MaKenzie at Hard Rock Hotel New York
MaKenzie talks with DJ Buck at Hard Rock Hotel in New York about new music and more.
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00:00Welcome to the Odyssey Check-in at the Hard Rock Hotel. My name is DJ Buck and
00:06with me this lovely young lady here Mackenzie. Mackenzie how you feeling? I'm
00:10feeling good how are you? I'm good now if you happen to be scrolling through the
00:14internet Instagram you probably came across a young lady young lady named
00:19Mackenzie. She's right here. How did that now how did that happen? How did you
00:22start to upload your music and when was the first time you saw a big reaction
00:26from one of your songs? So a funny thing is the first cover that I ever decided
00:31to upload to YouTube as that was where I uploaded my first cover went viral it
00:36was a cover of Redbone by Childish Gambino. The first one? The very first
00:40video I uploaded of me sitting down and singing a cover of somebody's song and
00:45it went very viral and it had the people from The Voice reaching out being like
00:51wanted me to come audition which kind of just jump-started the whole thing so
00:54from there I started posting consistently on Instagram and and and
00:58other pages and then I had some gospel things some gospel covers kind of blow
01:03up on TikTok and Instagram but the the Redbone YouTube cover kind of started it
01:08all yeah. Now coming from Kentucky was there a lot of action in Kentucky like
01:14people making moves and making out of Kentucky that you saw? I mean there's
01:18been there's been some real successful you know fellow Kentuckians like Chris
01:23Stapleton you know he he got big Jack Harlow there's yeah there's a bunch of
01:29people in my specific area not necessarily people making it out because
01:33of music but still a bunch of insanely talented musicians like Appalachia you
01:39know we got some banjo players up here man like. What made you pick up the microphone and start
01:44doing what you do? My mamaw my dad's dad or maybe my dad's mom my mamaw Thomas
01:50Kathy she's a singer she can just blow and she plays piano and my dad's dad
01:57sings too we all were in like a church band together but hearing her sing and
02:00seeing her on stage when I was little is what made me want to do it. Now when you
02:04did it was your goal was always to impress her because you knew she was the
02:07standard for you she was the standard. Not even not even to impress her I just
02:10wanted to be like her. You want to be like her? Yeah. Are you like her now? Are you close?
02:14Yeah I would say we're I'd say we're pretty similar. She's proud of you right? Oh yeah for sure.
02:19Now tell me about the voice you was on the voice twice. Mm-hmm yes. The first time no one turned
02:23around how did that feel when no one turned that chair around? It was very embarrassing it
02:27sucked it was awful I did not like it at all but hindsight is 20-20 and it was
02:32super character building so I'm grateful that it happened in my defense though I
02:36did have laryngitis. Did you? I did so it was not my best performance. And you sung
02:41Redbone? Yeah. Was that the bop for you for that show do you feel that was the
02:44right song for you? Not at all. Situation? Yeah no not at all I don't think it was
02:49the right song choice at all. For the first for that show I would have I
02:52would have I don't know I would have wanted to probably do something a little
02:58more like female R&B singer type energy just for the audition you know. Now when
03:04you went back to second time mm-hmm when Jennifer Hudson turned around what was
03:08that feeling because for a while they was just they didn't turn around then
03:12when she pushed it turn around what was that feeling when she spun around and
03:15you saw her? Honestly the first thing was like oh my gosh thank God that didn't
03:19happen again and I didn't get a chair turn twice in a row you know that was
03:24really the first one that was the first thought that ran through my mind but um
03:27then immediately after I was like okay cool I'm moving forward I'm gonna get to
03:32have a conversation with Jennifer which is super cool and learn something and
03:36yeah just excited. What kind of advice did Jennifer Hudson give you? Oh it's
03:43been so long let me see I think one thing I do remember her saying it was on
03:48one of our outings was to just always like carry a piece of home with you
03:53throughout all of it you know and she was she was referencing like you know
03:57referring to life but specifically in that moment she was talking about the
04:01show she's like you know it could be difficult you know to navigate everything
04:05in the show and it could be exhausting she's like so just have a piece of home
04:09with you somehow and hold on to it you know to keep you centered. Now I've been
04:14watching you your range of music is everywhere yeah you love everything
04:18everything I was surprised to find what you you love hard rock. Yeah hard rock
04:22heavy metal, progressive metal, classic rock. What are some of your favorite heavy metal bands?
