Kid Mac might just have tapped into the reason why so many Australians are drawn to Whistler.
We really like the Canadian vibe, he said. You guys are Australians with American accents. Youre so mellow.
The Aussie electronic musician, director and TV personality also known as Macario De Souza, is currently courting Canadian crowds as he looks to expand his fanbase in the Great White North. De Souza has been to this country once before, last fall while touring with rapper Mickey Avalon. I was taken back by how many people were singing along," he said.
Then he got a tip from a friend: You should definitely go through the mountains, he recalled them saying. Your music is party music and they like that there.
I was conscious of that when I went home (to Australia), he said. I said to my manager, If theres any way we can go to the resorts
His return to this country was a little anticlimactic; when he and his band finally arrived in Vancouver on Friday night (March 21), they were held up in customs for four hours. We made it two hours across the highway and decided to sleep, he said. Were in Hope right now.
The group was hitting the road to get to a gig in Canmore, AB that night, followed by shows in other mountain towns like Banff, Golden, Jasper and Revelstoke before arriving in Whistler for a concert at Tommy Africas on April 1. We put on an energetic live show, De Souza said. People will come not knowing anything about me and love the show and then look into me.
Though he might not be famous here yet, back home in Oz De Souza is well known not only for his upbeat party anthems, but also for his film and TV chops. With a formal education in filmmaking, he co-directed the 2007 documentary Bra Boys: Blood is Thicker Than Water which was narrated by Russell Crowe.
The film follows a surf gang called the bra boys on Sydneys Maroubra beach. It was that project where I had the opportunity to write three or four tracks for the soundtrack and have a proper budget, De Souza said. Thats when the light switched for me. I felt like I had a platform to take music seriously. From then it was a juggling act between film and TV projects and touring. In a way, its hand in hand for me.
Most recently, that collaboration has happened on The Crew, a reality TV show following the careers of De Souza and his friends Richie Vas Vaculik, an aspiring UFC fighter, and surfer Mark Matthews. We just wrapped shooting on season two, De Souza said. It goes to air next month in Australia. Well be shooting a little bit on the Canadian tour, but from next month onwards well start on season three.
Some of the footage shot for the show over the last year came in handy when De Souza was creating the video for his single Haters. That clip features a series of Instagram photos with images of packed crowds in different cities.
I was lucky to have a camera crew follow us the entire year, so I had the footage, he said. I was able to tap into this stuff, which is what I wanted to do: a review of 2013 in a music video.
The video is just one of 12 that De Souza will be releasing throughout the year with the goal of releasing a clip each month. People are discovering my music online and through surf and snowboard movies, he said. I feel like the more (content) thats online, the better it is for me.