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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Lifestyle
Brendan Maclean, as told to Doosie Morris

The moment I knew: When he saw my unkempt hovel, he was so nonjudgmental

Two men in white shirts embrace and smile for a selfie
Brendan Maclean and Richard Chadwick in 2025 Photograph: Supplied

I’d had a big, sparkly pop career in my 20s but by 2024 I was beyond my twink era, and getting by hopping from one weird gig to the next. Covid had really done a number on the music industry and, while my friend Paul Mac had kept me making music, I found myself drifting through a strange, boozy few years in Sydney. I’d been single since 2020 and my best friend was my cat.

Throughout that hazy time, I was as terminally online as ever. At 38 I was posting like a 20-year-old. One day, for no particular reason, I posted a track from the Dissociatives’ self-titled album from the mid-noughties. Paul, who I call my gay uncle, and Daniel Johns of Silverchair fame, had made just one LP together, and the obscure track, Thinking in Reverse, was one of my favourites.

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