow, beautiful, like for blues, jazz, love songs. It's got the most softest, nice tones I've ever heard. So I was pretty impressed by the time we finished playing with all the switches and getting it right.
[00:05:17] But yeah, I can't wait to actually put it through my PA, my tower because it sounds like it'll really do well. So it was well worth the money. Yes, yes. I worked hard for that one. So I spoil myself every now and then, as you know. And why not? That's what music's about. You have some good instruments and it just improves what you do. So you're heading down to Byron Bay this weekend. It's so close. I'm so excited. And you're going to take that one with you, aren't you? I am.
[00:05:46] I'm actually going to take three. I'm going to take, I've got two Cole Clarks. One's just an acoustic. The other one's the acoustic electric, all in one. And my little tailor. I'll take that just in case because it's got such a deep, deep, beautiful tone. And we'll see what the engineer says as I pick a couple of songs and go from there. So have you decided exactly which songs you're going to do? I have in my head, so I will still think about it on the way. But I reckon, look, before I go down, I will, I'll make a decision. I'll actually write it down.
[00:06:14] I'll go, right, this one, this one, this one. Yeah, I think you need to because it's really hard if you don't write it down. You get down there and you go, no, maybe I think this one. No, maybe I think that. No, maybe. So you need to make a decision. Yes, yes, yes. So that when you get down there, you know exactly what you're going to do. Pete's just walked in. He's brought me some curry dinner, actually. So he can tell you what sort of sounds he got out of that guitar if he likes. Yeah, hi, Pete. How are you doing? Good, how are you? I'm good.
[00:06:43] Trev was saying you plugged in the guitar, the new guitar. What do you think of the sound? Oh, it was great. It had multiple sounds. It's got two types of pickups in them. What's the pickups in it? A humbucker? You've got a humbucker in there, two straight pickups in it. That's in an acoustic guitar. Well, you can run it either electric or acoustically. And he's got one of the volume pots. You can pull it in and out, which changes the sound again. Makes it really soft and smooth.
[00:07:12] And then he's got a five-way switch in it, plus another switch that can actually turn it off. Or splits the pickups in it. So it's got a lot of variations in it. Yeah, yeah. It took us a while to sort of work out what was what at first. He got some beautiful sounds from it. Yeah, yeah, all kinds. And that's just in the guitar itself. Just straight into an amplifier. Yeah, yeah. So how else can you use it other than just straight into an amplifier? Oh, we can put it through my PA, as I was saying before.
[00:07:42] So I'll put it into my PA through all my pedals and what I've got. And yeah, it'll make it a beautiful sound. It's called a DI direct. DI direct, yeah. Direct line to the PA. Or you can throw it through an amplifier. So what sort of songs do you reckon it would be best used on? Oh, for what it is playing. Yeah, everything I do. Yeah, yeah. Because it's got multiple. It's multiple. It's got many sounds. So you can have, if it's a rock song, put your guitar in. You flick it.
[00:08:11] Your switch is down. Your five-way or six. Five-way switch. Five-way switch. Throw that down and get a real good twang out of it. I'd be a rock song. If you want something a bit heavier or deeper, you just, yeah, you come back and just change your settings and pick your sound that feels right for that song. You know it when you hear it. You'll play a song and go, I love the feel of that. It's a nice sound. It's got some nice sounds to it. It's quite warm. And you can make it very stratic sound too. Very, very standard. Which is a Stratocaster sound. Sento.
[00:08:40] Very standard sound. So it's got a lot of variations. It's a good guitar. So I will be taking that with me to Byron Bay next week and we'll see what happens. Well, I look forward to hearing the scratch tracks with it being used. Yeah. Yeah. That could be a lot of fun. All right. I'm going to let you go because you need to eat after all the work you've been doing today. Thanks, Pete, for telling us all about how the guitar works. No problem. And thanks for feeding my brother. Yeah. It's got a curry.
[00:09:10] I don't know how you're going. Ah, well, we'll see. All right. I'll catch you guys later. Take care. Lots of love. Take care, everybody. Bye. Bye. Now don't forget to check out Trevor McCormack's YouTube and you can also go to Trevor McCormack Music for any podcasts that you might have missed. So don't forget to follow and share. Bye.