Mac Hoffmann is a lyric-driven Americana songwriter, forged in the tension between structure and surrender—a discipline shaped by ritual, but open to mystery.

Born and raised in the Twin Cities, Mac began his musical life at the piano bench, studying classical repertoire until middle school, when he picked up a guitar—and never looked back. By high school, he was recording albums with friends, chasing that rare, unmistakable moment when something real breaks through the speakers.

Raised in a household that prized achievement, he grew up straddling two worlds: the well-lit path of sanctioned success, and the shadowed terrain where his passion lived—in music, in art, in the raw immediacy of expression.

At a college in Indiana, he studied English literature, philosophy, and jazz guitar while fronting a psychedelic jam band. Afterward, he moved to Chicago for law school and became a political attorney, embedded in the machinery of Illinois power. Eventually, the music stopped. Silence settled in. Then came addiction, mental illness, and the slow erosion of a life misaligned.

At some point, there was no way around it. When the spiral became undeniable, he stopped, got help, and began to reckon with what he’d been avoiding. After treatment, he spent a year in quiet recovery in downstate Illinois. Then he returned home to Minneapolis—closing one chapter and beginning another.

Back in the city, he tried on the role of big law attorney. It didn’t stick. Rather than scramble to preserve a life that never fit, he hit the road. He drove cross-country, letting the miles unravel what ambition had knotted. Along the way, he met the woman who would become his wife. With her support, he left the legal world for good.

He pivoted into software development and began rebuilding from the inside out. He took music seriously—studying theory, taking lessons, playing steady gigs in both an alt-country duo and a jam band. But the ache remained. He’d never truly given songwriting a real shot—his voice, not someone else’s.

So he wrote. Not riffs or fragments, but full songs—lyric-first, meaning-rich, quietly devastating. By 2024, he stepped away from the bands and committed fully to the solo path. It was the only honest way forward.

Since then, Mac has lived a monk-like creative life. He wakes at 4 AM to journal, meditate, write, and practice. His mornings are sacred—shaped by silence and song. The vision sharpened. The catalog grew. In spring 2025, he stepped into the studio to record his debut collection—not for fame or flash, but because the work demanded it. And the work is all that matters.

Now living in South Minneapolis with his wife and young son Lev, Mac finds meaning in the quiet rhythms of daily life—early mornings, river walks, laughter in the living room, bedtime stories, and the slow return of song.

His debut single, The Fall of the Velvet Hammer, arrives June 2025—a politically charged acoustic track drawn from his time in the Illinois legislature. Some stories don’t go away until you sing them out loud.

His first EP, Midwest Finesse, follows in July—quieter, slyer, full of mischief, hesitation, and bruised affection.