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Like many of the songs on the 12-track release, the album art came to Mackin slowly and mysteriously until, like a photo snapping into focus, meaning and expression collided in sharp relief. It’s difficult to articulate, Mackin muses, but this third trip through the record-making rigmarole finds her steering through difficult emotions confidently in the driver’s seat, having learned to trust her creative instincts and lean into intentionality when it comes to writing, recording, and visual world-building around her music.
“I was doing all these weird doodles for the last four years of all these heads in the sky for no reason,” she says. As the feeling of the record materialized, the songwriter realized there was a reason. Her hunch thatfelt like falling got a boost of external confirmation in producer Ty Segall’s Topanga, CA, studio, when the multi-instrumentalist indie icon asked if he could share his idea for the cover art. “He said something along the lines of falling through the sky,” Mackin laughs. “Which was crazy. Me and Derek looked at each other, and we were like, how did he figure that out?” This seemingly cosmic aesthetic alignment was just one among many between the Austin-based songwriter and Segall. The two met sharing a Levitation stage in 2023 – not dissimilar to thebill they’ll share again later this spring. Though it started as a joke, she couldn’t think of a better person to actualize this record’s lightly expressed emotional depth. “He would be the perfect person, actually, because he’s kind of evil and sweet,” she says. “He has this certain vibe. I feel like it was a lot of darkness, but there was a lot of waking up, new world sweetness.”, Mackin is shaking off the weight of taking herself seriously and finding space to dig deeper emotionally while playing with lighter sounds. Segall, whose own work uses psychedelic tones and deliberately crafted rock atmospheres to explore complex emotional tenors, felt like the right fit for the affected compositions Mackin and her bandmates, bassist Strahan and drummer Nick Cornetti, were crafting. “Concrete Trees” finds the dynamic vocalist sing-talking, strutting at a jaunty pace over a racing bassline and revving guitar riff. The tone is playful and teasing, relishing in a hide-and-seek callback melody.she asks. Written shortly after her best friend passed away, Mackin sees the single as encapsulating the album’s running lyrical theme of presence, literal and spiritual, as an opposing force to sleep and death. “How can exist not here and here all at the same time?” she asks, contemplating the emotional crux of this release. As her lyrics found homes among carousel piano licks on “Ice Cream on the Beach” and gritty city-grime distortion on “Street Urchin” alike, the New Jersey native found herself exploring the “gross chaos” of her East Coast home state and the weight of her writing themes from a dreamlike distance. The language of rhythmic choices and production tones has helped her find a way to twist the stomach-dropping sensation of falling from a great height that grief and loss can conjure into a relatable, controllable ride. “I think of Annabelle Chairlegs like my cartoon diary, because it’s so personal, but it’s a wacky offshoot of myself,” Mackin says. After inhabiting this stylistically crafted alter ego for over a decade, the indie rocker hears her voice settling into its groove, both on the track and behind the scenes in the production booth. “I think finding the lightness with the darkness now,” she says. “ laughing a little bit more, having a little more fun, while also talking about something heavier, but finding the joy behind it and the comedy to it.” has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.Caroline is the Music and Culture staff writer and reporter, covering, well, music, books, and visual art for the Chronicle. She came to Austin by way of Portland, Oregon, drawn by the music scene and the warm weather.
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