Behind the Magic of Magdalena Bay

Magdalena Bay is sitting at home in L.A. The duo, comprising vocalist Mica Tenenbaum and producer and multi-instrumentalist Matthew Lewin, is enjoying some well-earned time off. Since the release of its last album, Imaginal Disk, the band has been touring almost nonstop, playing nearly 170 shows in the previous fifteen months.

“Obviously, we’re lucky that people are still interested in seeing us a year and a half after the record came out,” says Lewin. “It’s been a dream!”

The Imaginal Mystery Tour arrives in Denver for a New Year’s Eve show at the Mission Ballroom before the band jets across the pond for a collection of European shows.

For now, though, it’s time to recharge the only way the two know how, by making more music.

“For us, working on music is very relaxing and rejuvenating,” says Lewin. “We have a home studio, so it’s easy to jam, and then when we get tired, we go watch TV. It’s sick!”

It also speaks to the consistent work ethic of collaborators who have been doing this since they connected fifteen years ago at an after-school music program in Miami. 

In the early days, the two learned to record together and spent time in a King Crimson-indebted prog rock band named Tabula Rasa, or “blank slate” in Latin, before forming Magdalena Bay in 2016. 

Named after a former co-worker of Lewin, the duo put out its first song, “VOC POP,” the same year. The single was the band’s first stab at creating hyperpop influenced by Charli XCX, Grimes, and Chairlift.

Soon after, the two moved to Los Angeles and worked day jobs while performing at small clubs across the city to little fanfare. The duo released its debut album, A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling, in March 2020, two days after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. 

Oddly enough, its big break came mid-pandemic. Lewin was let go, went on unemployment, and the pair focused solely on recording. Released the following year, Mercurial World garnered instant cult status and showcased the band’s growing studio prowess and penchant for world-building, both of which it would perfect on Imaginal Disk.

A concept record about the self, Disk is a distillation of all of Lewin and Tenenbaum’s influences. On it, Charli-indebted bombast (“She Looked Like Me!”) sits alongside maximalist disco (“Cry for Me”) and prog electronica (“Tunnel Vision”). Reviews were ecstatic, ticket sales spiked, and the success also alleviated some of the pressure on the band.

“We definitely feel freer in our relationship with our label,” says Lewin, half-jokingly. “And we’re definitely not questioning things as much.”

That’s apparent on Nice Day: A Collection of Singles, a vinyl collection of four previously released double A-sides to be released this spring.

“It’s a different sort of creative mindset than when you’re working on a big project like an album,” says Tenenbaum. “When we’re making an album, we naturally feel like [the songs] belong on a record. These songs just didn’t have that feeling.”

Because of that, Nice Day plays like a collection of genre experiments. Both “Unoriginal” and “Black-Eyed Susan Climb” showcase a stripped-back approach with more acoustic guitar and cleaner percussion, while the combo of “Second Sleep” and “Star Eyes” features string-heavy orchestration. The duo even goes full shoegaze on “Nice Day.”

“We saw the songs were just naturally fitting into pairs,” says Lewin. “Just sonically, thematically, and [in terms of] mood, so it just made sense to put them [out] as double A-sides.”

Though the combo of “Human Happens” and “Paint Me a Picture” will be instantly recognizable sonically to fans of the last record, the duo wants to keep pushing forward.

“I really dislike AC/DC,” says Lewin with a chuckle. “I don’t know if that’s because they’ve done the same thing every record, or if I just don’t like what they’re doing in general, but my favorite bands are the ones that reinvent themselves.”

However, reinvention in the form of a new album is still a ways away.

“Realistically, it’s not going to come out next year,” says Lewin. “We’re aiming for the year after that.”

In the meantime, fans can look forward to a full Imaginal Disk movie.

“It was a huge undertaking,” says Tenenbaum. “We filmed 15 music videos in four days, and there’s been a lot of VFX… but it’s going to be amazing.”

Even with all this, the two are continuing to look for inspiration both in and outside of themselves.

“I’m doing more journaling and getting back into reading,” says Tenenbaum. “I read a story by Ted Chiang that was about AI through this very, like, Neopets type of lens. But also recently, a lot of inspiration has come from real life.”

When pushed, Tenenbaum is hesitant to give specifics.

“It’s cool to leave things open to interpretation, because even in performing our songs every night, I’ll discover something new in the lyrics or relate to them in a new way,” she continues. “That’s the music we like… and I think there’s some sort of magic in that.”

Magdalena Bay, 8 p.m. Wednesday, December 31, Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop Street. Tickets are available via AXS.