shop local eat local listen local this is maxing radio we are local music
heavy change that is mac o' brine right here on max ink radio uh that was brand new from her
that's a brand new song and we're lucky to have mac o' brine right here in the studio
mac o' brine has done over one thousand shows since going professional nine years ago
and she started in dive bars between Illinois and Wisconsin and slowly built up from solo to
dual gigs to a full band and have played uh Wisconsin's country thunder and Milwaukee's
summerfest headlining the country stage tonight mac o' brine and her band will perform in whiskey
jacks on state street just after our interview and she walked down here from the bar got got
involved in the in the badger tailgate there the parade going down state street mac o' brine
welcome to maxing radio thanks so much for having me how are you doing tonight i'm doing wonderful
mac you are here in Madison often so you know what we like we're a foodie town here where do you go
to eat when you come into Madison oh my gosh well first off i love Madison i wish i was staying
longer yeah fortunately only staying a night because i love this town love the energy um
it's kind of a tradition that we eat and we get a burger at nitty gritty oh yeah unfortunately
it's not your birthday no it's not is that birthday please oh yeah the nitty gritty you get
they give you a free birthday mug and you get a free beer there you get a birthday mug oh yeah
oh my gosh you gotta go there on your birthday April 29th i'm coming back i'm coming back
so you love the nitty gritty i love it i love a good burger unfortunately i had a salad
tonight we didn't go we went to the the forager but that was actually really good it's it's kind
of a little bit outside of the city yeah where is that i haven't heard of this place it's um
you know i don't know it's fun i don't know since i'm very sorry oh yeah thank you i'm glad you
pay attention to signs because i'm like in my head all the time but yeah it was actually pretty good
Matt tell us a little bit about yourself i mean what's your backstory uh how did you get started
playing music oh my goodness i feel like like i always loved music like it was something that
was just from birth i think just the love of it my dad who's here right now um he got me into music too
like because i would download all of his songs that he would pay for on iTunes because you know
i don't have money so i put them on my little purple ipod shuffle and i listened to like
abba and you had Bruce Springsteen on there so i feel like i just got a good healthy dose of a variety
early on and then when i was in high school you know i struggled with friends um because like i
went to a private school and there was a lot of like really smart kids or like you know i just
you know i was a creative i just felt like i didn't belong yeah but a private school must have had
a good music program they did they didn't really really yeah they like both sleep focused on like
surprising so my parents were like oh we're giving her a really good opportunity um
psych no how is the wrong kid for that but i um i was like really lonely during spring break and then
i found my sister's guitar in her closet and then i was like oh look at this thing and then i
taught myself on youtube and ever since then it's been non-stop and i think i was 14 and i'm
i'm 27 now coming up on the golden birthday in just a couple of years two years
do you play any other instruments instruments or just guitar i play a little banjo
a little banjo i'm not that good at it but there was a time there was a time but i was okay
when did you decide you wanted to go professional i think it was like it was my guitar teacher
that that told me too because like i was i did not grow up confident like i was like you know
maybe i'll be a background singer someday or maybe i'll be a banjo player for somebody like
i just wanted to be in the background and then my guitar teacher heard me saying and he was like you
should you should like start your own band like you should do this and i think i was maybe 17
when i actually like took the jump and like it started with open mics and then duo shows and
then dive bars and then we had line summer fest this year on the country stage so it's been a fun
journey for sure now tell us about your journey into the music industry you travel monthly to
Nashville i do wow i love it and that is because you've been signed by tsp creative in Nashville
yes tell us about that so tsp creative they are a branding company so they will help me find
you know brands to back me in this industry and just stuff that fits my brand so they're helping me
like become a real artist and i feel like i always wasn't real artist but like they're giving me
permission to do that basically yeah so i love it and they're helping me with stage work and
clothing and and all of this stuff so there's so much that goes into it and i'm just trying to
absorb all of this amazing information it's been wonderful though well over one million
streams on Spotify how exciting is it to reach that mark yeah i mean it feels kind of surreal like
it's hard for me to to like sit and be like oh that actually happened because like for me like
