Meg Mac Drops New Single 'He Said No'

Meg Mac is back with “He Said No”, the first glimpse of her forthcoming fourth studio album It’s My Party, set to land later this year.

The song’s origins were anything but conventional. While digging through her loop pedal with producer Nathan Jenkins (aka Bullion — whose credits include Carly Rae Jepsen and Ben Howard), the pair stumbled across an old vocal fragment. “We found this ‘he said no’ vocal loop and Nathan pulled it up and built this whole world around it,” Mac explains. “But then I had to figure out what ‘He Said No’ even meant and figure out what I would sing.”

What emerged is a striking, emotionally layered song set at an airport departure gate — a moment Mac describes as “sadder than dropping someone to the airport and not knowing if you’ll ever see them again.” Inspired in part by John Denver’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane”, Mac flips the classic farewell ballad on its head, singing from the perspective of the one left behind. “I am obsessed with that song and I wanted to capture that feeling, but from the person left behind at the airport,” she explains.

True to her style, Mac pairs that melancholy with a deceptively buoyant sound. “It feels so satisfying and fun,” she says, though the heartbreak at the song’s core is undeniable.

“He Said No” also comes with a visually rich, self-directed clip that leans into Mac’s growing interest in mixed media. In a sentimental twist, the background visuals come courtesy of her father, a former airline pilot who captured time-lapse videos from his cockpit. “My favourite thing is the background videos, they’re taken from my Dad,” she says. “He was an airline pilot and set up his phone in the cockpit and would do these time-lapse videos. They’re all Australian cities and landings and so pretty.”

To mark this new era, Mac is taking over Sydney’s Belvoir Street Theatre for a trio of Monday night shows this August. The residency will blend storytelling and song in an intimate theatrical setting, curated in collaboration with acclaimed director and lighting designer Alexander Berlage. The shows promise a deeper look into the sonic and emotional world of It’s My Party, as well as favourites from her past releases. Tickets are available now via the venue.