[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. 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.
[00:00:30] Whether you're a diehard music fan or just love discovering new sounds, this is the place where passion meets storytelling. 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! Okay listeners, it's time for Trevor and Chrissie to get together again. So Trevor, hi, what you're up to?
[00:01:00] Trevor McCormack I've been having fun. Hi everybody! So having fun how? Oh well, you know how we love sitting around campfires and playing music. Trevor McCormack Yep. Well I need a fridge in my four-wheel drive when I go up the beach and I've been going to do it forever. I've had the fridge forever, but I finally, a mate of mine, Brett, and he plays guitar and is one of Dave's students or was one of Dave's students for music. He said, I can help you do that.
[00:01:23] So off we set the other day and hooked up all the wiring from the battery in the front under the bonnet, all the way up through the chassis up to the back of my, I have a big box on the back of my ute, a four-wheel drive ute, a four-wheel drive ute, a four-wheel ranger. So we did that one day, I think that was only a couple of days ago, and he said, what are you doing Friday? And I said, busy. He said, what are you doing Saturday? He said, after work, nothing.
[00:01:46] He said, beauty, come on over today then and we'll finish the wiring. So I've learned so much how to wire camper batteries through everything, all the right fuses and everything and why this is that and why that's this and don't use Japanese wiring, use Aussie wiring. It just goes on and on. So I was an expert at cutting and splicing and joining and all that by the time I'd finished. So we have now, I can just roll my shade out off the side of my truck when we pull up on the beach.
[00:02:16] We can chuck out a swag, get the fire going, pull the guitars out and sit around a campfire and play music. Wish I was there. Yeah, well, it's not happened yet, but it's done. So I can do that anywhere. We can go country, we can go up the beach. As you know, our beaches are right here. It's 15 minutes and I'm on the beach and I just go up to camp around another 20 minutes up towards Caloundra Way and we just chill out and stay as long as you like.
[00:02:43] So obviously you've done this because you're planning a trip. Oh, look, I've been wanting, because I've worked so much, as you know, seven days a week and five nights. As I slow down, I want to get back to doing what I love. So surfboard on the roof, guitar in the back, double swag in the ute, fridge, a few lights, away you go. That's all you need, you know, a few cooking tinsels and a little stove. If you need the stove, you can't light fires and just chill out under the stars, which I love to do. So I need to do that. I need to ground myself again. So that's coming soon.
[00:03:13] Yeah, all of us, our family, tend to be like that, especially you and me and Mark. It's an essential to do that every so often just to ground ourselves again because life just gets far too hickety. Yep, that's correct. So we've been up to that. And well, you've been looking at studios, I've been looking at studios. How are you going with the studio? Well, I took my song down to David at South Creek Studios and he was amazing.
[00:03:41] He spent time with me and we went through the music and we went through some changes and we did quite a few different things with it. And we came up with a scratch track that I could send over to Maggie. I actually sent it to you last night. I was a bit embarrassed about the sound of my voice. You obviously haven't had a chance to have a listen to it yet. But yeah, have a listen and tell me what you think. And if the changes are too much or something's not right and let me know.
[00:04:10] But I've also sent it off to Maggie and it was a really nice experience. He didn't rush me. He didn't try and push his ideas onto me. It was a really comfortable experience. And if he did something that I didn't like, I just said, no, I don't like that. And he was fine. You got it. Yeah. But most of the suggestions he made suited quite well. So, you know, he was really good at doing that. So I was pretty pleased. Came home after two hours with a scratch track.
[00:04:40] He did all the chords on guitar. And then we went into the main studio where the piano is. And he put down a little bit of it in piano so I could hear what it sounded like. Because I want the piano behind it. Yep. And these are beautiful. Yes. Yeah. I was pretty tickled pink that I got my scratch track. And I sent it off to Maggie. She's down in Sydney at the moment. So she'll go back shortly and have a look at it.
[00:05:06] And let me know what she thinks of it when she gets back. Now, is she going to sing that for you down in Sydney if we end up down there? Is she? Yes. And I am going to get her to record it anyway. Even if we don't get to the finals, I want to get it recorded and put it up and out there. Oh, I can't wait to hear that. That'll be fantastic. Yeah. So I'm so pleased. Everybody says the words are beautiful. And you're the singer.
