[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!
[00:00:53] Hello listeners, it's Chrissie Mack and Trevor Mack back for our podcast. And Trev, how you doing? Oh, busy as always, trying to slow down and do more music and less work. How about that? That's a good thing. Alright, so let's just go back to Dave and his new project that you're involved in. Let's talk about that first.
[00:01:16] Oh, well, that's, I've been down there again last week. That's DKM and we call it headquarters, the Mitchell headquarters. So we head down there and I finally moved everything out of his last place where he resided with his business. We've emptied that out, cleaned her up and got it all into the new property, which is in Sandgate. And believe me, running up downstairs, both ends, is a lot of work. I bet it is.
[00:01:44] He was upstairs on the property he was in and then we had to move up two sets of stairs into the property he was going into. Okay, so we like stairs. Well, it's actually good because with the noise, if you're playing like small amps and things to teach when you're teaching, it's up high and it doesn't seem to travel or go anywhere. It's really good. So it's in a good spot.
[00:02:04] You get nice sea breezes because you're probably a block from the water and it's just a beautiful spot. And what a great little town. Like Sandgate, I have just fallen in love with. Yes, I always liked that little area when I was up there, but it's grown a hell of a lot since I was there in the previous years and my visit up to you. Everything's sort of just blown up and grown and expanded. Everything grows and it's still got all the beautiful old Queenslanders. It's still got the old Bell Tower.
[00:02:34] Even the old hardware, like it reminds you of a hardware 40 years ago. It's just, it's an old building and they just got all the hardware scum. It's just, it's like going back in time. Oh, that's cool.
[00:02:45] It's got that charm. It's just got that beautiful charm of, it's not too much new. There's new shops in the main street, but everything's still, it's still like it's back in time. And I love it. I really like it a lot. It's a busy little spot. It's got great cafes, great restaurants, little clubs. It's got a place I've fallen absolutely in love with. It's called the Cardigan Bar.
[00:03:07] And it was a really narrow little bar they set originally and they've widened it. They must've taken another shop off the side and renaud it and extended. And it's just got this really comfortable charm to it. And they play music there. They've got a stage, lighting, a full sound desk and the bar, the barman, he, obviously I'm guessing he owns the place. He runs the music. So he walks to the end of the bar and just adjusts, you know, you want some more sound, you want this or whatever. And then he's serving drinks at the same time.
[00:03:36] Oh, wow. Well, that's pretty hectic. No, nothing's rushed. It's not too big. It's just big enough for people, a good crowd inside, a few sitting outside on the front entry, a few tables and chairs. And it's not oversized. It's not too big. It's not too little. It's perfect. It's just perfect. And I can't wait to go in there and just say, oh, written, you know, one or two songs. Tell me if you like them.
[00:04:05] And just that's the kind of place it is. They've got an open mic night on a Thursday. They've got music Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So a young fellow played the other day up there that was one of Dave K's students for about seven years.
[00:04:21] He got to play for kickoff Pete Murray shows. He's that good. Dave has taught him so well on the guitar. But boy, the kid, he can sing as well. And he's just a natural. So he's playing there this Sunday at the Cardigan Bar in Sandgate. Sunday day, I think it is. You'd have to check that actually. But he's there Sunday. And what a voice. What a guitarist.
[00:04:48] And I just said to Dave, mate, I'll take my hat off to you. This kid is so good. He's going places. There's no stopping him. He's like 16, 17, somewhere around. I think he's got a lot. He's just got his license. So dad is so proud of him. We got to meet dad and have a chat with him. And just amazing family, amazing music. And it's just inspired me so much to go and work with Dave and help him out. Yeah, meet all these new people and encourage more music.
[00:05:18] That's fantastic. And that might get you more into doing more with your music. You've decided to take some long service, Levi, here. Yes. Well, I've got 10 years long service, which I'm saving. I'll hang on to that. I've got that many holidays because I never take holidays. I work, work, work. So I've taken off from the 14th. I don't do any more night work and weekend work from my RSL that I work at.
