Mesmerising singer to return for city concert

Meg Mac to take the stage at Blank Space following performance at 2015 Carnival of Flowers

2014 TRIPLE J Unearthed artist of the year Meg Mac is returning to Toowoomba.

The mesmerising singer-songwriter performed at the Carnival of Flowers in 2015 and will perform at Blank Space (The Mills Precinct) on September 30.

Mac’s Low Blows was released on July 14 and is a powerful set of dynamic, deep soul, exhortations that have an all-enveloping atmosphere and presence, distinctly and uniquely Meg Mac.

It was recorded in Fort Worth, Texas with Niles City Sound, who produced and played on Leon Bridges’ album Coming Home.

“Overall I wanted it to really feel like I was just singing in the room to you,” she said.

“So a lot of the vocal performances are live and unedited, I think it was important to do that.”

Mac grew up in an Irish family surrounded by the sounds of her mum singing old Irish songs and records by Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Edith Piaf, Nina Simone and Otis Redding spinning on the turntable; permeating her soul.

“I was always inspired by soulful voices and big voices – I grew up listening to and mostly influenced by singers,” she said.

“Singing was always normal and so was playing the piano. It was just what I did without thinking too much about it. When I put the two together, I started writing music. I’d sing and play piano for hours and eventually that turned into song writing and I got obsessed.”

The bedrock of Mac’s compositional approach is reflective and personal.

“I started writing to make myself feel better,” she explained.

“I have always written about myself; keeping everything very close to how I am feeling.”

She draws inspiration and attitude from songwriters like Bob Dylan, Bon Iver and Patti Smith.

“Their songs stick with me and I can carry them around. They describe a feeling perfectly and I can understand it,” she said. Go to tickets.oztix.com.au/?Event=75428.