[00:05:34] I'm the creative writer. Very good. And that's it. The lyrics in that just blew my mind. I couldn't believe it. It was just, wow, what a story. What an amazing feel. And the depth of the story. Just, wow. Hit home. Thank you. I don't know if I told you the story, but I'll quickly tell the listeners the story.
[00:05:56] I was sitting here one night in my lounge chair with my two cats and the news on and watching, you know, people suffering from being bombed and smashed and kids dying. And it was just horrific. It reminded me of that song from Skyhook's horror movie. Oh, right. About watching the news. Yeah. There'd been so much pain and horror and inaction by every body that's at the top of the world.
[00:06:24] And I just couldn't hold it in anymore. I turned the TV off. The tears were flowing. And I just wrote it. And it was just gut-wrenching. Yeah. It just poured out of me. Your passion is so deep and you have to tell a story. You just have to. Yeah. Yep. That's it. It was like, you know, it's just wrong. Everything that's happening is wrong and the people at the top are not doing a damn thing about it. You watch Ukraine and, sorry, I'm getting passionate.
[00:06:54] This is why the song is so deep. You know, you watch Ukraine. None of that should have happened. The reason nobody did anything about it was because they didn't belong to the boys' club, you know. That made me so angry. It never should have gotten that far. They never should have been allowed to cross the border. And that's how I was feeling. I was so angry and so upset and so hurting for all those innocent lost lives. And that's where that song came from. Yep.
[00:07:23] That's exactly how it works. Good job. So how did you go with the studios? All right. I've gone pretty good. I will be heading down to Byron back next month. So we're going to do a three-day zip down there. And hopefully our engineer is all good and ready to go. So I've pre-planned. I've sent that message down saying these are the dates I'll be there. And so the idea is good brekkie, early surf, and into the studio, all refreshed.
[00:07:50] And hopefully, cross fingers, we can – well, we'll just start with one song and then we'll go from there and see what happens through the day. So then it's probably a surf in the afternoon if I can get out of the studio. If not, it's another surf in the next morning and we'll do that three days in a row. That is the life to live. Well, I think I need – as you say, I need some groundies. I need some salt water. I need some sunshine. I need some exercise. Get them lungs, you know, open right up and redo this thing. So that's Byron Bay. That'll be next month.
[00:08:20] I had a friend of mine. He's son-in-law. He's a pretty high-tech guy. And he said to me the other day as well, oh, how about you pop over? I can do all this sort of thing as well. He said, just for fun. Let's see what we can do. He's a very techie guy with his company. Very high up. Travels the world apparently. And you wouldn't believe it. He is blind. He's been blind since birth. The most loveliest man you'll ever meet.
[00:08:47] And he just said, Trev, come on over when you get time. He's about an hour away from me. Let's have some fun and record a few things and just see what happens. So I've gone, mate, I would love to do that. He's a great singer too. Very good vocalist. They love to sing. His partner does shows on stage, brutal Broadway stuff and all sorts of things. So that was really exciting for them to just turn around. And how it started was they were all singing karaoke. We had a party and they're all singing karaoke.
[00:09:16] I slipped over there and popped in to say happy birthday to my mate. His birthday it was. And Jamie, that's his name, he was singing karaoke. And I looked at his wife and said, wave to her, like, give me the other microphone. And I was in the kitchen. Anyway, he's singing away and I'm starting to do backups. And you can see people sort of going, wow, this sounds really good. And they're looking around. And I'm hiding in the kitchen. I'm singing from the kitchen with his karaoke microphone.
[00:09:44] Anyway, and it was, of all things, it was, I think it was not Bohemian Rhapsody, but it was a Queen song. And with all the highs and lows and all the, I think it was Galileo, Galileo. Yeah, it was that one. Anyway, he said, who's that? Who was that? He says, oh, that was Trevor. Oh, wow. He said, that was great fun. So he had a really good time. So we got chatting later on. He was in the kitchen washing up the dishes.
[00:10:13] And I started chatting with him. And we were chatting for about half an hour and said, all right, let's do this. So that's another avenue as well. He said, come on, let's have some fun. We'll see what happens. So that would be a bit of digital stuff with me. That would be interesting, digital. Yeah. So basically, he's putting in all of the drums or the guitars and things on programs. So I said, let's just try one and see how it comes out, see how it sounds, see what the feel is.
