The genesis of Magic America can be found in the household jams between Stapleton’s younger brother Matty – Magic America’s vocalist and principal songwriter – and drummer Ben O’Sullivan. “Matty used to play in the back room with the drummer, jamming,” Stapleton says. “I’d be sitting in the front room trying to watch TV and I used to find that annoying. So I decided to join in and start playing.”
It took the best part of five years before Magic America’s current four-piece lineup solidified. Along the way the Stapleton brothers experienced a musical epiphany at the Meredith Music Festival, with live sets from Spiritualized, Primal Scream and Tame Impala providing the inspiration for Magic America’s musical direction.
“We were already keen on those sort of bands before we went to Meredith,” Stapleton says. “We had a massive weekend there and thought that was the sort of stuff we wanted to play. We liked the live show they all put on, so we decided that was the music we wanted to make, so we started working towards that.”
Stapleton admits that the concept of psychedelia has, to some degree, lost its precision due to excessive application in recent years “Every band with a phaser pedal seems to be described as psychedelic,” he says. For that reason, he’s loath to describe Magic America in the discourse of psychedelia.
“I think we’re much more interested in the music and what the sound of the music does to a listener or a punter, rather than putting on a show and being psychedelic and that sort of stuff,” he says. “Even the term psychedelic I think gets bandied around a lot – I think a lot of it is more straight rock’n’roll than psych.”
Magic America are more concerned with the principles of songcraft than the ability to lock into a 15 minute improvised jam, or the presence of lava lamp imagery. “Although we do jam out quite a bit when we play together, for us the song always starts with a groove or melody,” Stapleton says. “We feel that a song needs to have one or both of those things to be worthwhile for us. We do jam about it a bit, but that’s more for fun. When we try and construct songs it’s more about the groove and the melody. So on our EP you’ll have a lot of guitar and melody – that’s something that we’ve always been really strong on.”
This week Magic America will launch their new self-titled EP on a double bill with fellow locals White Bleaches, who are launching their new single, New Age. The EP was recorded earlier this year with producer Dave Turner, whom the band had been introduced to by mutual acquaintances. Turner’s empathy with Magic America’s desired sound proved significant.
“We had a couple of beers with Dave and we talked about some bands that we liked and he was straight onto it. He had these awesome techniques, including with the drums. He knew exactly what we wanted. So [the recording] was a mix of us knowing what we wanted and Dave already being on top of it. He knew a lot of the bands that we liked, and it was fun talking about those bands and going through the process.”
BY PATRICK EMERY
