Detroit rock-meets-R&B band Mac Saturn is turning the heads of music biz heavyweights
There’s a lot of big stuff percolating right now in the world of Mac Saturn. But if there’s one thing the band wants the people of Detroit to know above all, it’s this:
“We don’t shut the hell up about them,” says singer Carson Macc. “When we travel, when we talk to people, the first thing we say is: ‘We're from Detroit.’”
“It's just so baked into the character of the band — the work ethic and determination and grit,” adds guitarist Nick Barone. “Everywhere we go, we wear it on our sleeve.”
That local pride and sense of ambassadorship are a badge of honor for the Motor City’s buzz band of the moment, and it’ll be front and center Friday when Mac Saturn plays its biggest hometown concert to date: a record release show at the Fillmore Detroit marking the group's debut full-length album, “Hard to Sell,” set for release that day.
The group’s core fan base undoubtedly circled the date on calendars the day it was announced. But Macc and guitarist Nick Barone want everyone else to know they’re welcome to “give it a shot and get on board” with what the band calls a Detroit movement.
“It's not just music. It's not just rock 'n' roll. It's no different than what the Lions are doing in the playoffs,” Macc says with typical high-spirited aplomb. “It's all about Detroit, and we want everybody to jump on. That’s the main message of this thing, because we want them to be a part of this family.”
Mac Saturn’s catchy musical machinery — built on a rock chassis souped up with bright, danceable R&B trim — has drawn growing interest here and beyond, thanks in part to a 2022 EP and touring slots with acts such as the Struts. Friday’s Fillmore show is kickoff to a two-month headlining tour that will take the six-piece group to theaters and clubs across North America.
The appeal is easy to see: Onstage and on record, there’s an infectious bravado and retro cool to go with the slinky grooves and earworm hooks. In person, the energy is positive and purposeful from a band that just might be on the cusp of bigger things.
It's undergirded by a creative versatility. Macc, for instance, was the band’s drummer before shifting into the front-man role. He says the transition was initially awkward — which might be hard to fathom, given his charismatic, Jagger-inspired presence out front.
Some key industry heavyweights have certainly bought in. Mac Saturn comes with a support team of heavy hitters, including manager Mark Didia (Black Crowes, Dirty Honey), booking firm Creative Artists Agency and tour promoter Live Nation. The band’s label, Saturn Sounds, is partnered with Nashville’s Thirty Tigers, whose portfolio includes the Smashing Pumpkins, Alanis Morissette, Sturgill Simpson and others.
“Hard to Sell,” like the band’s debut EP, was produced by Al Sutton, Marlon Young and Herschel Boone at Royal Oak’s Rust Belt Studios, where that same trio helped introduce Greta Van Fleet to the world and earned a Grammy in the process.
Mac Saturn’s link with Rust Belt began in a quintessential Detroit setting — an MC5 anniversary gig at Third Man Records in the Cass Corridor. Macc and Sutton were both there that night in late 2018 when the young singer encountered the veteran producer in a restroom line.
Macc seized his chance, brashly telling Sutton he was “missing out on the big whale that is Mac Saturn, in terms of big bucks. I'm still making him hold on to that promise I gave him. And I know we're going to pay off one day.”
The band’s subsequent visit to Sutton's Royal Oak facility, alas, started poorly.
“We had a couple of songs that weren't very good,” says Barone. “And we got told they weren't very good.”
Heading out rejected and dejected, Mac Saturn made a last-ditch gambit in the Rust Belt parking lot. Grabbing acoustic guitars, the band kicked into an impromptu outdoor jam. At one point, Macc jumped atop a van to sing.
“So what Al saw in us, before the songs or the talent or whatever potential, was a work ethic,” says Barone. “It really charmed him that we were willing to put in the work. And we’ve had a great relationship with those guys ever since.”
For an artist just getting a break, the COVID-19 lockdown that soon followed might have delivered an uppercut to momentum. For Mac Saturn, it was a boon — a chance to bunker down, iron out kinks, hammer out a direction and ultimately reemerge with “a refined process and more mature group of guys,” says Barone.
“We really had to look ourselves in the mirror and say: ‘What do we want to do? Is this what we want to do?’ And we all said yes,” recounts Macc. “And we're here now, still pushing that dream. But it didn't happen to us until then, with the songs and the sound we found in the studio those two years while everything was shut down.”
During the pandemic, says Barone, “Rust Belt was our stage. And that's the only way we could hear the intensity and the fullness of what we wanted to accomplish live. We went through that whole process and (honed) these songs in the studio to this caliber of sonic justice.”
As Mac Saturn finally returned to play bars and clubs in Detroit and the Midwest, the payoff was obvious.
“When we hit the stage again, people went from seeing, like, a local band to a band that spent two years in a studio working,” Barone recalls. “It was like night and day. And the response equaled that. The quality of the show was exponentially greater. It took two years to make that happen overnight.”
For Mac Saturn, the musical influences are all over the place, from '60s rock to blues essentials to '90s hip-hop. The group obsession at the moment is Bad Company’s 1982 dark horse album, “Rough Diamonds”; next week, it might be a vintage jazz selection or Lou Reed.
Members say the group is constantly writing and creating, and as Mac Saturn's debut record arrives this week, they guesstimate that four more albums' worth of work is already stockpiled.
The band touts the diverse approach that feeds the music: Macc and Barone work off creative intuition; Wayne State University music alum Evan Mercer (keyboards) and Ian Lukas (bass) bring a technical ear; guitarist Mike Moody injects a soulful edge; drummer Angelo Coppola offers the big-picture view.
“Our environment is each other and where we're at. It’s not something we take lightly. We really want to be a band,” says Macc, noting that the group has long lived together in a Detroit house. “These times need that, Detroit needs that, the world needs that. Young kids want to be in bands that do it the real way.”
On Friday, when band members head down Woodward Avenue to see "MAC SATURN" on the Fillmore marquee, emotions are likely to soar.
Macc attended his first concert there, a pop show in the early 2000s. Barone saw the marquee many times as a kid while attending big-league games or catching his grandfather's appearances with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
"We've been visualizing playing at a premier venue like this ever since we started," says Macc. "And the fact that we get to put on our show at a place like the Fillmore, in the heart of the city, especially with everything that's going on with Michigan and Detroit right now in the sports world — it just seems like there's some serious momentum going for Detroit.
"The timing is so perfect, and it's just a big deal to us to be in the action like that."
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
Mac Saturn
With the Thing with Feathers
7 p.m. Fri.
Fillmore Detroit
2115 Woodward, Detroit
$35 & up
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mac Saturn's rock-meets-R&B sound is turning heads in Detroit and beyond
