#203 Mackenzie Porter
MacKenzie Porter, what an inspirational artist, strong and determined women. In this podcast Rae and Mackenzie discuss the art of being a women in the arts, "rejection is just redirection' and the power of taking the yes's and no's with a pinch of salt and have fun on the journey. Mackenzie is working hard touring the world and writing and recording with an incredible Nashville team to put her best music out there along with some exciting acting things when they come up.
With a string of #1 hits and collaborations MacKenzie stole the hearts of Australian country lovers while she was hear and we hope to see her back very soon.
There is nothing better than seeing someone passionate and living a life of joy and love for their craft sucseed. We are very excited to see what comes next for this increible women.
Connect with Mackenzie here:
Transcript
Rae Leigh: Mackenzie Porter, lovely to meet you. Welcome to Songwriter Tris. You're in Sydney at the moment
Mackenzie Porter: Yes. I, We have one more day in Australia. Uh, we've been here for about two and a half weeks, and it's been so amazing touring, eating a lot of food, taking vacation days. It's been really.
Rae Leigh: is this your first time in Australia?
Mackenzie Porter: This is my second time. So I came back and I think it was, I've been trying to think, I think it's, it was 2010 just to vacation. Um, but stayed in burley heads for the most part and then came to Sydney and then a day to day in Brisbane. Um, but this time has been really cool cuz we've kind of gone all over and it has been like this really perfect balance of like work and play
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Nice, Sweet. I'm Gold Coast, so I love bur hair. This is my favorite on a day off. I'll go down there. It's
Mackenzie Porter: so pretty. So ready.
Rae Leigh: All right, and, and you've got a show tonight in Sydney, and then you're heading off. I like to start this podcast just by finding out a little bit about who you are and where you come from, in your own words.
Mackenzie Porter: Cool. Yeah. Um, so I grew up in Canada on a cattle and bison ranch, just kind of in the middle of nowhere. And it was like my family, my grandparents, and my. Um, aunt, uncle and their kids, my cousins, and it was just kind of like this really small town, like simple life. And my parents put me in music lessons.
At four years old, I started studying violin and
piano and kind of just like fell in love with music and entertainment really. Like I did a lot of like musical theater and acting classes and we, we spent the majority of our life growing up doing that kind of stuff and. I think it was just like a natural transition for me to do it as a career.
Um, so my family's still back home in this like really small town, and that's kind of like the heart of who I am. But I moved to Vancouver and then LA and Nashville to try to, you know, become a singer songwriter actress. And
Rae Leigh: and
Mackenzie Porter: I've been doing it professionally since I was 16 years old. And
here I am today.
Rae Leigh: Quite a big journey. And to start at four, is there someone in the family who is also extremely creative and musical or was it something they just saw you at four and go, She needs to learn violin? Cause I have three children and I like, they're all older than four , but none of them would I give a violin to at this
stage?
Mackenzie Porter: I think so. My, my parents are very creative. My dad is, Um, he plays guitar. He does like a lot of, um, like he'll write songs and like, um, kind of host like a charity event or whatever, and like write like the funny songs. So he's very creative in that sense. But I think really it just stemmed from like, my parents really wanted us to be like well rounded kids, so they put us in like, You know, music lessons and soccer lessons and dance lessons just to like get us to learn all that kind of stuff.
And I think they just saw that I really loved music and my siblings really loved music and they kind of just ran with that. Um, but I don't know why they were so , like adamant on us playing instruments and learning to read music. Cause we studied classical music growing. And I think, you know, they really could see like, Oh, she loves music.
I didn't love classical necessarily. Like I love listening to it and playing it now, but it wasn't like my favorite thing as a kid. Um, but I loved country and I loved pop and like the radio, and I think they could see that. And eventually just kind of like followed my lead with wanting to do that as a job.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. I love that. So what is it, do you think, like when was the moment, obviously parents encouraged you to learn everything and explore the world, which is awesome. I love that about, um, being a parent and allowing you the space and time to find out who you are and what you like. Was there a moment for you when you were like, This is who I am, this is what I wanna chase.
