Something that helped me: Mac Lloyd
post by Si Martin
A couple years back, we spoke to Mac Lloyd about his EP ‘It’s Not All Bad, I Promise’. And now, Mac’s back! His recent single ‘To The Brim’ once again talks honestly and openly about mental health, and the challenges faced following a traumatic event.
At HATW, we’re all about using music and lyrics as a way of expressing yourself, and processing difficult situations. But it’s also important to have a few other coping techniques and outlets up your sleeve. When we spoke to Mac Lloyd around his latest release: ‘Melancholic Soul Club’, we got onto the topic of the other things that help him. Check out what he has to say below:
Something that helped me:
It may be an obvious one but around the time I released my first EP, I read ‘The Alchemist‘ and that definitely helped me shape my perspective on my direction as a whole. I love ‘The Alchemist‘ because it definitely instills a sense of purpose in the reader, no matter where they are at in life. If you read it and can take away from it then you’ll likely find yourself reprioritising what you honestly feel is important, asking yourself what your real passions in life are.
The book talks about finding your purpose and pursuing your dreams regardless of the obstacles that may present themselves on the journey and I think that is an incredibly important thing that all of us need to experience in some way shape or form. I’m a big fan of set backs and obstacles. I hear they make the end destination that bit sweeter.
Here’s how it helped:
The book helped me through a period where I was at a loss with myself, honestly. I was quite fresh off the back of some pretty traumatic, life altering events that reshaped my perspective on a lot of things, and not so much in a positive way either. That negativity and pessimism bled its way into my creativity to a point where I was still making a lot of music but I had little idea what I was doing in terms of a bigger picture and because of that I had next to no confidence in my self and my musical ability.
When I read The Alchemist I felt like it had simplified down what I wanted to do with my life. I asked myself What do you really want to do with your life? And the answer was real simple Live a life in music, pay my bills with it. Having that end goal to work on helped me in starting to lay down the foundation of being Mac Lloyd, and whilst I may not be all the way there yet, i’m definitely a lot further along than I would have been if I wasn’t able to reshape my perspective on both myself and what I wanted out of my life.
You should check it out if:
I feel people should read this book if they feel they may have lost touch with their passion in life, or have lost their passion for life altogether. For me, it helped with drowning out the excess noise that my brain likes to create, or the stuff we might be subjected to on a daily basis. I was able to prioritise what I wanted and stay on the path regardless of the set backs that might have popped up. Undoubtedly, there will be many times where you ask yourself (like I did and sometimes still do) if taking the path to pursue your dreams is worth it, and this book is a constant reminder that IT IS worth it. Who wants to live a life having never tried anyway? Don’t know about you, but definitely not me!
Many thanks to my dad Chris McLeod for recommending this book to me at a time that I truly needed it.
More from Mac Lloyd:
Mac Lloyd’s new EP ‘Melancholic Soul Club‘ is available now via Green Brick Records.
Catch Mac Lloyd on Instagram: @therealmaclloyd
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