One of the baddest choruses of 2012, the ideal pop song ('Space') from an amazing debut album...
On the occasion of the great album of MAGIC WANDS, they speak for themselves... I would like to thank Felicia for bringing us together and the band.
'I fell in love, I fell in love..'
Dimitris Antonopoulos: So, heres an amazing album REALLY. Can you tell me your story as a band so far?
DEXY: Thank you. When Chris and I first met we wanted to change the direction we were both going in musically. We decided that we wanted to do something positive so we set out for Aloha Moon to be a trippy, love in space themed fantasy album. Chris was learning about sound healing and we tuned our album to a love frequency which is a long story but the inspiration behind where we now call our sound and style LOVEWAVE.
CHRIS: Yeah me and Dexy's idea for our band was to have this idea of magic, love and dreams in the music, something uplifting, almost devoid of reality. Since it was just the two of us we did all the recording ourselves and just used whatever we had available, which wasn't much at the time. An old synth, a couple of delay pedals, a microphone and our guitars. All the original songs were recorded on a multi-track cassette recorder. We released a 7" in the UK and toured there and the US on an EP we recorded in New York. Eventually we began working on Aloha Moon here in California. It came out April 24th.
D.A.: Is there an 'inside story' about the making of 'ALOHA MOON'? A good rock & roll story maybe?
DEXY: Aloha Moon was recorded twice with two different producers, the first version was an electronic dance record we made with John Morrical where we used all electronics and the second version we made with Sep V which is more organic, live bassist and drummer. We ended up going with his mixes because we were pushed to upgrade from a two piece to a full band. We were pretty hesitant and it's been a challenge ever since, but we're doing it. We've got a bassist and several drummers now. We literally went through hail, rain, snow, earthquakes and a heatwave while making Aloha Moon. We recorded throughout three cities and four studios over the course of two years. There were a lot of growing pains but at the end of the day we made a cool album we can live with.
CHRIS: I was getting into healing sounds and frequencies while making the record because we wanted to have a certain kind of smoothness and feeling to the music. I threw a fit in the studio when I came in one day and wanted to re-tune the pitch of everything, which was a lot at that point. It just sounded too harsh for the "love" sound we wanted for the tracks. Everyone but Dexy thought I was crazy and there were some disputes about it with the management, producer and the label. I had to do a lot of fighting to make it happen but I think the sound speaks for itself.
D.A.: Tell me about 'Space' It's a FANTASTIC song really/born a classic.
DEXY: It's a song about falling in love and losing yourself in it,
where you feel like you've lost touch with reality and are out in space..
The best kind of love usually does that.
CHRIS: I wrote that song when we were still living in Nashville, where we started the band. All our other songs at that point were more straightforward two minute pop songs and we wanted to get more expansive with the music. "I'm not programmed to give you that information" is actually a sample from Star Trek. It was just a sample at first, then Dexy took the mic and did it better than the sample.
D.A.: Any chance for an ATHENS gig?
DEXY: Yeah hopefully!
CHRIS: I'd love to play in Athens. Hopefully early next year.
D.A.: What about USA nowadays? You're just weeks before Barack Obama gets (as it seems..) another 4 years. Any comment really..?
DEXY: Go Obama.
CHRIS: I don't believe in Obama. I don't believe in The Beatles. I just believe in me. Yoko and me "John Lennon"
D.A.: Can you tell me 5 of your fave albums ever?
DEXY: My taste really depends on the mood, season, year..right now,
1. The Doors - Strange Days
2. The Doors - The Doors
3. Pink Floyd - The Piper at the gates of dawn
4. David Bowie The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
5. Fleetwood Mac - Rumors
6. Pink Floyd - Meddle
CHRIS:
Plastic Ono Band - Shaved Fish
Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Dim the Lights
Davey Graham - Midnight Man
Serge Gainsbourg - Les Annees Psychedeliques
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
D.A.: Biggest influence (artist/bands) for the MAGIC WANDS really?
DEXY: Lately I’ve been getting a lot of inspiration from David Bowie, Stevie Nicks and Jim Morrison and Chris's new tunes are inspiring me.
CHRIS: Yeah Dexy is always an inspiration, she always finds some sound or lyric that amazes me. Currently I've been into Jill Mattson, Jezebel Decibel and MountainMystic9 who all use sacred sound in their music.
D.A.: Here’s my classic question. Lets say that we can have a time machine (!) for the next 24 hours. Where (and WHY) would you wanna go for a whole day..?
DEXY: Los Angeles 1967, I’m pretty sure I lived during that time and was reincarnated so I'd go back and see who I was.
CHRIS: I'd go back to the time of Atlantis and try to find the ancient gods who built the pyramids and ask them about making music.
D.A.: Any fave gig for you? Is there a special gig looking back..?
DEXY: I've caught a lot of special waves but I've yet to catch that one that is the ultimate so it's what keeps me going back to the beach.
CHRIS: I think the last show we did was my favorite so far. We opened up with a 10 minute healing jam.
D.A.: Any message for mixgrill.gr readers from the MAGIC WANDS..?
DEXY: Hello, We can't wait to play Athens, Hopefully we will see you in 2013 - Check out our album Aloha Moon! xx
CHRIS: Aloha mixgrill.gr readers, peace love and thank you to all of you see you soon. Xo
Magic Wands SPECIAL BONUS Video for mixgrill.gr readers:
Live rehearsal of Black Magic (alt keyboard version)
On the occasion of the great album of MAGIC WANDS, they speak for themselves... I would like to thank Felicia for bringing us together and the band.
