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Onion Fresh

Magic Music were featured on the November 98 issue of the Tip Sheet

CREAM OF THE CROP March 1999

MAGIC MUSIC: DARK TO LIGHT (CD)

After first hearing this band on a 25 RECORDS comp. with their track "Friday Night at the Bookclub", oh how it mellowed me and reminded me of Paul Simon, truly mellow and fucking easy listening, a pure intense feel of a number. So here’s the full album, a 10 tracker in all, from a Canadian outfit made up of only really 2 founding members, Frank Phillet and Neil MacIver. It’s a full complex piece of plastic, with loads of weaved up and cemented cool easy hipped out beats. "Lifeforce Deathforce" is a beauty, lavished in a mix of instruments, and that under-current of a sax melody, cool. As I said this Lp is easy paced all through, but it feeds with it’s unquestioning good song writing.

Colin Scott

CREAM OF THE CROP, 13 Coronation Street, PONTYMISTER, RISCA, GWENT UK NP1 6BD

Dark to light

Next story about Canadian based Magic Music could be more like some script for a tellymovie as it sounds both unbelievable and sad. Magic Music are Frank and Neil who already are making music since 1970!!! Back then, they were quite successful but at some time they got rejected by the industry as not only they thought they were ageing but also because their music didn't had the commercial appeal it supposed to have... And God, even after 19 years the duo hasn't give up and they are still trying to get some recognition throughout the underground-channels (zines on internet, a track on "Onion Fresh" by 25 Records, the more traditional zines like this one...) Say what you want...but at least you have to respect 'em for this. And what about their music? Well, this is POP. And apart from the too polished production of this CD, I have to say this band can come up with quality tunes. This is not a band who want to be the next Nirvana or so...and you can say they're a bit like Roxy Music (...in fact they sound a lot like Bryan Ferry's band, so if "Avalon" is your thing...), Edwyn Collins or even a bit David Bowie during his "Hunky Dory"-period. Even if some songs fail and are in danger to be classified as "FM-Rock", I think that all by all it's kind of cruel that a band with such a potential was rejected...

Reviewed by Didier in The Original Sin, Summer 1999

Interview Feb 99

If there was a public execution on TV, would you watch it? NO

Would you be willing to give up sex for five years if you could have wonderfully sensual and erotic dreams any night you wished? ABSOLUTELY YES!!!! THE UNREAL IS INFINITELY MORE ATTRACTIVE, POWERFUL AND ACTUALLY MORE REAL THAN THE CURRENT BOGUS EXISTENCE THAT WE CALL REALITY. OUR CURRENT REALITY HAS BEEN CONSTRUCTED BY OTHER PEOPLE AND GROUPS OF PEOPLE WHO MERELY WANT US TO WORK HARDER FOR LESS AND LESS REWARD. THAT'S REAL...

What's the worst psychological torture you can imagine suffering? GETTING BACK TOGETHER WITH MY FIRST WIFE.

How do you picture your funeral and which songs would you like to be played? I THINK THAT THERE WILL BE LOTS OF PEOPLE, AND I WOULD LIKE THEM TO PLAY MY SONGS, THE NEAR HITS AND THE BIG BOMBS.

Which sex do you think has it easier in our culture? Have you ever wished you were of the opposite sex? I THINK THAT MEN HAVE IT EASIER THAN WOMEN IN OUR CULTURE. OF COURSE, I HAVE WISHED I COULD BE A WOMAN. THEY HAVE A SUPERIOR SENSE OF TIME AND TIMING IN COMPARISON TO MEN, AND IN FACT, I THINK THAT THEY ARE A SUPERIOR GROUP BOTH PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY. I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE MENTAL STUFF.

If god appeared to you in a series of vivid and moving visions and told you to leave everything behind, travel alone to the Red Sea and become a fisherman, what would you do? I MAY NOT BE RELIGIOUS AND EVEN IF I WERE AN ATHEIST, I CERTAINLY DONT WANT TO BE A STUPID ATHEIST. ITS VERY SIMPLE REALLY; I WOULD DEFINITELY TRAVEL ALONE TO THE READ SEA AND BECOME A FISHERMAN. REGARDLESS OF YOUR RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS, IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE TO PISS GOD OFF. YOU'LL NEVER WIN THAT ONE.

If a flying saucer arrived and aliens invited you to visit their planet for five years, would you go? NO. I'M A PICKY EATER.

How would you react if your girlfriend told you she'd had a lover of the same sex before you knew each other? I WOULD WANT TO KNOW WHO SHE WAS WITH AND WHAT THEY DID TOGETHER.