Mackenzie Porter: You know what, it's such like a blur because it started so young. But I do remember like certain moments, um,
Rae Leigh: moments,
Mackenzie Porter: this is so like silly, but uh, when I was growing up, like Hillary Duff was really big
and
Rae Leigh: No way. Yeah.
Yeah. I remember that. Yeah.
Mackenzie Porter: And I remember she had her record, um, Come Clean, come out, and I remember being like on her website and had to like, use like dial up internet, like we lived in the
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Mackenzie Porter: and watching her like vs kind of, of being on tour, like her getting in a van and doing radio tour, like all this stuff.
And I just, I didn't even know that was like a job or if it was, it was so far away from the realm of possibility for me. But I remember seeing those blogs and being like, Man, like that looks so cool. Um, And then of course, like I was a huge fan of, you know, Snia Twain and Taylor Swift and the Dixie Chicks, and I loved the country music part of it.
Um, so I think it was probably around like 14 or 15 when I like really started to like be like, this is what I wanna do. Um, you know, when I was 14 or 15, so my parents were like, Okay, cool. Like, you should finish high school and go to college. Um, but I don't know, it just kind of transitioned into that and I started. Like I mentioned to you, like, um, heavily acting. I got an agent when I was 14 years old, who I'm still signed with today.
Rae Leigh: That's crazy. I had to, and that's a long time to be with one agent, so
it sounds like you struck gold. Yeah.
Mackenzie Porter: yeah, he is amazing and he's like a, you know, father figure to me. Um, or, or like a uncle figured to me, older brother. Yeah. He's just been amazing and I was really lucky to find him so young and, um, Yeah, so it, it started pretty young for.
Rae Leigh: And which one do you feel like has been, has it been an even pull between the two, or have you just gone with the flow as far as acting and songwriting and where did songwriting start? Was that something that happened when you were young or have you evolved into songwriting because of the music?
Mackenzie Porter: I think so I definitely feel uneven pole, obviously, like right now it's more like heavily weighted for music and um, you know, in the past I've been on like TV series, so it's, that's heavily weighted. In acting, but I have been able to like balance them both my whole life. And you know, even before I came to Australia, I filmed a movie for three weeks, um, because I had a time, like three weeks off of touring and I booked this movie and I'm like, Yeah, what?
That sounds amazing. That sounds super
fun.
Rae Leigh: Are you allowed to tell us which one or is it
Mackenzie Porter: um, it's called Rancher 1 0 1, and it, I think it's, they're talking about it coming outta Netflix, but they don't have like a home for yet. So, um, it was really fun to film, but, um, really the reason I started, songwriting was when I moved from my hometown to Vancouver.
That was like the first place that I moved. Um, I acted for a year-ish, a year and a half, and then I hit like this super dry spell. You know, like sometimes you, it just is hard to get a job as an actor sometimes. And I could not land like anything, like, not even like a day player where like nothing. And I, I was the like series regulars and stuff like that on shows.
I just couldn't get
anything.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Mackenzie Porter: And so I started, um, Songwriting just because I was like feeling stressed and like, What am I gonna do? Maybe I'll try this other outlet. And kind of fell in love with it.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Okay. And so, um, have, did you start like recording and releasing stuff straight away or was there a process from picking up the pen to, actually, this is something I'm good at. Do you collaborate much? Uh,
Mackenzie Porter: Yeah. So I. I started writing some terrible songs because I'd never tried it before and I started in like this little band we, we did like we started really country and then it kind of like went a little bit pop. We were just trying to like discover what our sound was and I ended up going to like music engineering school to learn how to record.
So I had a little recording set up in my basement.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Mackenzie Porter: Where we lived and I was in this band and eventually I told the other guy, I'm like, Hey, I think I kind of wanna just like do this by myself. Like, I just wanna be a solo artist. I feel maybe that's more what I would be good at. Um, and I really took off from there.