'I fell in love, I fell in love..'
Dimitris Antonopoulos: So, heres an amazing album REALLY. Can you tell me your story as a band so far?
DEXY: Thank you. When Chris and I first met we wanted to change the direction we were both going in musically. We decided that we wanted to do something positive so we set out for Aloha Moon to be a trippy, love in space themed fantasy album. Chris was learning about sound healing and we tuned our album to a love frequency which is a long story but the inspiration behind where we now call our sound and style LOVEWAVE.
CHRIS: Yeah me and Dexy's idea for our band was to have this idea of magic, love and dreams in the music, something uplifting, almost devoid of reality. Since it was just the two of us we did all the recording ourselves and just used whatever we had available, which wasn't much at the time. An old synth, a couple of delay pedals, a microphone and our guitars. All the original songs were recorded on a multi-track cassette recorder. We released a 7" in the UK and toured there and the US on an EP we recorded in New York. Eventually we began working on Aloha Moon here in California. It came out April 24th.
D.A.: Is there an 'inside story' about the making of 'ALOHA MOON'? A good rock & roll story maybe?
DEXY: Aloha Moon was recorded twice with two different producers, the first version was an electronic dance record we made with John Morrical where we used all electronics and the second version we made with Sep V which is more organic, live bassist and drummer. We ended up going with his mixes because we were pushed to upgrade from a two piece to a full band. We were pretty hesitant and it's been a challenge ever since, but we're doing it. We've got a bassist and several drummers now. We literally went through hail, rain, snow, earthquakes and a heatwave while making Aloha Moon. We recorded throughout three cities and four studios over the course of two years. There were a lot of growing pains but at the end of the day we made a cool album we can live with.
CHRIS: I was getting into healing sounds and frequencies while making the record because we wanted to have a certain kind of smoothness and feeling to the music. I threw a fit in the studio when I came in one day and wanted to re-tune the pitch of everything, which was a lot at that point. It just sounded too harsh for the "love" sound we wanted for the tracks. Everyone but Dexy thought I was crazy and there were some disputes about it with the management, producer and the label. I had to do a lot of fighting to make it happen but I think the sound speaks for itself.
D.A.: Tell me about 'Space' It's a FANTASTIC song really/born a classic.
DEXY: It's a song about falling in love and losing yourself in it,
where you feel like you've lost touch with reality and are out in space..
The best kind of love usually does that.
CHRIS: I wrote that song when we were still living in Nashville, where we started the band. All our other songs at that point were more straightforward two minute pop songs and we wanted to get more expansive with the music. "I'm not programmed to give you that information" is actually a sample from Star Trek. It was just a sample at first, then Dexy took the mic and did it better than the sample.
D.A.: Any chance for an ATHENS gig?
DEXY: Yeah hopefully!
CHRIS: I'd love to play in Athens. Hopefully early next year.
D.A.: What about USA nowadays? You're just weeks before Barack Obama gets (as it seems..) another 4 years. Any comment really..?
DEXY: Go Obama.
CHRIS: I don't believe in Obama. I don't believe in The Beatles. I just believe in me. Yoko and me "John Lennon"
D.A.: Can you tell me 5 of your fave albums ever?
DEXY: My taste really depends on the mood, season, year..right now,
1. The Doors - Strange Days
2. The Doors - The Doors
3. Pink Floyd - The Piper at the gates of dawn
4. David Bowie The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
5. Fleetwood Mac - Rumors
6. Pink Floyd - Meddle
CHRIS:
Plastic Ono Band - Shaved Fish
Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Dim the Lights
Davey Graham - Midnight Man
Serge Gainsbourg - Les Annees Psychedeliques
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
D.A.: Biggest influence (artist/bands) for the MAGIC WANDS really?
DEXY: Lately I’ve been getting a lot of inspiration from David Bowie, Stevie Nicks and Jim Morrison and Chris's new tunes are inspiring me.
CHRIS: Yeah Dexy is always an inspiration, she always finds some sound or lyric that amazes me. Currently I've been into Jill Mattson, Jezebel Decibel and MountainMystic9 who all use sacred sound in their music.
D.A.: Here’s my classic question. Lets say that we can have a time machine (!) for the next 24 hours. Where (and WHY) would you wanna go for a whole day..?
DEXY: Los Angeles 1967, I’m pretty sure I lived during that time and was reincarnated so I'd go back and see who I was.
CHRIS: I'd go back to the time of Atlantis and try to find the ancient gods who built the pyramids and ask them about making music.
D.A.: Any fave gig for you? Is there a special gig looking back..?
DEXY: I've caught a lot of special waves but I've yet to catch that one that is the ultimate so it's what keeps me going back to the beach.
CHRIS: I think the last show we did was my favorite so far. We opened up with a 10 minute healing jam.
D.A.: Any message for mixgrill.gr readers from the MAGIC WANDS..?
DEXY: Hello, We can't wait to play Athens, Hopefully we will see you in 2013 - Check out our album Aloha Moon! xx
CHRIS: Aloha mixgrill.gr readers, peace love and thank you to all of you see you soon. Xo
Magic Wands SPECIAL BONUS Video for mixgrill.gr readers:
Live rehearsal of Black Magic (alt keyboard version)