[00:10:40] Because our aim is to just get a track clear enough, good enough, mastered enough to put on Spotify and all the platforms. MREP. Yeah, yeah. And get it all out there. So we'll do the studio in Byron. And we'll see that'll come out beautifully because that's a proper rule of the studio. But I'm not sure what he can do with all the rest of the band. So I might have to come back. I might have to bring some guys down to do the leads and the drums and all that.
[00:11:06] But I'm not sure what this technician is capable of doing on the days that we're there. Backup vocals, all that sort of thing. There's a lot that goes in if you do it piece by piece. The other way is the digital way. And you can put in a bit of this and a bit of that and a little saxophone riff. And so we'll just see what he's got in Puppy's sleeve. And I think he's more experimental. I know they said they have recorded stuff. And he had a great time. But he said, I'd really love to record your voice and what you do.
[00:11:36] Let's have some fun. Let's just get together and see what happens. So we'll go and do that as well. So he's about an hour away from me. So I said, all right, I'll be in touch. And we'll get together. And we'll have a bit of a muck around and a bit of fun. Speaking of fun, I was having fun for a couple of hours today. I went down to Jamie's where Stacey's Got a Gun, a band, and a whole lot of other friends got together. And Neville from The Sodds, which is the Sounds of Dire Straits band.
[00:12:06] The Sodds. Yeah, The Sodds. It's short for Songs of Dire Straits. And we had a bit of a jam session down there, which was a lot of fun. We had a piano and we had guitars. And Neville had an amazing guitar. A mate just, yeah, I can't even describe it. It was just awesome. I sent you a photo of it. But everybody said to say hello. And when are you coming back down so they can play with you again? It was a couple of hours, but it was a lot of fun. Yes, well, I had a lot of fun there last time.
[00:12:34] I was probably a bit shy and didn't do too much. But it was, yeah, it was next time I come down there, I'll just, yeah, really chill out and play some, you know, a bit longer and a bit more. And we'll have a big jam. Yeah, for sure. For sure. And speaking of guitars and jamming, so that's a steel, I think it's a type of a steel guitar. Yeah, yeah, it's a metal of some sort. But, oh, my gosh, seeing it, a photo just doesn't do it justice. It is an amazing guitar, close up.
[00:13:03] It's got just the different cut-out patterns that I've never seen before in a steel guitar, which is, they're a unique sound. You can't miss them. Yeah. He plays the Dire Straits songs with that guitar and the sound is amazing. Oh, there you go. Well, I'm guilty of buying some new guitars lately too. Oh, yes, you showed me some. So tell us about these two new guitars. Well, I went into the, my mate said he'll take, we had to go into the hospital and he had to go into Brisbane and do some things.
[00:13:32] So we did what we had to do and finished up pretty quick and early there. He said, we'll pick up some wiring for your four-wheel drive on the way back because we go past the shop. And then he said to me, oh, Dave is in the music shop today because my lead guitarist, Dave, he works in Asplink Music Shop. And he said, let's go say hello. I said, oh, I said, mate, every time I walk into that shop, I come out with something. And he laughed, he went, oh, yeah, right. And he didn't believe me.
[00:14:00] And I said, well, okay, let's go see Dave. And I've been searching for a little mini, what they call mini tailor. A guitar neck is the same, but the body's much smaller. So they're great for sitting in, like if you're sitting in a car, you can play it, you know, with the window down or you sit in the back of the car, you can play this guitar. They're small enough. They're bigger than a ukulele, but smaller than a guitar. So they're a mini, what they call a mini. Okay. So I've been looking for one for a while. My mate's got one, I played it, the action wasn't right and I fixed it all up for him.
[00:14:30] He said, you can play it whenever you want. And I thought, oh, that's lovely, but I can't keep someone else's guitar and keep using it. So I sorted that out for him and I really liked it. I thought, this is not bad, but I want a bit of upper market quality. I need something really good because I want to record with it as well. So we get into this shop and Brett, he plays guitar. I play guitar. Dave works there. He's a magic guitarist. And the company's been taken over by a new company that's from up Mooloola Bar way.
[00:14:59] So they've got heaps of brand new stock. And he did tell me this a couple of weeks back. So I thought, oh, yeah, I'll get to have a look at all these new guitars. So I get in there. Dave just looks at me and I smile. I'm like, oh, a kid in a candy shop. It was overwhelming. I didn't know where to look. There was that many guitars on the wall and good quality guitars. I'm going, oh. And I love Cole Clark guitars, Australian made. And just I love them. And there's just a bunch of them up there.