But I probably didn't release any songs. I probably wrote songs for like, my gosh, like three years before I put anything out or had a team or anything like that.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. And how did you feel about. Releasing something that you'd written cuz that's a big step to like from singing like a cover song or whatever. Like, I used to sing in church, but I would, it took me a very long time to release something that I'd written on my own.
Mackenzie Porter: Yeah. Um, I mean, at the time I thought it was like the, the best song ever. Now I look back, I'm like, Oh my gosh, these are
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Mackenzie Porter: But that's just kind of like, you know, I've talked about that a lot with like my friends or my husband, like you put out stuff because that's where you are in your life at that time and you're proud of it at that time.
And I'm never like embarrassed of older stuff because it's like that shows the growth and like what you've learned and how you've bettered yourself. Um, so yeah, I definitely have some songs I first released that are not very good, but I've come a long way.
Rae Leigh: I love that. I love that because I've actually spoken to quite a few people who, um, have been really embarrassed with the work that they've done in the past, and then they've just deleted everything. Like even socials accounts, like they've de deleted all their photos, all their previous work that they've released.
In some cases that may be necessary and obviously, that happens a lot when people sign with the record label and things like that, that sometimes they just wanna have a clean slate. But I love what you said about showing the growth because I think that is really important. If you're building a relationship and a fan base with people who are watching your music and connecting with your story that, you know, you'd be like, I'm proud of where I've come from and that I'm not perfect straight away.
Mackenzie Porter: Hmm.
Rae Leigh: But, um, yeah, it's quite, quite a journey.
Is that, How is that for you? How did you get to that emotional maturity to be able to be like that?
Mackenzie Porter: I
think it's just like, I really have been in this industry for my gosh, like, I don't know, 14, 15 years. Like I've, I've grown up in entertainment and. Um, I've heard no so many times and I've also heard Yes. And thought like, Oh my God, my life is about to change and it doesn't, or, or, you know, something small, um, turns into something big or something that I thought was gonna be big.
Like, I just think you just never really know in this industry. And the only thing that you can like guarantee is you're like having a level mindset about it. And, um, Taking it as it come and taking things as a grain of salt. Like I try to take the negative as well as the positive with a grain of salt because it's all a little bit fake.
And, um, I think just like having that mindset and like experiencing so much already in this industry gives me the ability to like sit back and like, take things as they are and like not get too excited or too down. You know, just I, and I'm a human. Like obviously I still get like hurt if somebody's like, Your song sucks or if I don't get part or whatever.
Like, it still affects me, but I'm able to like bounce back pretty quick,
Rae Leigh: able, I think the hardest thing. In particular auditioning as well is that you don't get feedback usually it's just you just don't hear anything and it's like, okay, I didn't get it. And that, that can be hard. And I agree. I think that's something that you get used to the nose.
But most of us aren't very good at hearing no when it comes and we take it personally. But um, yeah, it's good to have that thick skin. And I like that you said that you take the positive and the negative with a grain of salt, cuz Yeah, it's about the journey, isn't it? You've gotta enjoy everything.
Mackenzie Porter: it is. And like I think you get, It's funny cuz I've been in like a couple different positions now where. Um, a, a position where I felt like I really had no, like, ground to stand on. Like I didn't have anything going on in my career at any point. And I've felt like how people have treated me then, and that I've been in a position where I feel like maybe people know what I've done and they've, you know, maybe think we're successful or whatever, and I know how I'm treated then, and it's just like, You know, you're still the same person through it all.
And, um, it can come and go at the same speed. And so I think you just need to be, you know, aware of that. And it kind of like helps you stay grounded through it all.
Rae Leigh: I love that. Tell me about collaboration. So obviously, um, you've had the song one two with Dallas Smith and you've collaborated and performed. Um, but what about when it comes to songwriting co-writing? You're in Nashville now. Um, that's where you live, isn't it, currently?
I'm assuming that because it was in your choir. Um, so I'm, I'm assuming that you do a lot of co-writing, but how did you go when you first started co-writing with people? What have you learned now? Like what advice would you give to people if they were just starting out co-writing? How would you tell them to approach it?
