Pitchfork: Mac, on “My Old Man,” you talk about how you “see my old man in me.” What was your thought process behind that song?

Mac DeMarco: Well, I have a strange relationship with my dad. He’s kind of a piece of shit. But he’s my dad, so god bless him.

Agnes, what do you make of the song?

Agnes DeMarco: I liked it...

MD: You’re going, “Oh boy.”

AD: Yeah, OK, how do I approach this? I think you do see your parents in yourself, and it’s good to recognize certain elements of somebody else that perhaps you don’t want to carry on. Nobody can get away from who they are or where they’ve come from, and you have to love your parents for who they are and forgive them for what they’ve done and move on and be the best person you can.

MD: Amen, sister!

What was it like raising Mac and his brother Hank on your own?

AD: It was a challenge. I moved [Mac’s dad] out one day and I had no money. But we had a great house, and I just did whatever job, and we had a lot of fun. We lived low-key. We had our little routines. We’d do milkshake and hamburger Fridays and watch “Power Rangers” together. It was a simple life, but good. We’d get the wagon and go through the alleys, or go treasure hunting. We had a great backyard and a little kiddie pool, lots of family around, lots of barbecues. Both of the guys were really creative.

MD: Who, us?

AD: Yeah, you and Hank. Don’t you remember “Giraffe News”?

MD: I don’t.

AD: It was so awesome. They were just little and I was working at a restaurant called Normand’s in Edmonton—fabulous restaurant if you ever go there—and one of the guys who worked there agreed to be their big brother, because of course I was absolutely loaded with guilt: They have no male influence, oh my god! So this guy would come over, and one day we had an empty Doritos box and these guys had it set up like a theater. Mac had a giraffe toy, and they were doing “Giraffe News.”

Mac, did you ever think about not having that male influence when you were growing up?

MD: When you’re growing up, you just take what you’ve got. So not really. I think I turned out OK.

AD: He turned out just great. I was dating a Harley-Davidson guy one time, and he had a garage that was all tricked-out. I took the boys over to his house one day, and I remember you said to him, “Do all dads have garages like this?” I didn’t cry, so that’s good. But yeah, that just wasn’t something that he saw or knew.

MD: Like I said, you don’t really know—I think it was for the better in some cases.

AD: Well, I didn’t have to fight anybody about child raising and what was right or wrong—it was my way or all the way.

Would you consider your mom a strict disciplinarian?

MD: When I was pretty young, yeah. I was a little bit of a shit-stirrer then, I did some things. But by the time I was 13, she was kind of like, “Go ahead, who cares.” Well, not “Who cares…”

AD: I just said to them, “You’re smart and you know what? I trust you.”

MD: For better or for worse.

AD: “If you get in trouble, call me. I’ll come get you.”