#Weekendvibe Magic Giant dropped off The Valley, the latest new album
Their performance on Good Morning America on March 6, 2020 feels like a lifetime ago, and the latest release from alt group MAGIC GIANT, The Valley, not only symbolizes the deep and heavy chasm of the pandemic but the optimism of getting out of it.
Carrying forward the hopeful outlook of their debut In The Wind, their sophomore studio album contains equal parts weight and buoyancy, hauntedness and revelry, poetry and dance.
Says lead singer Austin Bisnow:
With the first album, we were drifting on our magic carpet from national park to park as we recorded between shows on our mobile-powered solar recording studio. With The Valley, we were much more grounded and hunkered down with the pandemic, and we’ve gone through a lot of changes like going completely independent for the first time since the beginning of our career. This album represents starting from rock bottom and having to climb back up the hill in order to see the sunlight blocked by the mountains. You can either look at that as a daunting task or an exciting opportunity. And in our case, on the other side of The San Fernando Valley, awaits a beautiful, endless ocean.
MAGIC GIANT guitarist Zang adds:
The fabric that weaves our music together from album to album is our belief in the triumph of the human will. Being stuck here in L.A. after touring the country nonstop the previous 5 years, brought me back to growing up here in the valley of Los Angeles, and balancing all the usual getting-ourselves-into-trouble with the heaviness of watching my father struggle with mental illness and feeling both embarrassed by it and helpless at the same time. My dad didn’t end up making it so we aspirationally try to persevere through our weaknesses in his honor.
Though the album is undoubtedly an evolution, it kicks off with the “OG” MG feel of “Cannon,” followed by the dancy earworm and playful, “My My,” and into their latest (and most mature) single, “Hurricane,” which journeys from an esoteric ballad into an uplifting fervor, something akin to their debut and beloved “Set on Fire.”
Next comes one of the more defining tracks on the album and a departure from their previous singles, “Jesse’s Song,” written about a college bandmate of MAGIC GIANT violinist Zambricki Li, whose friend lost his life to an overdose the day before his 20th birthday. “Not only did that event shape and redirect my life,” Zambricki shares, “but the creation of that song with our friend Ido [producer Ido Zmishlany] really helped shape the rest of the album. It was sort of kismet.”
Zambricki and Zang, who usually play a supporting role, take turns singing Lead on the verses of the next two songs: woman-power-anthem, “Superwoman,” and modern urban-leaning alt-pop track, “Can We Pretend,” which then catapults into electric-guitar-driven, summertime-in-L.A. anthem, “The 818 (Roller Skates)”, 818 referring to area code of “The Valley” as Angelinos refer to it colloquially.
The collection climaxes with one more encouraging, uptempo bop, “Outta My Head,” and concludes with the aptly titled “Wish You Well,” harking back to the lo-fi, mid-tempo of "Jesse’s Song." Much of the album was recorded between Zang’s childhood home in The Valley and the band’s underground bomb shelter from the 1940’s in Silverlake, CA, which they affectionately call The Bunker.
On April 4th, the band will release a 30-minute short film they’ve been working on in secrecy to accompany the album.
Their sophomore and latest studio album, not only symbolizes the deep and heavy chasm of the pandemic but the optimism of getting out of it. Debuting in 2017 with their LP In The Wind, MAGIC GIANT, came out of the gates swinging, with TV appearances ranging from the Today Show to Good Morning America, and Billboard singling them out as one of “10 Awesome Bands” playing Coachella, with their show turning out to be part of the most watched live-stream in history.
The group has thrilled growing crowds along its 80-city North American and European tour, with their music charting in countries worldwide from Greece to South Africa. Their performance on Good Morning America March 6, 2020 feels like a lifetime ago and their performance of “Disaster Party” was disconcertingly foreboding, but when the pandemic struck, they responded by throwing one of the first digital music festivals of its kind with guests including The Lumineers, Woody Harrelson, Edward Norton, Walk the Moon, David Blaine, Jason Mraz, LP, The Head & The Heart, Edward Sharpe, Glen Hansard, Walk Off The Earth, and Local Natives, raising over $100,000 to deliver PPE to frontline hospital workers. MAGIC GIANT singles “Set on Fire,” “Window,” and “Disaster Party” have all broken the top 40 on the Billboard US radio charts with “Disaster Party” breaking the Top 25.
Not only does the group write and produce their records, but they also plant a tree through a non-profit partner with every album sold, creating a mini forest with thousands of trees; and throw an annual music-festival-meets-summer-camp in the California Redwoods for their fans called Camp Misfits.