Mackenzie Porter: The thing with co-writing is to approach it with, like, sometimes I kind of miss like the way I first approached it because I was so, um, naive and like in a good way. Like, I would come in and like, I would really like get excited about every single idea and. Um, I think that made me like more creative and I still feel that way now, but sometimes now, you know, because of what we're doing and the radio success that we've had, sometimes I'm like, Okay, it has to be a radio hit.
Like does this sound like a number one? And that's so like stifling at times, you know, where it's, when you're trying to like fill a box, it's, you lose the, create creativity. So I would say to a new writer, like, try to keep that and I've tried really hard to.
Rae Leigh: to. like
Mackenzie Porter: To just go in there and like, have fun and write what you love and write the best song you can that day.
And if you don't get two lines, that's okay. It's like, it's not, um, it's not like a machine. Like you can't just turn on like creativity. You have to practice it and you have to go in there. And some days you get magic and some days you don't. Um, but to keep that like excitement about it, if, if people can
Rae Leigh: Yeah, do it when you enjoy it and love it. Don't make it a chore. Yeah, I love that. That's really good advice. Um, for the industry and for people who maybe look up to you, and obviously you've been doing it a long time and maybe there is a little girl watching you and, and you know, checking into, just like you did with Hillary Duff, for example.
Um, if you could, now that you know, um, in, in the reverse. Give some advice to that person and that that person who's inspired by what you are doing or is there something you wish someone had have told you, I guess when you first started out that you had have known that you know now, but wish you had have known earlier
Mackenzie Porter: think, I think like, you know, to. Understand like that it is a job and that like every day it takes showing up and patience and, and even then, like there's no guarantees. But if you really love it and that's what you wake up thinking about every single day, then you know, just, just do it. And you'll hear 8 million nos.
Like I promise you, we all do and we all get dropped from different labels and, um, dropped from management or agents or whatever. Um, but. That the nos really don't mean anything, um, because nobody really knows like who's gonna be the next star, who's gonna have the next song. It's all just like people pretending they know.
So I feel like if you can like, yeah, gain that like self confidence and no matter what, like keep that fire in you and like that knowledge of like, No, I am good and um, I am gonna do this. I think that can get you so far and you know your turn will come if it. You know, 20 years into your career or two years in, like everyone has their own path.
And another thing I really try, and I'm not great at this , but you know, I try to like not look in other people's lanes because everyone has a story and it's a very competitive industry. And you can get caught up in like, Well, why is she getting this? Or Why she get this part? Or Why did he get this radio spot or, You know, and it's just so not beneficial to your career.
Like it does nothing for you to think that way. So I really try to focus on just myself and how I can get better.
Rae Leigh: That's such good advice and I love that someone told me once, um, think of rejection as redirection.
Mackenzie Porter: Yes, I love that because it is that, and, and our industry is just full of redirection.
Rae Leigh: It is and, and it is about having that, um, self love and, and knowing who you are as a person. And that comes with experience and age and just growing up really, doesn't it? Um, when you are writing songs or you're in that ready to co-write, um, because you are recording artists and obviously you have a, a brand in quotation marks of who you are and what you release, is there something that you would say defines.
Your music, your songwriting, and the messages or all the, the stories that you want to share and you like to share with people. And it can be as simple as like, they always have to be happy or they always have to be drinking songs.
Mackenzie Porter: yeah, I think I, um, do write a lot of like up tempo, sad or like nostalgic kind of songs I really love. That feeling, um, of like looking back, I don't know why. It just kinda like, is romantic to me. Um, so I definitely think there's that thread throughout my music and um, obviously it has like a poppier sound and like a younger sound.
And I've noticed just being on tour a lot that like I have a lot of young fans, so I do kind of stay away from like, a lot of drinking songs. Like even, I mean, I think, you know, I just have to like look at who my audience is, um, and. And love songs too. So my next record is kind of filled with like love and heartbreak and just everything that I feel like as a female at at my age, like, and what I've experienced in my life so far.
