Mac McCaughan

Mac McCaughan

Composer / Music Supervisor / Songwriter / Artist


In 1989 Mac McCaughan co-founded the record label Merge Records (Arcade Fire, Magnetic Fields, Spoon, Waxahatchee) and the band Superchunk in his home state of North Carolina.

While continuing to run his label, Mac has composed for film, ads (Energizer, ESPN, Krispy Kreme, and more) released fifteen full length albums with Superchunk, eight albums with his solo side project Portastatic, two solo albums, and two recent full-length collaborations with harpist Mary Lattimore. 

Mac’s film credits include Amy Poehler’s Netflix film Moxie!, Amber Tamblyn’s Paint it Black, and Matt Bissonette’s Looking for Leonard and Who Loves the Sun. Mac also wrote songs for the fictional punk band in Peter Livolsi‘s The House of Tomorrow, starring Asa Butterfield, Ellen Burstyn, Nick Offerman, Alex Wolff, Fred Armisen.

Mac also scored films commissioned by the San Francisco Film Festival (Kinugasa’s Page of Madness), Seattle Film Festival (Tod Browning’s The Unknown) and The Westobou Festival (Transfigured Time: Music for the Films of Maya Deren by Mac McCaughan). 

Selected Credits


FILM

Moxie! (Composer)
Netflix
Director: Amy Poehler    
Producers: Kim Lessing, Amy Poehler, Morgan Sackett 
Starring: Hadley Robinson, Lauren Tsai, Alycia Pascual-Pena, Amy Poehler 

The House of Tomorrow (Songs)
Shout! Studios
Director: Peter Livolsi   
Producers: Danielle Renfrew Behrens, Tarik Karam 
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Alex Wolff, Nick Offerman, Fred Armisen  

Paint It Black (Composer, Music Supervisor)  
Imagination Worldwide
Director: Amber Tamblyn  
Producers: Wren Arthur, Amy Hobby, Anne Hubbell, Amber Tamblyn
Starring: Alia Shawkat, Janet McTeer, Emily Rios, Alfred Molina 

FILM (continued)

Passenger Side (Music Supervisor, Songwriter)  
Strand Releasing
Director: Matt Bissonnete 
Producers: Corey Marr
Starring: Adam Scott, Joel Bissonnette, Vitta Quinn   

Looking for Leonard (Composer)  
Mongrel Media
Director: Matt Bissonnete 
Producers: Sylvia Wilson
Starring: Kim Huffman, Joel Bissonette, Ben Immanuel  

Who Loves the Sun (Composer)  
Gravitas Ventures
Director: Matt Bissonnete 
Producers: Matt Bissonnette, Corey Marr, Brendon Sawatzky
Starring: Lukas Haas, Molly Parker, Adam Scott   

FILM FESTIVALS – COMMISSIONED SCORES

Page of Madness (Composer)  
San Francisco Film Festival
Director: Teinosuke Kinugasa
Producers: Teinosuke Kinugasa
Starring: Masuo Inoue, Ayako Lijima, Yoshie Nakagawa


The Unknown (Composer)  
Seattle Film Festival
Director: Tod Browning
Starring: Lon Chaney, Norman Kerry, Joan Crawford

Transfigured Time: Music for the Films of Maya Deren by Mac McCaughan
Westobou Festival