ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Mac Backwardz

Introducing Mac Backwardz and his debut album 'I'll Bell You Tomorrow.' Inspired by concept albums, the project takes listeners on a gripping journey through addiction and mental health struggles. With a diverse mix of genres and heartfelt storytelling, Mac Backwardz aims to connect with audiences and inspire them through his music.

The release of your debut album, 'I'll Bell You Tomorrow,' has been highly anticipated. Can you tell us about the concept behind the album and how it takes listeners on a journey through the highs and lows of addiction and mental health struggles?

Absolutely, from a young age I've always loved concept albums dating back to listening to artists such as The Streets. I think albums are made for stories, it's all good to just have banging songs on an album but I lose interest if there's not a theme or narrative I can delve into. I'll Bell You Tomorrow details a real-life mental breakdown I suffered a few years back, and my inability to talk to people or pick up the phone to those showing concern for my well-being. The album follows a drug trip, with the first half being the highs and the second half being the lows before the final track brings about an air of hopefulness as it all comes to a close. There are also numerous mini stories thrown in, for example 13-17 follows the story of an after party, followed by Embers which tells the story of meeting a girl at a petrol station in the early hours of the morning once the drink supply at the after session has depleted, and Hate U Love U then details the turbulent love affair between the two people. The album is littered with voicemails from concerned friends and family to give it a personal touch, but also to highlight the importance of how one phone call can save someone's dark hours. Talk to your friends, it means the world.

The album features production by Harlem Ralph. How did your collaboration with them come about, and how did their production style contribute to the overall sonic experience of the album?

 Everything fell into perfect place with this album. I first met Gee & Ish of Tulu Presents when they needed a videographer for a hip hop event they were having an hour or so drive away from me, I agreed to do it, and on the night I told them I made music as well so they put me in touch with Espielle (one ½ of Harlem Ralph), he had a track written and recorded that he wanted a second verse on called "Air Max", so me and my girlfriend at the time went and stayed the night at his and Gee's home studio and that's where the first track of the album was made. From there Espielle introduced me to Patrick Foley (the other ½ of Harlem Ralph) and we had a few sessions together, immediately hit it off and began working on a 5-track EP that eventually turned into the full studio album you can hear today.

Working with Harlem Ralph was a huge breath of fresh air. Before I would just be sent beats, hire a studio and engineer for an hour to do my takes and master it and take it home and release the track on Spotify. This was the first time I was able to come to a studio with an idea and watch it be made in real time in front of me, as well as being able to have my own creative input on each track. I see those two as some of my best friends now, and I get so excited when thinking about our next time in the studio together because we just have fun and make some incredibly music at the same time, I haven't laughed as hard as I do with those two in years and I think that's important when collaborating with someone, the connection helps further fuel creativity.

'I'll Bell You Tomorrow' is described as a sonic drug trip, with energetic and joyful tracks like 'Alien Faces' and 'Air Max,' as well as introspective and somber tracks like 'Embers' and '13 - 17.' How did you approach crafting these contrasting moods within the album?

The album wasn't actually formed until we'd made about half of the tracks. None of us knew what it was going to be, we were just making music for an EP at that point just to have something out. It wasn't until I'd made the "13-17, Embers, Hate U Love U" run of tracks that I realized I had a story here, and a real-life experience to expand upon. We then made "Bluntly" and I wanted Espielle to do the intro of the track as if he was trying to phone me but the signal kept cutting out, I told him to say "I'll Bell You Tomorrow" cos I always loved that phrase for some reason, and when he said it I knew it had to be the title of the album. Once I had the title, I constructed the idea of the album to be about missed calls, and the tracks we had made were already half hype and half sad, so we just made more hype songs and more sad songs. From there I had the idea of making the album follow a sort of drug trip, where everything hits you hard and heavy out of the gate, but as you progress and "come down" the album follows suit and becomes more introspective and sadder. Then I threw in the voice mails at the end of some tracks to double down on the phone call theme of the album and that's how it all came together.

'Editor, Director' is a standout track where your technical ability shines through with double-time bars over a thunderous beat. What was the creative process like for this track, and what message or emotions were you aiming to convey?

So funnily enough, "Editor, Director" was never supposed to be on the album. We had the album made without it and I wanted to do 3 standalone freestyle tracks before the leadup to release to build up some hype around my name as I hadn't released anything in ages. I wanted to display my technical ability with rap in each one, so I asked for the first to be a slow, bar heavy freestyle (Eyes Of The Huntress, unreleased right now). The second I wanted to be a medium paced freestyle that picks up speed towards the end but is filled with energetic performance (Editor, Director) and then the final track to be double time quick flows the whole way through (Call Me Back Freestyle, which is currently on my Instagram page). We didn't have a name for these three at first so we called them "2Fast2Furious", "2Medium2Furious" and "2Slow2Furious". So, Editor, Director was initially just a freestyle called "2Medium2Furious" until I realized that it was the perfect crescendo to the drug trip I was forming in the track order, and absolutely needed to be the middle track of the album.

The song is about the dangers of prescription drugs without the proper guidance behind them from informed medical professionals. During my breakdown I had a terrible doctor put me on a dangerous mix of mental health drugs that should not have been mixed together, but due to their sheer ignorance told me they would be fine, which further made me spiral down the rabbit hole. This is further exenterated by the mid-track interlude which depicts a phone call I had with the doctor's surgery telling me of all the prescriptions they were adding because the others "didn't seem to be working".