[00:05:44] Yes. And that should free me up to do a bit of work with Dave and a bit more time down at Sandgate and maybe get down to Byron Bay and do some recording in their studio down there as well, which I've been waiting to do. But I'm trying to break down my work at the moment. And I had a guy to take all my Saturdays and he rang me tonight and said, oh, I think it's going to tie me down too much. Oh, my gosh. You can't win.
[00:06:14] Yeah. You know, you had the fellow that said he'd buy your business and then pulled out because it was too much. Maybe there are two people out there that would like to buy your business in sections and that way it won't be too much for anyone. That shows just how hard you work. Well, I mean, it's a great business and it's so easy. It's not hard. But I did have a bloke on the Friday. He does a lot of concrete stuff and epoxies for all the garage floors and things like that.
[00:06:43] So I was talking to him and I said, oh, I've been trying to sell my business. He goes, well, I'm interested. I said, really? I just watched what you did today and you just cleaned up some yards and trees and mowed the lawn. And I said, this is a regular customer. It's a month. They're just booked in. They're locked in. I said, I've got heaps of clients like that. My preschool. And I said, this bloke's going to take that over. Otherwise, it would have been even worth more money. And he said, oh, I'm still interested. I said, well, he says, I'll go talk to the boss, obviously his wife.
[00:07:13] And I'll give you a call. We'll sit here and have a beer and talk about it. So within that day was Friday. Saturday, the guy comes and works for my Saturday jobs. And it's like, yes, we'll do this. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, it sounds great. He worked with me all day. They did a fantastic job, him and his wife. And we got a heap of work done. And then he rang me tonight and said, oh, I think it's going to tie us down too much. Oh, my.
[00:07:39] All right, let's talk about the aftermath of the song contest and how you're feeling about your songs. And what's exciting you about going forward after doing that? What's excited me is that I've been so busy concentrating on trying to get the few couple of gigs I had to do this year that I didn't want to do any because I've been so focused on trying to do my songs.
[00:08:03] I sort of dropped all the songwriting and focused on one country gig to sing country music, another gig to do a mixture of everything, which they all loved. They were very grateful and absolutely loved what we did. But from the country stars, that really opened my eyes again because I met so many beautiful people. And they've all contacted me one way or another and said messages, or a couple of them, sorry. And they've all can't wait to catch up. So they're all busy.
[00:08:33] They're opening some. One lady's working on a studio. Another guy, he's got a whole band, which I found out. He plays all over the place. Lovely fellow. And his wife, we met and chatted with them. So there's a lot of doors open there. Cole Finlay himself said, come on up, say g'day, and let's play some music or write some stuff. So everything's happening. It's just I need to slow down. I need to offload what I've got.
[00:09:01] And that's all I want to do. So like this morning, I woke up ready to go to work on a Sunday. Yay. And realized, hang on, pulled out all my originals and just opened the first page and started playing. And it made me realize I just, I'm thinking I've played all these songs for years and covers and doing all this sort of thing. And I want to do originals. I've done the contest, which they loved our song we did together. And my In the Mirror and all the other songs. Really happy about that. Yeah.
[00:09:30] I mean, they just loved it. So here I am this morning, had breakfast, I'm playing the guitar, flicking through some of my songs that I wrote 2012, 2013. And just realized, hang on, I've got a book full of these songs. And as I sing them, I can't wait to put the band in and say, guys, this is all I want to do. I want to get my songs recorded and get them out there. It's time. So it's actually made me so much more passionate and stronger. I have to do this. It's time.
[00:09:59] It's time to get them out there and, yeah, let people hear them again. I've been too busy singing everybody else's covers. It's time to go back and start singing my songs. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, I know you've just come home from work and you're absolutely exhausted. And I'll be pleased when I hear that you've given up a lot of work. It will be because you work so damn hard.
[00:10:23] So I'm going to say goodnight to you and let you go and have, I think you've already had something to read because I told you to do that before we had a podcast. But, yeah, have a shower and go to bed. But knowing you, you'll pick up your guitar beforehand. No, it's a habit. Guilty as charged. All right. Well, I'm going to let you go and I love you and leave you and I'll talk to you next week. All right. Bye, everybody. Have a great week. Lots of love. Bye. Bye.
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