“It's Such A Trap”: Meg Mac Refuses To Be Another Tragic Tale On 'It's My Party'

Meg Mac knows who you think she is, but on album four, she's past the point of caring. She speaks openly with The Music about its unexpected but entirely welcome creation.

Meg Mac

“It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to/Cry if I want to/Cry if I want to/You would cry too, if it happened to you.”

So goes the iconic chorus of Lesley Gore's 1963 classic It's My Party, which was produced by the legendary Quincy Jones and is considered one of the defining pop songs of the era. Although she was raised on the song and has distinct memories of her mum singing it in the car, Meg Mac had not so much as looked twice since childhood when it randomly re-entered her life. One thing lead to another... and now Mac's own version of the song not only closes her fourth studio album, but serves as its title track.

“It wasn't even supposed to be on there,” says Mac. “I randomly remembered it one day, but only the chorus – I don't think I knew the verses at all. When I learned the whole song, it struck me how sad it was – the story of Judy and Johnny is really tragic, even though it's set to this boppy bubblegum pop music.

“While I was making the album, I showed a voice recording to my producer, and we decided to do it. I can't remember how far in we were, but soon I was really drawn to It's My Party as an album title. This album is me doing what I want to do, and not really thinking too hard about what it means or why – just following my gut. It's my album, and I'll cry if I want to!”

Several years in the making, following on from 2022's Matter of Time, It's My Party sees Mac subverting the expectations that have been surrounding her sound and image for years. After all, Meg Mac is the Roll Up Your Sleeves girl, right? Sparse piano chords, soulful vocals, heart attached firmly to her sleeve.

Mac is acutely aware that people have come to anticipate her music to sound like, and she has no interest in pandering to it and painting by the numbers to appease people. “It's such a trap,” she says with a sigh.

“I always think back to the early days where I was just making music, when I didn't know that anyone would listen. I wasn't thinking about what I was until people started telling me what I was. I went into this album really stressed, and when I get stressed, I over-plan and try to be really organised. I had a title for this album, and this whole vision; it was going to be this dark, witchy trip-hop thing. When I started, everything just didn't work, and then fell apart.

“That's when It's My Party started to emerge, as soon as I let go. It taught me a lot, making this album. You can't put yourself in a box. You can't plan anything. You never know what's going to happen. Just follow the road, and see where it takes you.”

Mac worked on the album with UK producer Nathan Jenkins, who makes music under the name Bullion. It marked the pair's first collaboration, and it's proven to be quite the fruitful one. “We were originally supposed to just try one song out,” Mac explains. “I really liked him, and I really liked the experience of working on that song, so I ended up making the whole album with him.

“I've never made a whole album with one person, so it was really different. His process is similar to mine, in that it's slow and calm. We'd bounce around from song to song, and gradually it came together. I think I'm just learning now that it's OK to be slow. I just like to take my time.”

Following a string of stand-alone singles in 2024, including the Matt Corby duet Bricks and a tender cover of Good Neighbours' Home recorded alongside her younger sister Hannah, Mac began the rollout for It's My Party in July of 2025 with its opening number, He Said No.

For those anticipating another piano-driven album of blue-eyed soul, the glitchy electronic groove and the Robyn-esque pop delivery are certain to raise an eyebrow and clear the room of squares. Fascinatingly, by being the least Meg Mac-sounding song she's ever put out, it's come around full circle to arguably being the truest to herself yet.

“It's definitely the fun one on the album,” says Mac. “It's different, as well, because it's a story. Sometimes I feel like my songs are a diary or something, whereas this felt a lot more like a tale.

“Normally, when I write songs, I start on the piano and then take it into the studio to find the vibe. This song had the music written first, which was based around a loop of me singing the phrase 'he said no'. I just liked the way it sounded, I didn't know what it meant yet – I had to work backwards. The whole song is only two chords, and it's honestly way harder to write a song that way – you really have to make each part sound like its own thing. Working within these parameters was a real challenge, but everybody seemed really excited about it.”

Two months later, Mac shared The Tune I'll Be Singing Until I'm Dead – a striking blend of centuries-old Celtic melody and 80s new-wave that doubles down on the ambition that pushes It's My Party. Originally written while Mac was still trying to make her witchy trip-hop album a reality, Mac reveals the song served as a major turning point.

“It was actually the song that made me realise what I thought was going to happen wasn't going to happen,” she says. Originally written as a 6/8 piano number before reworking it with Bullion, Mac notes the looming influence of Van Morrison over both the lyrics and melody. “He was the last thing I listened to before I sat down at the piano,” she says. “My mum's Irish, and she would always sing Irish songs growing up. I wanted it to feel like you were at a pub somewhere, and everyone joins in.”

The most recent single from the album, Outdone, was released last month. Buoyed by a rubbery bass-line and a rigid drum machine, Mac paints an intriguing portrait in the song's opening lyrics by describing “see[ing] the show” of “someone who's not gonna die”, who addresses the audience by saying: “Been searching my whole life/And I'm still not done”.

“In my head, I was picturing Bob Dylan at the Enmore Theatre,” explains Mac of the first verse – referring to the show that took place at the famed Sydney venue back in 2018 on Dylan's most recent tour of the country.

“I'd never seen him before, and I had this idea in my head of what was going to happen.” Of course, Dylan didn't actually say those words to the audience: “I don't think he said one word the whole night,” Mac laughs. “Maybe I was hoping he would drop some kind of wisdom – or maybe that's just what I wanted to hear.”

If Mac's subterranean homesick storytelling didn't catch your ear, her diary-entry tendencies take flight in verse two. “I still think of those/Who made me sing a song that I never wrote/Guess people don't come with warning signs.” It's blunt-force stuff, and even Mac herself is shocked by how honest it is. “I still can't believe I put that in a song,” she says. “I feel like I've been wanting to scream that for over 10 years.

“When I was making my first album [2017's Low Blows], I'd wake up every day, and there'd be an email of a song written by someone else. It really shook me; I'd never made an album before, and every day, I felt like I was being told, ‘You suck, you can't write songs.’ It really messed with my head. The reason I was signed in the first place is based on what I wrote, and then they don't want you to do that anymore? You start thinking that maybe they're right, which makes it even harder to write songs. It's still raw, and I still question myself.”

Mac is candid about how public perception has impacted her over the years. “I remember the first time I saw a YouTube comment section about myself, after I did Like a Version,” she says. “Comment sections are so mean – the one that always stuck with me was someone writing 'make-up can't cover ugly'. Even now, I will get a message out of the blue that just says, ‘Hi, Meg Mac, you suck.’ I don't know why people think it's OK to do that. I've been caught up in so much self-doubt thanks to people pulling everything that I do apart.”

For all of the adversity Mac has faced since her early 20s as a singer, songwriter and public figure, it's all channelled into It's My Party. At 35, she has made her most fully-realised and broadest-reaching album yet.

It's a testament to doing things your own way, and having fun with it at the same time. Cry if you want to, laugh if you want to, dance if you want to. “It's your life, it's your party, and you've just gotta do what you want – even if that looks different to what other people are doing,” she says.

“Take it as a little mantra. I can't make people like me, and I've spent most of my career being stressed about it. Everything was so serious. I was too scared to have fun, and when I look back, there are all these things that I never did because of that. I never would have seen an album like this for myself, but it's been so natural because I put my heart into it.”

It’s My Party is out on Friday, 20 February, via EMI Music Australia. Meg Mac will tour in support of the album - tickets are available here.