Rae Leigh: far, I think that's beautiful and to be thinking about. Who's watching you, um, is very responsible and I feel like everyone is watching. I saw it like a girl who was seven my daughter's age, and she was on TikTok, and I was like, Oh, no, , please be careful about what we put on TikTok. It's, even though there are age brackets, people, they get through and it, it, it's hard.
Um, okay, so one of the things I like to ask, and this is around your influences. If you could collaborate with anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
Mackenzie Porter: Oh my gosh, that's such a good question. Um, well the first person that comes to my mind would be like probably Nia, just because I feel like she is just so iconic for females in country music, and, um,
I
love her and I think, you know, if I could go back to like the nineties Shania like, and be like involved in that somehow super, super cool.
Or, I love Casey MAs Graves, like I would love to do something with her one day. Or my gosh, there's just so many artists like Chris Stapleton or Justin Timber, like there's just, I would die to do stuff with any of those
people.
Rae Leigh: I think we all would. You've mentioned something about, you know, Schneider and women in um, music, and that is a bit of a hot topic, I guess, in Australia at the moment. There's just been a whole bunch of, um, reports done on, I guess, the treatment of women in the music industry. What's it been like in your experience?
You've been in the industry for a while, you're a female. And there's been a lot I know in America with women in country and there's been like some really big support groups come up for women in country. Um, what's been your experience and what advice would you give to people who are women in the industry on how to hold yourself and, and to, you know, enter into that space?
Mackenzie Porter: I mean, I've definitely felt, I've definitely dealt with the same challenges that all women deal with in country music specifically. You know, not quite getting the fair, Amount of radio play or like, even like somebody who is at the same level of me as me, as a, a man, he would make more money at a show than I would, and that's just how it is.
And I, people don't like talk about it that much and you know, we're not supposed to. Because you know, I know
and
Rae Leigh: talk about it here or you like
Mackenzie Porter: yeah. Okay, cool. Uh, yeah, so I feel like.
Rae Leigh: So I think
Mackenzie Porter: there is that, and that is very much real and alive. And I don't know if it's changing slowly or if it's not, but all I know that I can do is, you know, be aware of it and like work extra hard and like try to provide those opportunities for myself.
And when I feel things are unfair, like I would definitely say it, and acknowledge it, but I. I just know how to, like, okay, if I have, the shorter straw or whatever that saying is that I'll just, I'll work harder than the other guy to prove that I deserve to be here so that, you know, one day I can demand more money or demand, you know, more stuff because I've gotten myself to that place.
So I still feel like I'm in a position where it's like a very thin line because I don't wanna piss people off or, you know, It's just hard to like stick up for yourself but also get in those, those positions of like rooms and radio and all that kind of stuff. So I don't, I don't have the answer to that yet.
It's just kind of something that all females are like dealing with and trying to figure out together.
Rae Leigh: all, Yeah, it's riskier. And I do think that women supporting women is one of the ways that we're gonna be able to get our voices heard in these scenarios as far as like pay. Because I feel like there's been a lot of tokenism. More recently as women have been speaking up, they'll start putting on. A female, you know, and be like, See, we support women, but it's not just music industry.
It's, it is the corporate world. Hopefully it is changing. I want it to change for my daughter. I don't want her to have to deal with the same things I've dealt with, but I think that it does, the, the more we go and the more we talk about it, the better it gets. So I appreciate you sharing. Thank you. So other than that, what have you got going on?
Cause I know that you're, you're in Sydney tonight and then you're in London as well with Kane Brown.
Mackenzie Porter: Yes. So I kinda, um, we've been on the road since this time last year. Like I've, I've had about three weeks off into last year , Just to like song write at home. But, um, I'm kind of, I'm gonna, when I, once we wrap up in Sydney, um, I have like one off show. So I have like one with Kane, one with Jason een, one with like Shelton.
I'll play those. But really I need to go home and, finish my record. So I'm in the studio and I'm writing and I'll, I'll spend about. Other than those shows that I'll like fly in and out for. And I have like a couple other ones, but I'll spend about the next three months just at home, like finishing this record so I can get it out.