i feel like oh i'm still i'm still like playing like dive bars and stuff but like it's like oh i
have to actually realize that i've done some pretty cool stuff i guess so i mean i guess to answer
your question it feels the same which is like really weird it's so it's the weirdest thing but i
am super happy about that well what do you attribute to your success i mean what do you think goes
into a million Spotify views oh my gosh i think it's just it's like the grit like you have to
have grit to be in this business because it's it's so hard and like you have to write bad songs
you got to just keep writing and i'll feel like for me like my songs in the beginning some of them
were actually good like i can actually listen to them yeah oh that's that's cute that's good
but a lot of them were bad a lot of them were bad so you just got to like just keep going keep
going no matter what anybody says while we just heard heavy chains that was pretty good song thank you
tell us about writing that song oh my gosh well i actually cut that song and that was the first
song that i've cut well actually second but i don't do that very often unless it's something that
i really resonate with and my producer he he wrote that song and he actually this band eight ball
wrote that with him too and he showed me this and he was like you know are you like interested
in cutting songs for your album and i was like if it out it would have to be like a really cool song
you know explain to the people what cutting a song is briefly yes thank you okay so cutting a song
is when you don't write it and somebody a songwriter pitches it to you and you like and they give
you permission to record it and release it as your song yeah so i heard that and i really
resonated with it just struggling with you know just feeling weighed down by mental battles and
internal struggles but also it sounds really cool but now you're trying to break out of the
national box and you have a new name a new hair a new look and tell us about your reboot
it's been really fun actually yeah i'm enjoying it like i love makeover shows like i
much would not to wear all the time as a kid so i was like well i hope one day like i get a
makeover like that wow yeah so i went to tsp creative and it's funny because i love like i love
like dark rock music my favorite band is muse like and my boyfriend makes fun of me because he's
like that sounds like vampire music and like well vampire music is cool okay and so i just feel like
i i'm sort of a dark soul but like when you saw me before i was like this little blonde girl
and like they were like you don't really look like your music and i was like you still don't look
it yeah well i am wearing leather pants so i mean i'm trying i'm trying i'm trying a for effort
yeah a forever thank you yeah but they helped me just with creating more of an edge and stuff
in my style so i was like okay what do you guys say do you think that it's been a benefit to you
signing with them i believe so yeah yeah and they have so many good connections too and and i'm just
i feel so blessed to be a part of this team say who they're working with oh yeah great roster well
you you saw because you were standing in the room and and what did you see yeah tsp has a crazy
list of who they work with they're working with aless cooper they're working with cold play
they're working with the luminaires john padista no what we would be sitting in the room and there's
a white board of all these names and then it's just macobre and i'm like what oh that's pretty good
my name doing of it wow and so weird not who are we just talking to is that is that your manager
yeah it's my dadadger dadadger you know what though you were talking about you know when you
we started music and you were listening to music and you're with your dad and and you know
it's just amazing when i find artists who their parents are very supportive and behind them and you
have that support and i think that's tremendous you're very lucky true true what is the new direction
of alternative country rock that's you right yeah so i love country music but i also love
rock and roll music and i wanted to marry the two and i feel like um going down that lean
separates me from just being in the pop country box which is what i was doing for a while but
but i felt like i was kind of being pushed in that lean and it didn't feel authentic to me and so
like making music that i love actually what happened was i just wanted to make an album that i
that i loved because i've never done that before and i was like you know i made music that i like
but never loved and i wanted to pick pick the right producer and then once i did i was like you know
nothing's probably gonna happen with this but at least i'm gonna be happy and then stuff happened
with it and i was like okay that's cool that's cool uh well you have some new members in your band
and they're here playing with you tonight whiskey jacks uh briefly tell us about your band oh my gosh
so we um added a new drummer and his name is Reagan Crawford he's from Louisiana so he's a good old
boy and he is just a southern gentleman for real like he's always like let me help you load out your
