INTERVIEW: Magic Giant’s “Glass Heart” stirring up success

Los Angeles is not an amateur-friendly location. Day in and day out hundreds of thousands of artists set off on their California dreams. Some receive immediate success. Some dreams crumble. Some dreams are simply set back. All Austin Bis needed was to find the folk diamonds in the rough of a big city for his dream to take off.

Along with folk instrumentalist John Zambricki, percussionist and DJ who goes by the name AJK, and recently added upright bass and guitar player Brian Zaghi, Austin Bis formed the electronic-folk revivalist four-piece known as Magic Giant. Their mission, however, goes beyond simply reviving the folky roots of yesteryear. The band prides themselves on music-induced motion – better known as dancing. As the group has grown from musical acquaintances in Los Angeles to the best of friends living their dreams, they’ve found unity, along with an identity of themselves as individuals, and as a group.

“When we started this,” Austin tells Limerence, “I thought of the band and bandmates as a business and now they’ve literally become my best friends…and I think that’s so important.”

Recently I was granted the pleasure of speaking with Austin via Skype, and we talked a bit about how Magic Giant has grown from a New Years resolution to a living dream, their new single “Glass Heart,” and what we can expect from their upcoming EP.

So let’s kick this off by talking about your brand of electronic-folk which was beautifully on display in “Glass Heart.” What are a few things in particular you feel separates you from other folk revivalists as far as how you want your sound to progress over time?

Austin: First of all, I’m now starting to shy away from the term “folk-electronica” or electronic folk; we love folk revival. I think we’re very inspired by other folk bands and especially those who are able to transcend into the mainstream. I think one thing that we really are drawn to is dancing – to be able to bring out the elements of folk that are a strong pulse and to be able to dance to it while playing and singing and getting the crowd involved.

You started off as a fresh face in Los Angeles asking all around the streets in search of unique instrumentalists to help bring your sound to life. What was that process like for you and how do you feel it shaped you into the musician you are today?

Austin: It’s such a journey, finding yourself; who you are and finding the sound you want to really play and share with everyone. A lot of times, I feel like the more I play with Magic Giant, the more focused our sound and music becomes. It’s been a process. We had another band before this that led into this band. It takes time finding your sound, takes time finding the musicians. I asked about seventy friends for intros to musicians and jammed with tons and tons of people. It goes way beyond if the person is a good musician. For instance, Brian was the last addition to the band right before we played our first show as Magic Giant in March. He’s someone who is so well-rounded. Our whole band dynamic has become centered around being good friends. We cannot stop laughing when we we’re together…I think that’s so important. I didn’t realize how important it was until Brian [came in] and really rounded out the group. He had been in bands when friendship was so valuable. His old band grew up together and kind of became a band naturally, whereas I was always was looking for the best musicians and it turns out it’s all about the friendship.

Talk a bit about your relationship with John Zambricki, and what type of momentum that created for you as Magic Giant initially came together a few years ago?

Austin: We met thru a mutual friend in L.A. and I was looking for someone I wasn’t sure even existed. I was really drawn to the banjo, mandolin, and the fiddle and I wondered if I could get someone to play with me. My friend Kai Brown introduced us. Our relationship has grown dramatically from acquaintances to best friends. What I was initially drawn to him by was his musical ability. What I was later drawn to was his songwriting ability. I actually had no idea for the first couple years we jammed together how good of a songwriter he is and he’s a phenomenal writer. A lot of the song ideas used to come from me, but he’s actually come to the table with a lot of the songs now. It’s very even how we collaborate. The other thing is that I had written with hundreds of other writers in L.A. just for like, pop stuff, and for whatever reason I connected with him more than anyone else in collaboration and writing. I was kind of blown away by him, stylistically. He came from such a different background. He was not trained at all, fully self-taught. I was always trying to get lessons to improve on things. He lived in Nashville. He just had this bluegrass Southern experience and I didn’t expect we’d be such good writing partners…and we’ve become incredible friends. He’s so vital to the core of the band.

Only a short time after you and John and AJK disbanded, you got that call from a talent-buyer and sequentially Magic Giant was resurrected. What were some of the emotions running through your mind when you got off the phone and what musical element were you looking to add to your sound when you decided to bring Brian on board?

Austin: You have to understand that I’ve always wanted to play a music festival – like, my whole life. It was like, this is finally going to be real. We’re going to be able to play outdoors in my hometown for all these people and be amongst these artists that I really respect and admire. I think just playing at that venue where I’d seen John Mayer and Ringo Starr – I think I saw Shaggy there. Seeing so many acts there growing up that I just dreamed of being on stage. With Brian, we just weren’t settled in what the nucleus of the band was until he joined. On paper what I was looking for was an upright bass player. When I saw him he was just playing backup electric bass for one of my friends at her show and reading music. He looked cool but it was such a shot in the dark but I just decided why not get his contact. I got his contact and I looked him up on YouTube and the first thing I saw were salsa dancing videos. I’d see him performing…and I was blown away. He had so much star quality and so much stage presence. It was from that I decided he needed to be in the band…he hadn’t played upright in a while, but he was so talented…his light just fills the room. His smile, his look, his hard work, his team work…he’s designing our website. He goes above and beyond. He changed the entire dynamic of our band from something we’re going to do part-time as a hobby, and something we do as acquaintances and he changed it into all of us being best friends. By adding him, Zambricki and I got closer. The band became a tighter unit. The chemistry built. It’s awesome how one person can be that final piece that really ties it together more than you can imagine. We changed our name and played our first show as Magic Giant and we really felt the start of something new.

