INTERVIEW: Mackenzie Porter on ‘The One’ and ‘These Days’

On the day of the release of her new project – Drinkin’ Songs – The Collection – we interview Mackenzie Porter about the project, her journey so far and the evolution of her sound upon her move to Nashville.

Hi Mackenzie – what an exciting day for you, I hope you’re celebrating!

It really is, we’ve been up since like 6am with the band, it’s just been a really fun time to celebrate. 

It’s probably not exactly how you thought this project would be released but it’s nice to finally get it out there. 

Definitely not how I pictured it all going down at the top of the year, but hey who’s not in the same position. 

‘The One’ is such a gorgeous song and it’s so cleverly written and it’s definitely my favourite of the songs that you’ve released. Can you talk about the evolution of that song and the writing room that day? 

Yeah, I wrote this a few years ago honestly, it’s always just been a song that stuck and I keep coming back to – I’ve always loved this song. It was just a day when no one necessarily came into the writing room with a really strong idea or anything like that, it was something that someone said in the room and I honestly can’t remember if it was me or one of the other writers or how it came to be. Once we landed on that hook, ‘The One before The One,’ we knew we wanted to write it and it just flowed out. 

There’s a thing with a lot of songs on your project that they’re very clever. You’ll read the title and think it’s going to be about one thing and then it’s about something else – like ‘The One’ and ‘Seeing Other People’ – it must be fun to play with people a little bit?

That’s my favourite thing, to see a title and think you know what it’s about and then the hook is something totally different, it’s a fun way to write too. ‘Hey, this is what everybody else would write, so how would we write this different?’ 

I love that approach. It’s been a few years since you moved to Nashville, how has that move changed your songwriting and your musical sound? 

Oh I think only for the better, Nashville is so good at what they do and it has all the strongest country writers in the world, the strongest writers. It’s such a lyric town, everything is based on a good lyric. I feel like I’ve been put in so many rooms where I’m definitely the worst writer in the room and they make things better every day. Then there are days where I feel like I carry the room a little bit more too. You grow every time you write a song and you get better every time. 

You also hooked up with Joey Moi who has probably brought out your sound a little more. How did you get connected with him and how did that partnership come about? 

He has definitely created the sound, he’s such a massive part of it. I met him through another artist – Dallas Smith – when he was in town recording with him, Dallas was like ‘hey, come hang out with me and Joey.’ Dallas is the kind of artist that mentors younger artists, he did that with me and really hooked me up with people in this industry and he’s just been so gracious toward me – that’s how I got to know Joey. 

I love the idea of artists supporting artists, I feel like that’s such a big part of the Nashville scene and in comparison to other places it feels like a community, which is beautiful to see.

Yeah definitely, there’s definitely competition still but 99% of people are just super supportive.

Your sound in particular bridges so many genres and there is something for everybody, almost like you’re a gateway for some people who don’t think they like the genre. 

 I’ve had so many of my friends even say that they don’t like country music but that they like my music, you can call it what you want as long as you dig it. It’s so funny, I don’t know what genres are anymore, I guess country is a little more lyric-heavy but things cross over all the time. There are so many artists at the moment crossing all genres and collaborating with different genres, collaborating with rappers or hip hop artists. Good music is good music to me. 

Your big smash hit was ‘These Days,’ which has opened so many doors for you, so how did the remix come about?

So my country version was out and it went to the top of the charts, pop stations in Canada just started playing the country version of it. After several stations started playing that version, my team was just like ‘hey this is happening naturally, what do you think about doing a remix?’ At first, I was honestly tentative about the idea, but asked to hear the remix and see how it sounded, we got a version and I loved it and thought ‘hey, let’s just go for it, we don’t have anything to lose.’ Never did I think it was going to be so successful on pop as well. 

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Final Few

What album reminds you of your childhood? 

Seeing as we’re coming up to Christmas, Mariah Carey ‘All I Want For Christmas,’ it sets me up into that nostalgic feel. That record, though it’s a Christmas record, it takes me back to my hometown. 

What record would you put on for a road trip? 

Hmm, maybe ‘Golden Hour’ by Kacey Musgraves. 

What record would you put on for a cathartic cry? 

Probably a Celine Dion record to get in my feels.