From somewhere across the Atlantic, Michele Stodart from the Magic Numbers took time out of her busy schedule to speak with Goldenplec. Coming off the back of a tour in support of Neil Young, the band are buzzing. “It was a dream come true for us. He’s such a cool guy. We felt honoured to be touring with him. We are still coming down from it to be honest – it could take a while.”
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from the Magic Numbers. They went from ubiquity in 2005, with their eponymous debut album and radio-resident hits such as Love Me Like You and Forever Lost, to relative obscurity since their last album, ‘The Runaway’, in 2010. Now they are back with their big, bold new album, ‘Alias’.
“After touring the ‘The Runaway’ we all needed to step outside the band for a while and do some living,” explains Michele. “Romeo [Michele’s brother and the band’s chief singer and songwriter] had a son and I released my solo record, which was brewing for some time. In that time Romeo was writing and working with other artists.”
He worked with Damon Albarn on the Africa Express project, for example. “We all missed playing with each other and when we’d meet up we’d talk about the new album and how we wanted it to say something different. Romeo was playing me all these new songs, and to be honest we felt like a new band again.”
‘Alias’ is a far more epic Magic Numbers than we are used to. The songs are huge in scope and ambition and feature more orchestration than we are used to. “It’s definitely more epic than our previous stuff. In the studio the songs just sounded huge. We’d also learned a bit from previous albums: we’d used strings on the ‘The Runaway’ album and a little bit on ‘Those The Brokes’, and there were certain tracks on this album that were screaming out for something extra”.
Though the Magic Numbers have always worn their influences on their collective sleeve – their ’50s and ’60s pop-stylings being evident throughout their catalogue – the new album seems to point more directly towards certain influential artists like Fleetwood Mac (Thought I Wasn’t Ready) and Arcade Fire (Accidental Song). One song is even called Roy Orbison.
“Definitely some influences crept in subconsciously. It was a strange feeling in the studio at the time, actually, because we’d never created a sound like that before and in some ways the song dictated where it was going and we didn’t have any control over it whatsoever. Whereas before we would have reigned it in had we felt that happening, on this album we let go a lot more”.
Indeed, the three-minute pop song is conspicuous by its absence. “It felt so good and refreshing to do that, particularly after the last album which was very much a studio album. This was very much the four of us again, in the room, playing like we do live”.
The current single, Shot In The Dark, is not your typical Magic Numbers song either and yet Michele believes this is the song that currently sums the band up perfectly. “If anyone was to ask me how to describe our band I would say to listen to this song because it’s got everything: the three-part harmonies, the energy from our live performances and the intensity and darkness of the band are all present.”
It’s fair to say that the band’s last three albums have been on something of a downward trajectory, both in terms of sales and critical reception (their last album scraped into the Top 50). This must have made the band sit up and take notice that if they wanted to remain relevant they would have to push the boat out a bit.
“It’s hard doing a fourth album. It’s hard doing a second and third album too. The first album is often 15-20 years in the making and the other albums are always going to be in the shadow of the first one. With this one we thought, let’s forget about the other records and just make the album we want to make. Every album is a learning process, and I hope that when I’m sixty-eight I’ll have made thirty-five albums like Neil Young, and I can be adventurous along the way.”
The title of the new album, ‘Alias’, is intriguing, particularly when viewed in conjunction with its predecessor, ‘The Runaway’, which featured a finger print on its album cover. Is identity something of a theme for the band these days? “It’s funny actually, I hadn’t noticed that until someone pointed it out to me the other day. With the new album, we didn’t fully realise until we listened back to it together that many of the songs are about identity, and who we really are as people.
“You can be in a crowded room and you could be a completely different person in front of all your friends, with a drink in your hand, than who you are when you’re on your own, or with your partner, or with your child. These are questions that we face every day as people”.
How apt for a band who have shed many layers of identity themselves on their way to taking their current form. “I would advise anyone listening to the new album to put all preconceptions about the band out of their heads because I don’t want anything else to influence your judgement on the band. It should just be about the music”.
The Magic Numbers will be returning to Dublin on the 27th September to play the Academy. “We love playing Dublin. Every road leads to Whelan’s. We never seem to leave the bar until the sun’s up.” So it would seem: a new dawn is upon them.
UPCOMING TOUR DATES
NOV 30: GALWAY: ROISIN DUBH
DEC 01: LIMERICK: DOLAN’S
DEC 02: CORK: HALF MOON
DEC 03: DUBLIN: ACADEMY
DEC 04: BELFAST: LIMELIGHT 2