Would you be willing to go into a slaughterhouse and kill a cow? NEVER! ITS BAD KARMA.

What are your most compulsive habits?

LAUGHING
WRITING
STARING AT WOMEN
NOSE PICKING

Interview by Angi Kuzma, Summer 1998

What's the name of the band, and how did you come up with the name? Magic Music, Frank looked at me one day, eight months after we had been writing together and said "We should call ourselves Magic Music". So we did.

What are the individual members names and what do they play?

Frank Phillet - lyric, vocal, melody
Neil Maciver - music, guitars
- we hire everyone else.


How did you meet? Through a mutual friend who thought we should meet musically

How long have you been together? 30 years

Where is the band based? Edmonton Alberta Canada


Who or what inspired you to become a musician? Loved music so much we couldn't be just spectators


What bands are you listening to at the moment? Cybertribe, Waverly Consort (Crimson Book), Omkhalsom (1931-1932), Afro-Celt Explosion, Kate Bush hits, all top 40 through our children, Buena Vista Social Club, Ma Rainey Jug Band Recordings, Elmore James, Candice Pacheio, Gabriel Faure mass of Requiem. CKUA radio - real audio, www.ckua.org

What are some of your favourite songs?
Too many to mention

Do you prefer to play in the studio or live gigs?
We have not performed live for 20 years

Describe your sound. Angi : will you? I can't. Everybody says we sound like David Bowie, which we take as a compliment.

Where can people come and see you play? They can't

What do you like about being a part of 25Records? England is a difficult market to get into, as it has been a major influence rivalled only by the US. Even more difficult is being Canadian, where as Mark of 25 feel Magic Music - odd as it is - is worth including.

Do you know any of the other bands on the label, and which one's are your favourite to listen to? No, my daughter said a couple were "cool".


What are most of your songs about? (love, partying, political, beer, etc.) Frank is a poet and as all poets all aspects of life influence his lyric - you can read the lyrics on the insert - you can post the lyric to "Friday night" if you like. They are not all erotic.

Give us an interesting story that happened either at a gig, or while writing or recording a song. As a travelling folk duo in the early 70's we auditioned for a strip club in Toronto - we didn't get the gig - rather difficult to strip to folk music, however the house band sure picked up pace after we left.

Do you play any weird or unusual instruments?
No, Martin D/B (1955), Gibson 335TD (1978)

Have you been in other bands?
Not as adults.

Do you have any interesting stories involving the police or breaking the law? ( That we can post on the site)
No.

Does anyone in the band have any strange or unusual habits or superstitions? Not that we know of.

This is Hardcore!!!!!!

Here are a few questions we got out of Melody Maker from a Jarvis interview.


When did you lose your virginity?
Many, many years ago


Would you be willing to give up sex for five years if you could have graphic erotic dreams any time you wished?
Why when you can have both


How would you react if you found out your lover had a lover of the opposite sex before you knew each other?
A human, is a human, is a human. (Bad paraphrase of Gertrude Stein)

By chance, thirty years ago on a cold winter's night in the great northern plains, Frank and Neil met in a two-guitar environment. They proceeded to write a song together and realised they could. Frank brought poetic lyric and voice, Neil brought music and instrument and they wrote melody. As they were creating something beyond the essence of what each had brought, a transformation new and unique to the ear, Frank said it should be called Magic Music and thus, it began...

Magic Music had successes; their songs recorded by other artists such as Carry On and Baby Pictures were national hits, they won artist grants from the Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council, commissions for theatre and radio and performed across Canada. Magic Music performed at "Man and his World", the "Hotel Iroquois", "Georges" and "Grossman's" in Toronto, every university and college between Montreal and Victoria as well as "MoMo Latino's Striptease and Bar". Magic Music experienced many failures, as perhaps writers of new and unique material must. As early signers to Attic Records, their releases went nowhere. Long periods of industry rejection where they were informed their songs had no commercial potential and that they should write like others instead. Long, dark times of introspection and reflection. Many years of apprenticeship in learning how to record and produce Magic Music. In spite of it all, the vision remains and Magic Music perseveres to continue writing and recording. It is, after all, something that they do. It is no longer chance but destiny.

Now after all this time their first album of unique songs has been captured on a CD entitled DARK TO LIGHT.

"And so I danced with the woman with two poisonous snakes curling around her breasts. I reached out for those places:

But I knew I was in trouble..."

Friday Night At The Bookclub Frank Phillet & Neil Mac Iver, 1986

Feel free to contact the band at 25 Records anytime for interviews/Band features/ gig info etc. at: 25 Records PO Box 3006, Poole, Dorset, BH12 2HU. or Phone/Fax on (01202) 749244.