“Synth pop straight from the simulation.”
Magdalena Bay is an alternative pop duo, founded by Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin. Mica and Matthew are the main writers and producers of the group, and have just recently released an album called Imaginal Disk in August of this year. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, you might’ve already heard them through their song Killshot (2020), a track that had recently been popularized by TikTok trends and edits.
But, to truly understand Magdalena Bay, let’s go back to the beginning. Meeting through a musical program in high school, Mika and Matthew were originally in a group called Tabula Rasa, listing Mika as the vocalist and Matthew as the guitarist. Their website (tabularasa4.bandcamp.com) gives more information about their early releases. Following the bands break up, they formed Magdalena Bay together in 2016 while in college. Their first studio album, Mercurial World, was released in 2021, but they’ve also produced a handful of EP’s and singles.
Magdalena Bay can be described as a synth and alternative pop group, genres that can definitely be heard throughout their discography. Not only is their music out of the ordinary though, their artistic creativity is too. Their costume design, album concepts, musical arrangements, and music videos are different in a way I’ve never seen from other artists.
To keep the overall theme of the Imaginal Disk album short, the narrative follows the story of a girl named True Blue. Blue, in order to become her true self, needs to have a disk inserted into her forehead to start the process. However, she rejects the disk, and is taken down a path of self-discovery. The story behind the concept is a bit complicated, so it’s best just to think of Imaginal Disk like “…a window into the minds of two weird and wonderful geniuses at work”, as Liam Hess puts it at Vogue.
The name of the album in particular comes from the biological insect term, imaginal disc. In an interview with Vogue, Matthew explains it as a “…genetic code carrier that exists within the caterpillar that… are the instructions with how to rebuild it into the butterfly. So then it became this double entendre with the CD disk concept that we had for the cover…” Matthew also says that this metamorphosis symbol ties into themes they already had throughout their songs.
If you’re interested in listening to some of their music, I recommend these five songs from their latest album:
- Death & Romance
- Vampire in the Corner
- The Ballad of Matt & Mica
- Fear, Sex
- Angel on a Satellite
Sources
https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/interviews/magdalena-bay-want-to-defy-your-expectations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalena_Bay_(band)?scrlybrkr=f724b01f
https://www.vogue.com/article/magdalena-bay-imaginal-disk-interview
https://www.jaredigital.com/weblogue/magdalena-bay-imaginal-disk