Your debut album touches upon your personal struggles with mental health and addiction. How important was it for you to open up about these topics and share your experiences with your listeners?

It was the most important thing in the world for me to do. Having that yearlong breakdown where I was mentally and physically beaten down every single day to the point where I wasn't sure if I'd even still be here was the scariest thing in the world. But the things that kept me going were my family, my friends and my favourite musicians. Knowing I had people there that loved me and cared for me and wanted me to be okay was the thing that kept me fighting, and having the music to listen to where other people were talking of their struggles and how I'm not alone in feeling the way I do helped me immensely. I wanted to do the same thing for someone else. I want to be that voice that even if we're complete strangers, can tell you that everything will be okay, just keep fighting, you're not alone and you're stronger than you realize. I want pass on what the people that helped me taught.

You've mentioned that concept albums, like The Streets' 'A Grand Don't Come For Free,' have inspired you. In what ways did you aim to emulate that storytelling approach with 'I'll Bell You Tomorrow'?

That album specifically tells a story throughout when you listen to it in order, but it also has songs that you can listen to standalone and they still make complete sense without the overarching narrative. Blinded By The Lights, Fit But You Know It, Dry Your Eyes are incredible tracks on their own merit that tell a story from start to finish, but when placed in album order they help to narrate an even bigger picture. I wanted to emulate that approach, I understand that once people have listened to an album, they will have their favourite songs that will go into their playlists and then songs they might not listen to again, so it's important to keep that in mind when making a concept album. You need each track's narrative to be easy to understand from the get go and for it to come to a satisfying conclusion so it can stand alone in a playlist of hundreds of other artists and still make sense, whilst also fitting perfectly into place in the whole album for those people that will love every track and play it in order multiple times.

It's also important to experiment with genre. I like to think no two songs on this album are exactly the same genre/sub-genre. Each brings something different stylistically to the table which allows for a more captivating and engaging sound. There are Trap beats on this project, there's soulful RnB and Jazz and classic Boom Bap Hip-Hop. If I just made each song the same genre people would get bored to quickly and leave, and that's the last thing you want when trying to tell a story.

Who were your biggest musical influences when you first started pursuing music, and how have they shaped your unique style and versatility?

I've got such a wide spectrum of music I listen to that I really think it's helped me form a bit of a unique sound. My mum was a Punk and my dad was a Mod, so I always had a wide range of music to listen to in their cars. I was a long-haired metal loving kid before I discovered rap, then found Grime before falling in love with US and then UK Hip-Hop, so I never shy away from experimenting with any genre when challenged to do so, I think it makes me more versatile and allows for a broarder, more interesting sound scape to play with.

My main inspirations I always draw from are people like Mac Miller, Tyler, The Creator, Kendrick Lamar, The Streets, Frankie Stew & Harvey Gunn, Ocean Wisdom and all the grime MC's I grew up listening to in the day like your Skepta's, Ghettz and Devlin's. Being able to pull from different genres and artists allows me to create projects such as this, which fuses so many genres together in a thought-provoking and interesting way.

The journey towards completing this album has spanned three years, marked by lockdowns and studio relocations. How did these challenges impact your creative process, and what kept you motivated throughout the journey?

If anything, it just made me hungrier to release music. I knew we were creating something special and I knew that I was in a different kind of mode of creation than ever before which was an exciting feeling to have after feeling burned out and stagnant with music for years. Being on the precipice of finishing something but being blocked by obstacles out of your control is frustrating don't get me wrong, but it made me want it even more and that's what kept me going through it all.

With 'I'll Bell You Tomorrow,' you hope to make people feel something and let them know they're not alone in their struggles. Can you share a specific moment or experience during the creation of this album that reaffirmed your belief in the power of music to connect with and help others?

Yeah, for sure, so a stranger actually messaged me about half way through the album's creation, saying a song I'd made and forgotten about on my Soundcloud helped them get through a rough time they were having, and it completely changed my reasoning for wanting to make music. I didn't care about the fame or money from that point, I cared about helping others, it gave me the realization that I didn't need a billion fans to be able to make a difference. And as long as one person hears my music and comes away feeling better about themselves, or that they're not alone, or that they can talk to people and deserve to be here, then I'm happy. I knew that if a song I'd made years ago by just ripping a beat off YouTube and spitting over it could help someone, then a whole music project crafted by hand by myself and the talented musicians around me could reach even more people and help them in a more personal and meaningful way.

Now that your debut album is out, what are your hopes and aspirations for the future? Are there any specific themes or directions you want to explore in your upcoming projects?

I want to continue to work with Harlem Ralph and explore what more we can create, and what themes and ideas we can traverse together. Whilst also challenging myself as an artist more, I want to start singing on projects, I want to become more involved with the instrumentation and writing of the beats and learn more about the pre-production. I want to elevate my video making ability (I direct and edit my music videos) to become more cinematic and tell a deeper meaning through visuals and just learn and improve more. I'm a bit older now, but I finally feel something inside me that wants to learn and grow, which is something that wasn't always there before.

Thank you for the interview, guys, really appreciate it! I hope my answers were good enough and gave you some more insight into myself as a person! Would mean the world if you could go check out "I'll Bell You Tomorrow" out now everywhere!