stuff and he's just been great and he played in Neil McCoy's band so he's just a pro he's awesome
and he looks great he's got a tattoo sleeve and the team loves him so i'm like all right all right
let's go and then my base player Scott um he just became a dad and he's the first time dad
to a baby girl and um he's been with us for a while and then our guitarist Jerry Wilde has been
with us for almost a decade and yeah yeah it's exciting well you can see that band tonight whiskey jacks
on state street it's mango brine in just a moment we're gonna hear the premiere of your new song cold
blooded tell us quickly about the new record and cold blooded with uh will champion yeah so it's
kind of like a really dark country album and a lot of it reflects on internal struggles um just
with mental battles or relationship struggles and so cold blooded i'm super excited i wrote this
my producer and will champion who was on the voice and he's just phenomenal and he was doing all
this cool stuff with his computer when we were writing it and so it was super fun but it's kind of
like a really self-reflective album very heavy on the rock though which i'm excited about
where do we find it online you can find it on Spotify or Apple music whatever digital streaming
service you use but it is under mac o'Brien so m-a-c-o-b-r-i-e-n and do you have a website
yes so that's mac o'Brien music dot com perfect well go find out about mac o'Brien or go see your
tonight and um on state street at whiskey jacks and uh we'll definitely let you know when she's
going to be up here again and we'll get her in the studio to play uh mac o'Brien thank you so
much for taking the time out before your show to come talk to us in the studio tonight we really
appreciate it thanks for having me rocker you know get along to your gig now you hear
well let's check it out this is the premiere of the new mac o'Brien song it's uh actually coming
out being released on september 24th so we can eat right here first i'm maxing radio this is cold
blooded mac o'Brien maxing radio we are local music
got you in my head even on the red
for every bridge it's hard to live bad as it gets your demons dance with the silver tongue
your majesty you sound a little kid anyone that i love your lies like fire pulling on the fuel
against my heart
oh you get me going i can't control it
you call a girl but it oh hey that's you know it in the line are you holding
it just so come on come on i ain't afraid of your hellish ways hanging on the ears with them a breath is where i stay
you're cutting deep oh this is what i need you're refreshing it so permanent like learning and i love
your lies like fire pulling on the fuel that gets me higher
oh you get me going i can't control it you call a girl but it oh hey that's you know it in the line are you holding
your so cold gold come on in
oh
oh
just so cold come on
come on in
oh
oh
jake kong kong
oh
oh
oh
oh
oh
oh
oh
oh
oh
you give me going
i can't control it
you cut no learn
oh
hey that's you lullid
but love i will love you
oh
just so cold come
in
oh
just so cold
but love
oh
you
cut no learn
oh
you barely hear no learn
the take is empty
the take is empty
these things
they don't embrace you
they don't embrace you
oh
my brain is drowning
loud and free
past that salty ocean
to me across the
family dinner table
separate the truth from
fable
my brain is drowning
loud and free
past that salty ocean
to me across the
family dinner table
separate the truth
from fable
i barely hanging on
though i've still got a grip
did my take
whole night
but i'll get over this
i barely hanging on
though i've still got a grip
did my take
whole night
but i'll get over this
cross my heart and hope
to fly into a sunset
painted sky
passing ships
and star cross lovers
peek your eyes
from wonder covers
cross my heart and hope
to fly into a sunset
painted sky
passing ships
and star cross lovers
peek your eyes
from wonder covers
i barely hanging on
though i've still got a grip
did my take
whole night
but i'll get over this
i barely hanging on
though i've still got a grip
did my take
whole night
but i'll get over this
if you're barely hanging on
embarrassed, you stare at the wall
you're tearing your hair out
and day you didn't carry it all
the baggage you buried
it's there when you're wearing a fall
cause they don't care if you just
bearish the perishest all
the tank is empty start to rush
move the lady just this is pendant
so save me from all the lies
and the maidies cause maybe if you told
the truth and all the lies will be great
i'm going crazy but i'm saying
enough to know that you made me
the game is changing and i'm praying
i'll continue to play it but lately
i'm just losing faith in every day
keeps fading the pain is racing
past the blame i'll let the rain hit the pavement
another payment you keep paying
so you're trying to fake it
i bet you need a fake case
on him in racing now get a grip and be patient
don't slip when you face it
take another deep breath
face the heat in embracing
face the heat in embracing
face the heat in embracing
face the heat in embracing
face the heat in embracing
embracing
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this is magsink radio
we are local music
