At age 15, Noah Mac commandeered the old garden shed in his family’s backyard and turned it into a song factory. After four years spent gathering life experience on planet earth and finessing his musical prowess, Mac re-emerges from his shed with an astounding 14-track debut LP entitled Pretty Boy that was written, recorded, produced, mixed, and delivered exclusively by Mac himself. To accomplish such a feat single-handedly transcends the capabilities of a normal human teenager, and therefore we assumed that Mac was born on Krypton or maybe Tatooine.

Shockingly, Mac hails not from outer space but from a small town outside San Francisco, California. He learned music production and recording autonomously and taught himself how to play any and every instrument he could get his hands on as a kid. Six months after hand-crafting and independently releasing his debut EP, Light (2017), 17-year-old Mac found himself in front of a national TV audience, having been selected as a contestant on Season 13 of NBC’s The Voice. Along with an instant fanbase and powerful platform, being on the show provided the NorCal native with the opportunity to perform live alongside the likes of living legend Jennifer Hudson and alt-indie success Bastille. His solo performances covered the work of BØRNS, Coldplay, and James Bay, names that will undoubtedly become Mac’s contemporaries in due time. 

The dynamic vocalist and natural-born songwriter showcases his self-taught production chops with refreshingly unpredictable, cutting-edge alt-pop on his new project Pretty Boy. Perhaps he owes his astonishingly raw gift of music to the blessed synesthetic awareness which informs other folk-pop fusion artists like Maggie Rogers. It is this affliction that seemingly allows Mac to “paint with the color of sound.” The LP arrives with passionate, howling vocals on “Bello,” and leaves a bittersweetness on its way out with “Keepmelookingforward,” an invocation of internal strength and an ability to preserve optimism and hope. 

With total Spotify streams surpassing one million and the album’s lead single “All She Want Is Gold” already approaching 60,000, Noah Mac’s future is brighter than the UV rays that will be obliterating our skin while we dance to Pretty Boy the masterpiece all summer long.