Here, Magdalena Bay talk about their unique take on the classic concept album, why they returned to their high-school roots when it came to the record’s influences, and their plans to bring the Imaginal Disk world to life while on the road.
Vogue: How are you feeling right now, a couple of weeks out from the release of the album?
Matt Lewin: I think we’re just eager to get the whole thing out, because you do the singles and it’s heartbreaking—well, not heartbreaking, but it’s a tough process, because you really just want people to listen to it all the way through. So you give people these little tastes of it, but you feel like you’re not getting the full thing. We’re ready for all of it to be out.
Mica Tenenbaum: Very ready.
I feel like the singles are a nice cross-section of what the album has to offer, though—of all its different flavors.
ML: Totally.
MT: That was definitely the goal.
ML: I think the singles served their purpose. But I feel like for most artists, in an ideal world, you could just forget about the promotional strategy and just put it out. But that’s not…
MT: That’s not the world we live in.
ML: There’s also something nice about the singles and the tease and building the anticipation. That’s fun for us.
MT: It just makes us nervous also. [Laughs.]
Given it’s something of a concept album, what came first: the songs or the concept?
MT: At first, the music.
ML: The songs always come first.
MT: But I was entertaining some concepts while we wrote the songs. Because with Mercurial World, it was very much a case of songs first, concept later. So I did want to keep those broader ideas in mind when working on this one, without necessarily forcing anything.
ML: I would say it’s like a loose concept album. It’s not like a Tommy situation where the songs outline the story. I think there are themes throughout the album, but I feel that’s the same with Mercurial World. It’s conceptual but I wouldn’t necessarily call it a concept album. I don’t know if you agree, Mica?