Australian musician Keelan Mak has shared his excitement about the release of his new EP Brave Face. OUTinPerth caught up with the singer on Friday and his latest music was released to the public.
“It feels good, there are moments when I don’t even know how to feel.” Mak said. “These songs have sat in my brain and in my computer for so long that when you put them out you kind of forget that they are knew and other people haven’t heard them before. It’s a strange feeling.”
Heaps of people loved Mak’s first EP which came out in 2019, but he’s spent some time working on the follow up. He shares that a lot has happened over the last three years while he created his latest batch of tunes.
“I’ve been doing a lot. It’s been an interesting time. When I released the first EP, I’d just left Brisbane, where I grew up. I’d moved to Sydney and then I was there for a few years.
“I did a lot of writing and I fell in love, but then I fell out of love – and I guess that’s where this EP comes from.” Mak said.
Now based in Melbourne, Keelan Mak laughs at the suggestion that he’s two breakups away from living in Perth.
“Let’s see who breaks my heart next and which major city I flee to.” he jokes, “I’m not sure if I can afford another big move.”
While he has suffered heartbreak, he also channeled his emotions in the creation of this 5-track EP that’s already spawned three singles.
“My relationship with heartbreak and with songwriting is very different. I think there’s an image of a heartbroken singer-song writer sitting down at their piano and crying and writing lyrics, but for me it never works like that.
“I think I write my best music when I have time to sit and think and be still, so a lot of the times the songs I’m writing are a good little while after I have gone through what I have. It does feel good, it’s cathartic to give these moments of my life a song to connect them to, then when I listen back to them, I’m like ‘I remember what the line in the second verse is referring to.”
When filming the video for title track Brace Face, Mak was required to cry on cue, something he said was a challenge many years after the initial heartbreak had occurred.
“That song is tied to a very specific point of heartbreak and for the music video I had to cry on cue, and I’d been practicing it for so long. Then when it came to filming, I finally reached this point where I was letting go of my heartbreak, so I had to work really hard to get back there again.”
Keelan Mak shares that he loves the visual side of his career and making video and posing for photo shoots is something he embraces as it allows him to show off his love of style and fashion.
“I absolutely love it, I think I have always enjoyed the creative visual side of being an artist, and i am very heavily involved in creating my music videos and the themes of styling them.”
Mak says he’s always been a lover fashion, but he’s not sure he’s always made the best choices.
“At one point there was ten-year old me wearing suit vests over t-shirts.” he says, explaining his lifelong exploration of fashion and clothing.
“I’ve always been into fashion and clothes, and I don’t know if my taste is getting better or worse, but I like what I like.” Mak says with a smile.
One of the tracks on the EP that fans are hearing for the first time is Heart Gets Locked, a tune Nak labels as his club banger.
“Heart Gets Locked is an idea I started many years ago and kind of re-opened only last year, and then rewrote over the top of it. It’s like my club banger, it’s nice heavy energetic club song, it’s one of my favorites.”
Mak says the inspiration for the other new track on the EP Who Am I To You came from Billie Eilish.
“It’s a softer, kind of gentle song. I was listening to a lot of Billie Eilish at the time, and I was like “wait a second, I can sing quietly.”
While the EP is now available for fans to download and stream, Mak says he has lots more music waiting in the wings that he’s eager to share.
Brave Face EP is available now.
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