04:28Oh okay so I'm gonna say heavy metal as a very like wide label here I'm gonna
04:35include bands like Tool some people would say they're rock I think general
04:41heavy metal cuz Metallica was heavy metal at one point yeah you know Led
04:44Zeppelin was considered heavy metal at one point in time so we could say Led
04:48Zeppelin we could say Metallica we could say Tool, Meshuggah now there there's
04:52some there's some heavy metal, Dream Theater's like progressive heavy metal
04:55love that band, Animals as Leaders, Tosin Abasi on bass killer and then I
05:02would say like Primus and Periphery and a bunch so many. Now you go from loving heavy metal to loving gospel music. Yeah yeah
05:12Kim Burrell, CeCe Winans, The Canton Spirituals I love all of it. I heard you mix them all up
05:18what did you learn from rock and roll did you get anything from rock and roll
05:20to incorporate into who you are right now? Oh for sure I used to listen a lot
05:25to like the guitar riffs and the bass lines and I would just try and mimic
05:31what they were doing with my voice you know to make my voice sound like an
05:34instrument or to hit all the notes that the guitarist would hit or even
05:38texturally like Robert Plant one of my favorite singers lead singer of Led
05:42Zeppelin I love a lot of his choices a lot of his vocal choices are really
05:47bluesy and some of them are really churchy which makes sense cuz Led
05:50Zeppelin they got inspiration from so many different people and genres and all
05:55that and so I don't know I think it all I think it all really ties together
05:59because like rock I feel like personally developed from church music you know so
06:07it's all it all goes hand in hand and it's a it's a beautiful thing to have
06:12to navigate learn how to navigate and move through. Mackenzie if I was to look
06:16into your your playlist on your phone. Oh lord it's not my my go-to one is 98
06:21hours long. 98 hours long? Yes. Everything's in there. And that's like just all my
06:27favorite things you know off the top I have so many other ones but that's just
06:31like my random anything could be in there it's just if it's in there I like
06:36I love the song. What I know is about you when you sing your eyes are closed a lot
06:41yeah yeah a lot of feeling and emotion some people can sing songs and not be
06:46attached those songs you seem to be attached to every song you sing. Yeah I
06:51think it's just cuz I love music so much you know music is I can't see myself
06:54doing anything else music's helped me through a lot of hard times music has
06:59it's just always been there for me you know and the eyes closed thing I would
07:04say probably started because of like the stage fright which I still have to a
07:09crazy degree but it eventually because once I sing for 15 minutes I'm not like
07:16I don't have the nerves anymore and so if my eyes are closed after 15 seconds I
07:19said minutes a minute ago but after 15 seconds once I've been singing and my if
07:24my eyes are still closed it's just cuz I'm feeling what I'm saying you know I'm
07:27like just in the moment and moving through the notes. A lot of people I say
07:31I always say when people will sing songs they bring something out of them the
07:35best singers are the ones who are attached to those songs anybody can sing
07:39a song but not many people can sing a song and feel a song and I can tell the
07:43difference when someone's recording a song they meant that then just here's the
07:48script I wrote this work these words and you sing it there's a big difference. As
07:51cool as you say that cuz one of my friends the other day one of my musical
07:54friends over in LA he was telling me he was like he's like you know what I love
07:58about your music cuz I was showing him I was showing him some stuff you know he's
08:02like you know what I love about your music and I was like what and he was
08:04like you just feel your music you could feel that you feel it and it makes us
08:07feel it so that's it's cool that you said that. There was one song you sang
08:11for Celine Dion song you sang that song for a long time how many hours did you
08:15sing that song back to back to back and why? Are you talking about when I got in
08:21trouble as a kid yeah my heart will go on I used to have a DVD collection of
08:26like all her music videos and so I would just put it in and actually it might
08:31have been a VHS now that I think about it I think it was I would just pop that
08:36sucker in hit the menu go to my heart will go on and sit by my door and sob I
08:42like to wallow sometimes I think it's important to feel your feelings you know
08:46and embrace it and yeah I just you know I sang for quite a while I don't really
08:52even know how long I probably watched it several times through. It helped you get
08:56over whatever you got in trouble for? Yeah you know and at the time I was
08:59probably trying to make my parents regret like punishing me a little bit
09:02you know I'm being a little annoying I'm gonna sing and cry. Your parents on the
09:07voice you made your mom cry. Yeah yeah she was excited she's emotional though
09:11she's a very emotional person I love her. Are you emotional? Oh for sure I think it's
09:15important to be in touch. Do some of the songs bring tears out of you sometimes? Yeah sometimes. Is it hard to sing certain songs like gospel songs some gospel songs. Some gospel songs are very hard. Do we fall down because we get up? Whenever I hear that song I cry.
09:28Are there songs like that for you that bring other emotions that are hard to do?
09:32Yeah yeah sometimes so singing back in college when I used to sing with the
09:38Black Gospel Ensemble singing I realized that singing with a group of people
09:43specifically gospel music that can do it that can bring you to tears. By myself
09:49I mean I've sung Alabaster Box a couple times and gotten pretty emotional yeah
09:56there's just a lot but even even songs outside of gospel you know they can make
10:02you emotional like you know a lot of Brian McKnight songs you know anytime
10:06after my divorce man whoo I understood why people sing along to that shit so
10:11hard in the car I love it it was so good. This journey that you're on your
10:16boat it's gonna get bigger it's just the beginning. Yes. It can be an emotional
10:19rollercoaster. Oh for sure. It can weigh on your mental health they can do a lot
10:24how do you deal with that when when you get in a certain situation you feel like
10:28maybe I don't want to do this anymore or this is too hard to do. Right um I mean I
10:36just I guess I try and look at it all because I've experienced a lot of that
10:40even up till now I'm 26 and I've lived a lot of life in my 26 years I think the
10:45important thing and this is coming from somebody who's struggled with depression
10:50and all of that all that stuff like so much I think it's just really important
10:56to embrace the concept of life is just gonna life sometimes and it's not gonna
11:04be easy but if you make it over you know sometimes it takes a mountain if you
11:07make it over it you're over it you know and there might be another one that
11:11comes but that's just it life is too short to like focus on the fact that
11:16that shit can feel bad you gotta just look at the positive stuff. Do you think
11:21it's important to educate the people on mental health? Absolutely. Depression and
11:25how to get through it? Absolutely and especially this month like this month is
11:29men's mental health awareness month too or maybe week I mean you should quote me
11:34on that but there it is like mental men's mental health awareness month and
11:38I think that's like a super important thing because you know men are brought
11:41up in our society to not feel comfortable expressing their emotions and
11:47stuff like that and so I hope that my music universally can help people do
11:51that regardless of what the feelings are but yeah mental health is super
11:54important and I definitely think that we should people should talk about it and
12:00make it normalize it you know yeah. Now you've met a lot of people so far and
12:06you've sang a lot of people's songs that you've met. Who have you met that there's a
12:10song that you sing a lot and you're like oh she's right here he's right here. Yeah
12:15Mariah Carey was a big one because she was a guest mentor on The Voice and I it
12:22was the week of knockout rounds and I sang How Deep Is Your Love by the Bee Gees
12:27but I did it with like a little head nod to PJ Morton's version you know
12:30because that's the guy. Shout out Yeba, Abby that's my that's my girl. Yeah that
12:38that was cool singing that in front of her because I'd sung her songs in talent
12:41competitions for years it was cool to say I would have been so nervous to sing
12:45one of her songs in front of her but the week before that I had sung one of her
12:49songs in the battle round it just didn't air but a couple seconds of it because
12:53you know they split split things up there's a lot of a lot of songs but
12:57singing in front of her was great she cried and she told me that she would
13:02have bought that song exactly as I did it right then and there and that's still
13:06like a highlight for for me that's like one of the highlights of my life man so
13:11cool. A lot of people see you now they don't see like the things you've done in
13:14the past to get here you talked about talent shows and being on stages was
13:18that was the have you lost any talent shows before? I've lost I think two
13:24talent shows I feel like it there was this one that I it took me three tries
13:29to win it but all the other ones I have to say I did win. Did you surprise people
13:35when you walk on stage in these talent shows? Oh yeah. Who's this girl and what's she gonna sing and then you open your mouth and what happened?
