OC Music Awards: Erick Macek Gets Inspired With Intimate, Idealistic Acoustic Songs

Celebrating its 11th anniversary, the OC Music Awards kicks off on January 3rd with seven weeks of free showcases at different venues across the county. 35 local artists will compete for the titles of Best Live Band or Best Live Acoustic and a performance slot at the 2012 OC Music Awards, March 3 at the Grove of Anaheim. And, the voting is open now!

“ My thing is that I listen to melody. It was so cliché in college to be into Dave Matthews, but I'm not going to lie: He was my influence. He was the reason that I wanted to pick up my guitar.
” Erick Macek An “Aries Man,” Erick Macek is many things. He’s a “dreamer,” a “go-getter,” an athlete, a “deep conversationalist,” a graphic designer, a contestant on two reality television “star-making” television shows (including the upcoming season of The Voice), and a singer-songwriter “optimistically” entrenched in the magic of his craft.

Moving from Pennsylvania to Southern California about six years ago to become a professional musician, Macek came from a “conservative” Slovak household where the main music was “polkas” and “waltzes.”

He was encouraged to pick-up the accordion and play “Slovak childhood songs” and it wasn’t until around college that he discovered modern music when he fell in love with Dave Matthews Band. The freewheeling, funky jam-band acoustic stylings  of Dave Matthews Band inspired Macek to play guitar, something which he “just couldn’t get enough of.”

“ When you start getting into relationships and when something goes wrong, I'd always be like, 'OK, when's my birthday? When's her birthday?' and then the more I looked into it the more I was like, 'Wow.' I'm pretty dead Aries.
” Fiery, outgoing, and insanely curious about everything (we talked quite a bit about mystical and esoteric topics), Macek moved out to Orange County when he was twenty-five for his music career after winning an award in Florida and realizing that he might actually have a chance as a musician.

Effortlessly and expertly moving from one passion to another seems pretty innate for Macek, who grew up literally juggling different instruments–a trait that turned out instrumental in his upbringing and current motivation.

Macek likes to delve into the “psychological aspects” of himself, or as he describes it, “what I am now, the songs that I write, where they come from, my inspiration. I’m easily inspired and I easily see all this stuff come together now. And I think–whether it’s age or whether it’s how I’m being influenced or being intrigued by it–I love talking about it.”

One subject Macek loves talking about is astrology, an interest he picked up after moving to the oft-times hippie, New Age terrain of Southern California. So much so, he wrote a song about it.

“I wrote a song called ‘Aries Man,’” explained Macek. ” Because…I was always intrigued by it. Not the daily horoscope thing or whatever, but usually when you start getting into relationships and when something goes wrong, I’d always be like, ‘OK, when’s my birthday? When’s her birthday?’ and then the more I looked into it the more I was  like, ‘Wow.’ I’m pretty dead Aries.”

“ We go out, but the older we get the more time we need to spend in the garage.
” He likens his personality to an analogy his other Aries friend made. “We’re like sports cars,” Macek elaborates. “We go out, but the older we get the more time we need to spend in the garage.”

“There are so many ideas that I have; it’s so easy to get inspired,” Macek continued.

Inspired by all the new music like jazz and blues he is learning about that he wasn’t exposed to in childhood (“I feel like I’m constantly playing catch-up”). Inspired by his family (“Family is very important to me”). And inspired by melody (“My thing is that I listen to melody. It was so cliché in college to be into Dave Matthews, but I’m not going to lie: He was my influence. He was the reason that I wanted to pick up my guitar”).