One of your biggest accomplishments as a band, and I’d say also as an individual musician, was playing at the Life is Beautiful Festival highlighted by some of my favorite artists: Phoenix, Kendrick Lamar, The Killers…describe that experience and how much progress you feel you had made up to that point since making your New Years resolution to form a band?

Austin: That was our second festival. We got Life is Beautiful as a result of Sweet Life. It was very exciting. It was a very exciting time to go from playing one festival in D.C. to another festival in Las Vegas, this time with the Killers, Kings of Leon, Imagine Dragons, and Capital Cities. It was bananas. We played on the first year of Life is Beautiful and this year they had Kanye; every year there’s another amazing lineup. Looking back, we’d made far less progress than it felt at the time. Both festivals were successful for us in that we had hundreds of fans that came – new fans and old fans that came and were dancing and jumping up and down. But we weren’t cohesive as a band. We didn’t have an identity. We were just kind of experimenting. I get that perspective because I think about our final show at the Bootleg Residency at the end of October…on stage, we were 10 times more prepared and 20 times more unified as a band and really felt the identity of Magic Giant. You could see that in the crowd. This residency was the first time we felt like we had genuine fans, not just friends coming to see us, or new fans who were into it that night. Fans we’re bringing their friends, singing the words, buying the merch and getting there early; the things you expect out of fans or you see with your favorite bands. So I think we’ve made much more progress from Life is Beautiful up until now than we had from the New Years resolution up until Life is Beautiful. It’s just about learning and growing exponentially.

So let’s talk a bit more about “Glass Heart”. Definitely a song with great energy to it when the banjo and the gang vocals meet electronic undertones and I really enjoyed listening to it as many times as I did. What would you say are some acoustic or electronic melodic elements that you particularly favored in creating this track, or was there a certain technique that you really felt this song needed?

Austin: Definitely the banjo stands out to me. “Glass Heart” and “Let it Burn” started to define our sound and the banjo is a big part of that. I don’t think we knew it would be as big when we were writing “Glass Heart,” but it became that, and singalongs; gang vocals became a big part of it too, not going into it but looking back at it now.

What’s the concept or theme behind “Glass Heart”, or what is the song about?

Austin: It’s about a girl who’s had a troubled past that you’re just there to protect and love her up and just make her feel loved. She’s in a fragile place…but to some degree it’s open to interpretation as to whether she’s had hard relationships or hard anything.

Talk about your experience recording with Rashawn Ross and Spencer Ludwig. Obviously two well-known and respected names in the industry, but what did it mean to you to have the talent and the appeal to convince such a big name to take you in and how did it affect your perspective on the long-term impact of your music? Like, if you can make believers out of them you could potentially make believers out of anyone you choose to work with.

Austin: I think it’s always very cool to dream about it and then to create it. It’s always such a gratifying feeling when people you admire admire you back – enough so that they’re willing to put their name and their soul on your project. These are all people we really look up to, even if they’re people we really admire. The Dave Matthew’s Band has had such a long career that it’s definitely a goal of ours to have such a sustainable fan base. You just talk to people in the industry. Rashawn Ross is so well respected. After he played on our record, he was headed to rehearsal for some award show – I think it was the MTV Awards – to musically direct Usher, but then he wasn’t going to be able to be there because he had to work with another A-lister like Eminem or Rihanna or someone like that.

What are some of the biggest differences – pros and cons if you will – you noticed between getting your work produced by someone and self-producing?

Austin: When we produce ourselves, we felt really strongly producing our first body of work because we have total control of the sound and the package we are creating. I think especially for the first audio work, it’s so important for us as artists to craft our own sound and express to the world how we feel. The perks of working with an outside producer are also huge and we’ll probably do that at some point. First of all just getting another set of ears on the project is very very good, especially someone who’s really well respected – and who warrants that respect because they’re very talented. Another thing people don’t think about is that having someone else produce can save a lot of time that you could spend rehearsing or doing other things. Producing is a very time consuming task. Its much more than songwriting. It’s all the little nuts and bolts and bells and whistles; all the little things that sometimes only you hear anyway, but you put them in because it’s part of your idea.

What on your upcoming EP are you most excited for your fans to hear and what’s the overall status on that? How’s it all coming along?

Austin: I really like “The Dawn”, that’s one of the tracks, but maybe because its the one we finished last. We’ve had a lot of fun creating all of them. A lot of people like “Let it Burn” and it’s really fun to perform. I’m excited for people to hear the whole thing.

Check out “Glass Heart” on Soundcloud: