12 years ago today, Mac DeMarco dropped ‘Salad Days.’⁠ The project was created by a 23-year-old DeMarco alone in a windowless Brooklyn bedroom with no studio. What he did have was a cheap guitar, a deteriorating tape machine, and lots to say. In his 2014 Pitchfork cover story, he put it plainly: "I need to get this sh*t out, you know?" Pitchfork also released a documentary titled ‘Pepperoni Playboy,’ which captured the sessions as they happened.⁠ ⁠ Standout track “Chamber of Reflection" drew from a Freemasonry initiation ritual in which candidates are locked alone in a room to confront their past before moving forward. He told The Editorial Magazine about the connection to his own process: "I kind of felt like I was doing my own chamber of reflections in my room with my music—you get all the demons out and then you go party again no problem." The song was certified Platinum by RIAA in 2022.⁠ ⁠ The aesthetic Mac DeMarco built from broken equipment and cigarette smoke became a blueprint for the generation of indie artists that followed.⁠