Brendan Maclean has had a busy year. Aside from writing and performing music, presenting on Triple J and being one of Australia'due south almost prolific Tweeters, he's been preparing for the New York launch of Baz Luhrmann's upcoming ballsy The Great Gatsby.

When the Star Observer spoke to Maclean near his role as the cunning, vacuous Klipspringer aslope heavyweights Leonardo di Caprio and Tobey Maguire, the Sydney musician and entertainer was getting fairly excited.

"He's a really evil, conniving character. I adored playing him, it was absolutely glorious. Baz let me turn him into something more than than the everyday leech he is in the novel."

The coincidental mention of Baz Luhrmann, who handpicked Maclean for the role, sends the quickly chattering 25-year old off on a tangent, gushing over the iconic director and the bizarre audience he had for Gatsby.

"He gave me this aureate, old-style telephone, and we sat on reverse sides of the room and talked in grapheme for 45 minutes. At the finish he said he'd only ever had ane person in heed – when I heard that I pretty much walked outside onto Moore Park oval and started bawling."

Speaking of crying in Moore Park brings the conversation circular to Mardi Gras, where Maclean will be unveiling his new single, 'Stupid'. While he was making the rail Maclean again constitute some star ability smiling on him, with acclaimed musician Paul Mac producing the song.

brendan maclean 2"I made fun of Paul'due south work with Silverchair on Twitter, and he loved that. We started hanging out and eventually he offered to produce a vocal. I love Paul – he's a hero of mine, it'due south bananas that I get to work with him."

The unmarried's launch tour, which will see Maclean play at Marrickville's Factory Floor and Melbourne's Spiegeltent in February, won't exude the typical Mardi Gras vibe.

"The launch for 'Stupid' is going to exist amazing. Information technology'southward not a cabaret show or annihilation, it's just indie pop that you could see at the Oxford Art Factory. Information technology's good to be offer something that'southward different to the residuum of the festival."

It'due south not the first time Maclean'southward been a Mardi Gras fixture – he was a central function of the 2011 relaunch that aimed to reorient the festival more towards younger people, women and the Inner West. For Maclean, the experience had a personal side.

"I moved to the city from the Shire and didn't actually feel connected to the gay community. I but wanted to aggrandize Mardi Gras' footprint a bit, help some kid in Penrith or Footscray know that information technology's okay to exercise your own thing."

Maclean is one of those people whose proper noun everyone knows without really knowing why, something that annoys him to no end. He blames it in large part on his voracious obsession with Twitter – in the terminal five years he'south sent well-nigh 35,000 Tweets to nearly 20,000 followers – that'south stopped him focusing on his music.

"When I first met Paul [Mac] he said 'if you focused on your lyrics as much as your tweets you'd have a record label by now'. And he was correct – after four years on Twitter, no one even knew I was a performer. Every time I send a tweet at present I'm thinking about the songs I could be working on instead."

He has a point. While Maclean's released an EP, White Canvas, in 2010 and the unmarried Only Just in March 2012, at to the lowest degree half of the videos on his YouTube channel are self-recorded covers of Lady Gaga, odes to children's Goggle box show theme songs or footage of his cat Handsome falling in the bathtub. After the release of 'Stupid,' though, Maclean's aiming his musical ambitions a niggling higher.

"We're already working on a video clip, but I want to go dorsum in the studio and make a full record with Paul Mac producing. I but want to make as much music as I can, have lots of acrid or something."

I desire people to stop vaguely thinking of me as 'that Twitter guy' or 'that Triple J guy'. I'1000 25, this is my year to kicking everyone'due south arse, make a point of myself."

If he keeps information technology up, 2013 is looking like Brendan Maclean's busiest – and biggest – year nonetheless.

Brendan Maclean, the Sydney muso and Twitter fanatic launches his new single 'Stupid' on February 22. Buy tickets to the launch at the Mill Flooring hither.

Bank check out the video for Brendan MacLean'south You Shell Me To It below:

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