Cuz we've been, we've been working on it for a while, but I've been on tour so consistently that it's been hard to like cut. And my, the producer I work with works with a bunch of other big artists, so, If I'm home for two days, it doesn't necessarily mean I get to like go in the studio with him. So I'm excited to like, focus on that so I can get new music out there to tour all again.
Rae Leigh: And do you co-produce everything that you do or, because you said you studied production.
Mackenzie Porter: Yeah. I don't really produce it. No. Joey, Moy is my producer and I'm in there and I'm definitely like, You know, giving ideas and being like, What if we added this fiddle part or whatever. But he's so brilliant that, um, he is my main producer.
Rae Leigh: All. So you just put a lot of trust in him and you were like, You do what you wanna do. I'm gonna sing the best I can and come up with awesome songs and Awesome.
Mackenzie Porter: And I mean, we cut the songs that I write so. , a lot of it is like, you know, close to or an amplified version of the demo. So the demos I'm like very involved in and when we go into cut with the band, they just kind of like make what we did a lot better.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. And, and you are really busy at the moment, which is fantastic. That's like every artist just wants to be working essentially. It wasn't always like that. I'm guessing. I know that you were 14 when you first moved and then you, you know, you've done a lot in those moments where you were still chasing and you weren't working as hard as you are at the moment. What was it like for you and how did you keep pushing on.
Mackenzie Porter: You know, there's definitely been like a lot of times where I've felt and still feel like, man, I'm not like quite where I wanna be, or, I really wish that I just had that right song that, you know. Reacted or whatever. So there's definitely, it's a mental challenge for me still to be an artist. I think most artists feel that way. But there's just always been like something inside of me that. Like, if I have a bad day and I'm feeling like, Ugh, I hate this job, I wanna quit or whatever. The next morning I wake up and I just feel like fired up again. And I've always been like that and my parents have always been like, you know, I've never met somebody who can get like, turned down so many times and wake up the next day and like, act like it never happened and still believe, But I don't know.
It's just, I just always have, and it's probably very delusional. I, I remember reading like one. Lady Gaga said something about like, as an artist, you have to be so delusional to think that you're like the one that is gonna pop off and like, make it, and like you believe in yourself that much, that it's kind of delusion.
And I just feel like that's kind of like me too. It's just like, I don't know, I, I know this is what I'm doing with my life and I don't really have another choice because it's the only thing I really, really love and um, I'll just make it work. And so that's kind of how I get through all those like darker times.
Rae Leigh: it work. I love that. Not having a plan B and just being like, This is it. And I, I can relate to that and. I think it is like when you, when you believe in yourself or it is delusional, but it's like that recognition of it's, it's your life and you only get to live it once. You gotta do what you love and that is not, I don't think a very common thing for people to chase or do.
Sometimes doing what is seems to be easier is not always doing what you love. So you are a very inspirational person. And hopefully you are inspiring, a lot of other people to make similar choices. So well done and thank you so much for sharing. That's pretty much all of my questions. Is there anything else you would like to say?
The podcast, Is yours
Mackenzie Porter: Just that I've really enjoyed, you know, coming over to Australia and seeing, Australian country music fans and kind of been blown away by like, their response to my music. I, I really didn't. Know what it was gonna be like. Like I've told my husband on the flight over here, I'm like, Do you think anybody's gonna know any of my songs?
And, um, it's been like shocking to see, not only do they know my singles, but like some of the deeper cuts. And it's been pretty beautiful and I just can't wait to tour Australia again and, um, keep building this fan base in connection with these, with people over here. It's been really.
Rae Leigh: Well, I hope you get to come back. Coffee and bur heads. I am always free for that. So.
Mackenzie Porter: Mm. Let's do it.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, but like well done with what you're doing. It's inspiring and um, I really do wish you all the best and hopefully, you know, future movies and all the best with your record as well. That's gonna be amazing, I'm sure.
Mackenzie Porter: Thank you so much. Thank you for chatting with me today.
