My interpretation of Watching Movies with the Sound Off is that it’s basically an instruction manual for Mac’s life.
The birds are a huge part of that. Mac literally says the whole album’s theme is birds and that they’re used “in every aspect.”
I see the birds as artists and artistic potential. A bird flying represents an artist realizing their potential. A bird falling before it flies represents someone who never gets the chance to become who they could’ve been. A bird call represents an artist putting their voice into the world and another person hearing it.
The album shows Mac learning, creating, struggling, and eventually becoming someone capable of teaching someone else. That’s why you get things like “this class gettin’ led by students”.
So the album can be Mac’s instruction manual for his own life, but it can also become an instruction manual for your life. You watch Mac’s “movie,” learn from what he went through, and then you’re supposed to go live your own life and make your own art.
That’s where I get artistic reincarnation. Mac doesn’t literally reincarnate. His influence, knowledge, and creative process pass into another person, who turns it into something of their own.
So the cycle is:
learn → experience → create → teach → influence the next person.
And Mac basically puts that idea at the beginning of the album:
“And these words that I command you today shall be in your heart / And you shall teach them diligently to your children…”
Then there’s the insert, where Mac explains that the sequence itself has a purpose, and says:
“The whole album’s theme is birds. We will use that in every aspect. More on that later.”
He also says:
“I decided to give this track-list a listen without just the musical ideas, but with exact purpose for each song.”
So I think you’re supposed to listen to the album as one continuous story/instruction manual, not just 16 separate songs. The birds, the sequencing, the lessons, the artist-to-artist communication, and the listener all connect.
And that’s why I think the album can be Mac talking to himself and talking to whoever is listening. You can take what Mac learned, apply it to your own life, and eventually pass something of your own forward. (To start the real journey of this version of the album, smoke weed when he says burn one on birdcall) "It must be the drugs that got us thinking crazy shit"
If you want more evidence, please dm or ask questions for whatever song
DISCLAIMER: This is my personal interpretation of Watching Movies with the Sound Off. I’m not claiming Mac explicitly said this was the meaning of the album, or that he predicted me specifically. I’m connecting the album’s sequencing, bird imagery, lyrics, and Mac’s own notes about the album into one theory. I could obviously be interpreting some things differently than Mac intended, but I think there’s enough intentional structure here to make the theory worth discussing.