MacKenzie Porter is a Canadian singer-songwriter and actress. She was raised on a cattle and bison ranch near Medicine Hat, Alberta. She began studying piano, violin and voice at age four and growing up and later toured in a family band with her brother, 2004 Canadian Idol winner Kalan Porter.
After winning the Nashville North Star competition in 2011 Porter began to release a steady stream of songs, an album in 2014 and further collection in 2020 but it was her inclusion as duet partner on Dustin Lynch's record-breaking six week number one ‘Thinking ‘Bout You' in 2021 that propelled her into the public consciousness. UK Country fans will be able to see MacKenzie sing ‘Thinking ‘Bout You' and get a glimpse of some of the new music she has coming down the line this year at the C2C festival in London across the weekend of March 11th to 13th.
We were thrilled to talk to her all about it.
It's lovely to speak to you, thank you for making the time to chat to us today. We're really looking forward to seeing you play at the C2C festival?
I'm sooo excited! (laughing) I've been over to the UK before, just to travel, you know, but this will be the first time I've played shows over there. I've heard so much about the fans over there and how much they love Country music and how dedicated they are.
Have you built in any time for sightseeing whilst you are here?
Yes! I'm coming a couple of days early so I wanna get out for dinner, see some sights and I definitely want to go shopping! (laughing) After we've been to Glasgow we're going to go and stay in Edinburgh and spend a couple of days there too.
What songs can people expect to hear from you at the C2C festival?
I definitely going to be playing the songs that people would know and then I'd love to play some songs that will be on my new record later in the year. It'll be acoustic so I'm looking forward to telling some of the stories behind the songs as well and have a more intimate, songwriter vibe.
Tell us more about the new album. Will it all be new songs or songs that have already been released?
No, it will all be new songs. The only song that will be on the record that people have heard so far will be ‘Pick Up'. We've cut 10 songs and I've got another month and a half of writing still to do. I haven't put out a big body of work like that in forever. I put out an independent album back in 2014 but there's been nothing else like that since. It's very exciting!
If we could take you back in time to when you put that album out in 2014, what advice would you give to yourself back then?
I'd advise myself to be patient! I'd also tell myself to just keep writing. I can be quite stressed about worrying what the future is going to hold and I'd tell myself to try and enjoy the ride a little bit more without worrying about where it is taking me. I still need to work on that, I think, because it is just how I'm wired.
Luckily, I have a husband that is literally the opposite of me and so he helps to bring me back down to earth and helps me enjoy and celebrate the moments that come along! (laughing)
How have you changed as a writer and an artist since the independent album in 2014?
I think I've definitely grown as a writer a lot. When I look back at the some of the songs I wrote back then I just hope that no-one hears them! (laughing) I was young, I'd never written songs before. The odd person is a just a naturally gifted songwriter but for the rest of us, it's a skill that you work on. I write over 100 songs a year so I'm getting better just by doing it more, you know?
Musically? I've become more familiar with what ‘my sound' is. That also takes time to figure out, what it is you want to sound like. Way back in the day I went through a Lady Gaga phase! (laughing) You kinda need to explore different styles and sounds until you find the one that feels the most right to you.
I know you've also done a fair bit of acting alongside the music but when was it that you first realised you could sing and what drew you to the bright lights of Nashville?
I grew up singing and playing violin and piano since the age of 4! It wasn't until I was about 18 or 19 that I began to think that I could do it for a career though. I do wish I would have started on that a little bit younger but I didn't know that you could do something like that! I was from such a small town and my family had no connections to the industry – the idea of getting a publisher and a record deal was so far away from the realm that we lived in.
It wasn't until my brother, Kalan, was on Canadian Idol and got a record deal that the idea that ‘normal' people could do that dawned on me. I started to dream at that point because I saw someone close to me doing it.
Of all the songs you've recorded over the years have you got any particular favourites?
I love my song, ‘The One' from my 2020 ‘Drinkin' Songs' release. It never really did anything but I still love it and think that we wrote the crap out of it! (laughing) The singles that I have released all mean something to me in different ways. Songs can tend to take on a different meaning to you once people start listening to them. It's always such a fun feeling to know that people are liking something you wrote.