13:40Yeah no it was it was always it was always good for the good for the ego
13:46yeah cuz I'd open my mouth and then people would come up after me
13:51come up to me after there we go goodness they would come up to to me
13:56after and be like yo I did not expect you to sound like that it was such a
13:59pleasant surprise or you know some version of that and it was real cool it
14:04was really it was a really it was really interesting to have that kind of
14:12competitiveness growing up cuz my mom's a sports mom she was an athlete she
14:16wanted me to run track so bad it was not happening it was not happening but she
14:20got to go to my talent competition so I kind of once my little sister was born
14:23though she plays volleyball she got her she got her sports in. Tell me about this
14:27song maybe. Maybe yes maybe I it's a song I have with the producer a producer named
14:34Rob Knox super talented guy super great person and it was my third ish I think
14:41session when I started coming out to LA to work when No I.D. started finding me
14:45out to you know just create and get things moving and it was an immediate
14:53like musical chemistry match there for that stage in my life and even still
14:58like I talked to Rob all the time he's a good friend of mine now we've known each
15:01other for a couple years now and maybe was one of the yeah it was it was we
15:07wrote it so quick it just it we wrote it so quick we wrote it in a day in one day
15:13and then it was just a matter of going back in over the course of I guess it
15:18was two sessions to just fine-tune some vocals and then when we got T.A. Thomas
15:24to be featured on it you know we went in and vocal I vocal produced him a little
15:27bit and we brought it together so the fine-tuning vocals Koo Karell helped me
15:33he vocal produced me a little bit just to clean everything up you know and it
15:37was such a cool experience but yeah we made that song super quick. The video
15:42looked like it was fun yeah yeah that that quartet that was playing with me in
15:49that video I love them Erin Hill she's one of No I.D.'s assistants and and just
15:54people family you know and she's an amazing string player and all of them
15:58Jeremy and all of them in the quartet they're so talented and it was such a
16:02blast to just do a different take on it you know. Mackenzie I see you're chatting
16:06up some must mean are more important than other ones what's the most
16:10important tattoo you have? The most important one okay I don't know if it's
16:14the most important but it's my favorite because I'm such a Lord of the Rings
16:17nerd I have a map of Middle-earth. You got the whole map? The map. Oh. It's a map of
16:23Middle-earth and the purple line on it is the the the journey that Samwise and
16:30Frodo took from the Shire to Mordor to destroy the ring. Wow. It's such a fine
16:34deep like it's so cool it's my favorite tattoo that I have. Mackenzie it's
16:38amazing I'm so happy to meet you I discovered you a while ago when I found
16:41out that where you were at and I can actually talk to you I called up the
16:46powers-that-be and said we have to get her in here for this because I think it's
16:48important I think your journey is just beginning and hopefully a year or two
16:53from now we can get you back here. Absolutely. All right. We'll bring my guy
16:56Buddha and my guy Deuce or something we'll jam it up. Let's do it like that then.
17:00Ladies and gentlemen Mackenzie.