[00:15:27] And I'm like, oh, Gibson's. You name it. They're all there. Everything's there. Martin's. Anyway, I said, look, all right. We're here. We come to say hello. Do you want to get lunch? He says, oh, no, I'm too busy. I've got a heap of stuff to do for students and arrange things during lunch. But he says, look, you want to have a look around? I said, oh, minis. I'm looking at a mini guitar. He said, oh, we've got heaps of them. I said, beauty. Give me the best. I said, whatever you got. Just give me only the best of what you got.
[00:15:55] And we'll muck around and see what happens. He pulls out two stools, sits them in the aisle of the music shop and comes down, tunes it as he's walking over, hands me one, goes back, gets another one, tunes it, gives it to my mate, Brett. And we start playing guitars. So we're playing all these tunes and getting the feel of it. In the end, I think he must have been passing around five or six guitars in like a loop. We'd play one. Then I'd hand it to Brett.
[00:16:24] Brett would hand one back to Dave. David would hand me one. And we'd play the next one. And it went around and around until we got down to two. And I said, I really like this. It's really deep. It's got the most beautiful depth. For a little tiny guitar, you strum it and it just hummed out strong and loud. And I'm like, I really like this. He goes, you like those deep sounds because you can really belt a guitar around in rhythm. And he says, you can play it gently and beautifully, which the depth is really good.
[00:16:52] And you can just smash it as a rock song. And I went, yeah, I think I really like this. I said, but the other one's got a different sound. It sounded thinner, but so beautiful and clear. But I need something I can do both. Anyway, we come down to the last one. And I went, yeah. I said, this is the guitar. And Brett looks at me like, what? You're going to buy that? I said, here, Dave. Take that. Put it on the counter. And he said, no. And he looks at the price tag of it. And he says, he looks at me and goes to tell me.
[00:17:22] I don't want to know. I said, I need a guitar. That's what I need. That's what I'm going to buy. Yeah, but I said, Dave will look after me. He's, you know, not a problem. So with this, my mate's already asked me to pick up an amp for it. And a beautiful amp, too. Anyway, it's worth a lot of money. And I'd already pre-ordered that and said to him, put that aside for me, which he did. And so here's Brett thinking, oh, yeah. All right, though. He's going to buy a guitar.
[00:17:51] So we get up there. I said, all right, I'll pay for this amp we're going to buy. He goes, amp? I said, oh, yeah. And he watches me fix that up. And he's like, wow. I won't mention numbers. He's like, what? You just buy what you want when you want. I said, I told you. You bring me in here and I'm going to buy something. He said, yeah. And you're going to buy the guitar, too? I said, yeah, yeah, yeah. He goes, oh. I said, look. We'll look at the price after Dave comes back with his discount. Anyway, so he comes over. I showed him the docket.
[00:18:20] He went, oh, wow. I said, cheap, wasn't it? He goes, that's amazing. I said, yeah. Now we can buy another one. So we walked over. And he's got this beautiful cold clock that is acoustic, slim body with electric pickup. So you have an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar all in one. Great for if you're on stage and you do a beautiful ballad and you want to throw a bit of hard guitar rock into it. Or just the next song is a rock song.
[00:18:49] You just click the switch and away you go. Anyway, I pulled that down. I played it, played it, played it, handed it to Brett. So he played this. He played it. I took it back. It had the best action. It was so smooth and so close. It was off the racket. You didn't have to touch it. You just plug her in and away you go. So anyway, I said, yeah, just put that aside for me. Anyway, by the time I got home, I said to Brett, I said, oh. He says, are you really going to buy that?
[00:19:18] And I rang up and I said, mate, yep, keep that aside. Here's a deposit. I'll take that as well. So I went home and thought about it for a little while. Only a little while. So I thought, you know what? I work around the clock. I work my butt off and I don't waste money. I don't smoke. I don't drink. You know, I save every penny. I work hard. So when I can, so I can do that when I want to. So I went by another thing for another two, three, four, five, six years.
[00:19:47] But it was time to just get now. I've got three, one, two, three, perfect recording guitars to put in studios. Because a guitar you can buy off the shelf, believe it or not. You can say, oh, it's worth $600. Beautiful, nice guitar. Wow. It's amazing. It's a good brand. But when you play up the neck, all the way up the neck to right up as far as you can go, if it's not a fully tuned guitar, it won't be in key. It'll sound great.