My record that is coming out in late summer / early fall has some songs on it that I wrote three years ago. That's kinda what happens in Nashville. Some of the songs are three years old and some of them I only wrote last week! Ballads are the trickiest songs to know what to do with because I'm at a phase in my career where I'm playing shows and need songs with a bit of tempo but now that I'm releasing a full record that needs some ebb and flow to it I can pull out some of the ballads I've been sitting on for a while! (laughing)
Which ballad are you particularly looking forward to people hearing?
Yeah, there's a song on there called ‘Confession' which I wrote on zoom over Covid which is a really special song that means a lot to me. I've played it for a lot of people who seem to really connect with it too, so I'm looking forward to that one being out there. It's kinda just me and a piano.
Congratulations on the six week number one with Dustin Lynch on ‘Thinking ‘Bout You'. How did you come to be attached to that given Lauren Alaina was the original female vocal on there?
That happened during the pandemic. My manager heard that Dustin was looking for a new female vocal and suggested I lay down a vocal and send it to them as a kind of audition. We did that and I didn't hear anything for a while. Lots of people did the same thing so I didn't expect to get it.
Dustin followed me on Instagram about a month later which sparked my interest. I was, like, what does this mean? (laughing) And then a couple of weeks after that he called me! He'd listened to all the tapes with no names on, so he could pick the one he felt was the best fit for him and the song. He picked his favourite vocal and it was me!
That song far exceeded my expectations. It's been such a massive song for both us in different ways. It was so cool to be involved in it and I'll be eternally grateful for that.
What's the coolest thing that happened to you off the back of the success of that song?
Oh, there was so much stuff! We got to play so many shows, Nissan Stadium during CMAFest was great. That was 70,000 people. We were nominated for a bunch of awards and got to play on TV shows like Jimmy Kimmel and Good Morning America. What made it even more special was doing those things alongside Dustin, who is truly one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet.
Now I want to do that again with my own songs! (laughing)
Was playing Nissan Stadium nerve-wracking?
Totally! Sometimes I tend to just black out in those moments, you know? There's so much adrenaline pumping through you because you are so nervous. For CMAFest it was just one song we played and it went by so fast. Every time we did it somewhere like that I got off stage and was, like, ‘how was it?', ‘did we do ok?' because I couldn't remember most of the times during because of the nerves. (laughing)
After, when I looked back at the videos I'll be pleased and maybe about a week later I'd reflect on the performances and begin to relax and try and let everything sit and settle in terms of what we did!
Now you've done one duet, are there any other artists still on your bucket list for another one?
There's so many talented people in Nashville. I was literally talking to Jordan Davis a couple of days ago about this but it wouldn't work out timing wise for us. I'd love to do something with Chris Stapleton, that would be a dream. Some of my younger friends would be cool, someone like Nate Smith.
You've toured with some big artists in the past few years. Who have you learnt the most from in terms of stagecraft and also back stage behaviours and attitudes?
I've learned different things from different people. I loved watching how Walker Hayes goes about his business. He takes his family everywhere and he has a very healthy touring life as far as I could see. It was such a wholesome, clean environment out on tour with him.
If you could sit down with anyone you haven't managed to write with yet to write your next single, who would you choose and why?
Yesterday I wrote a song with Hillary Lindsey, who I have been wanting to write with forever! We wrote together in the morning and then I went to see Carrie Underwood at Bridgestone in the evening. Hillary wrote a load of her hits like ‘Jesus, Take the Wheel' so I thought that was so cool, that I had been with her earlier in the day.
Another bucket list writer would be Shane McAnally. One day I'll get to write with him, hopefully!
What's the one song you wish that you had written?
(without thinking) ‘The House That Built Me'. That song to me is a masterpiece. I came from a little small town and it is so nostalgic and emotional for me to listen to it and relate it to my life.
So, what are your goals for the rest of this year and on into 2024?
This year, my record coming out is my biggest goal and then after that I'd like to do a headlining run. I've never really done a headlining tour before so that is another aim and goal that I have. I'm hoping to do that in the fall. Then I'd love one of the songs to blow up and resonate with people. That's not much to ask, is it? (laughing)
I'd love to build a fan base overseas in places like the UK and Australia too, to keep coming back to those places and feeding the fans new music and live shows.
You can watch MacKenzie Porter do exactly that at the C2C festival in London during the weekend of March 11th to 13th
