Embarrassingly, until we caught up with artist Stefan Marx this week, we had no idea that the lettering used on Mac DeMarco’s 2014 record Salad Days is actually the handwriting of Stefan. A collaboration staring us in the face all along, Stefan and Mac have been collaborating together again of late, only this time in a live setting.

Stefan originally met Mac a few years back now when Coley Brown, who shot the cover of Salad Days introduced the artist to his work and asked him to lend a literal hand with the typography. Since then, Stefan will work on some artwork for Mac from time to time, and naturally, “we became friends too,” he tells It’s Nice That.

Back in 2017, although only just released as a book by Nieves for Mac and Stefan fans alike to get their pesky mitts on, Stefan had the idea to go on tour with Mac “to do the same to what a tour photographer is mostly doing,” he explains. “The band liked the idea so I did some tour stops in Germany, it was so great.”

The result is a collection of drawings in Stefan’s signature wobbly but evocative style, as the artist approached the live drawing job as the same as any other commission. “I used the same material as I always use, my fave paper and fave pen, that’s all,” he says. “I was allowed to go on stage and so on, I tried to find my cosy drawing spot on each stage and varied a bit too. Mostly, I was really relaxed in the back doing drawings of Mac and the band.”

Looking for details as a live show photographer would, over the course of the live shows Stefan got hunting for little quirks fans of Mac and the band would recognise. “Each band member has his total different way of acting during the show, Andy is mostly barefoot, etc.” Stefan explains. “I liked to look at all details and of course the crowd, and at Mac’s concerts there is mostly a funny crowd, there are self-made signs. But, I tried to concentrate on the band,” and there’s only one very lucky fan drawn in the final book.

Mac DeMarco is available via Nieves here.