[00:20:14] But if you record, it will actually be out of key. Okay. So you can buy a guitar that is perfectly noted every fret all the way up that neck. But when you pull a chord, it's exactly in the right key. And that's why you pay two and three and four and six and $8,000 for a guitar. Because it is solid bodies. It's built beautifully. It's tuned. The actual base of the guitar, the hollow part of an acoustic guitar,
[00:20:44] they shape bits of wood off it inside when they're making it before they seal it up. And it's actually tuned. So the body's tuned, the neck is tuned, everything is perfect to the key. So the thing is people don't realize. They think you just buy a guitar off the rack. Well, you can. But if you want a guitar to record with, you have to buy the perfect tuned guitar. Okay. So you've given yourself an early Christmas present. Yes.
[00:21:14] I have for birthday one for Christmas. One for Father's Day maybe. Whichever you want to pick. Well, it sounds like you had a lot of fun. Spent a little bit of money. But it was well worthwhile. Yeah. We were in there for a good, I don't know, hour and a half, two hours. Singing songs and playing guitars. And the boss, his boss just looked and went, oh, wow. So I bought two guitars and an amplifier all in one day. She's smiling and going, like these guys, they can come back. Fair enough. Okay. So what's next?
[00:21:43] So that's about it. Guitars. We've got studios happening. Cross fingers, everything falls into place. And something strikes right and feels good. And that's where we're going to record. Or we might do one song here and one song there and one song here. I've still got to get in touch with Rory. He's a great recording guy and a great musician. So maybe that's what we do. And then we come down to Sydney and we'll do one or two down there. And we'll just see what happens. Maybe that might be the Flavor Reed song.
[00:22:13] Well, Stacey's got a gun, want to record with you. Then I found another young band called Gazza, who've got a really good sound, who want to record with you. So, yeah. Down in Sydney we've got some things happening that might be interesting to investigate. I will have to sort of work a song and send it to them all and see what they want to do with it.
[00:22:42] How about that? How about we do that? Yeah, well, I have no issue with Stacey's got a gun because you know Michael will take it and make it magic. Yeah, I haven't worked with Gazza Band yet, but they sound wonderful. And I'm actually working with one of the girls that does the backup singing for them as well. Oh, something. Yeah, she's a lovely lass.
[00:23:04] And she's come on board to help me with my social media stuff and for Radio Northern Beaches and Northern Beaches Entertainment because she's actually a uni student and she is doing media and majoring in film. Well, if you've got anything I can hear of her backing, let's send it up to me. Band, how many's in the band?
[00:23:25] I'm still finding out about them at the moment, but I'll go and have a look because I was given one of their songs to put on my radio program on Tuesday morning at 7 o'clock if anybody's listening in, rnb.org.au. And I'm going to play at least one of their songs. I'm going to go and look and see what else they've got happening. I heard it and I really liked it. Oh, I'd like to hear that because if you've got a whole band you can go down to and they just go... Well, I've got two whole bands down here right now that you can work with.
[00:23:55] As I said, Stacey's got a gun which you know you've worked with them. They can play just about anything and everything. And Gazza is a younger band so it'll be interesting to see how they would work with you. Yeah, well, that's... I'll have to just make a trip down and especially hang out and play some music and see how they slide in. Really, that's all you do. Yeah, that'll be a lot of fun. So it looks like you're going to have to make another visit. Yep, and you know what? That's what slowing down's all about.
[00:24:24] Well, I think we've gone on long enough. It's a longer than usual chat but we had a lot to chat about. Having fun, see? Yeah. In this particular episode we've let out a lot of passion. Oh, yes, yes. Well, you know what my next passion's going to be? Then we can say goodbye. I'm going to cook myself some bangers and mash that I haven't had forever. Oh, I wish I was there.
[00:24:49] And gravy, you know, over the sausage and over the mashed potato and veg. And gravy, yeah, and onion. Yum. One of our favourite dinners. All right, well, I'm going to love you and leave you and I will catch up with you shortly. All right. Lots of love. Okay, love everybody. Play that music or sing them songs. Now don't forget to check out Trevor McCormack's YouTube
[00:25:15] 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.