Magic Man Headlines The El Rey Theatre In L.A. On March 25

Magic Man Headlines the El Ray Theatre on March 25. Photo Credit: Gavin Thomas.

Magic Man Headlines the El Ray Theatre on March 25. Photo Credit: Gavin Thomas.

Concert Guide Live sat down with Alex Caplow and Sam Lee, founding members of the five-piece synth rock band Magic Man, ahead of their performance at the El Rey Theatre in L.A. on Wed., March 25. The New England-based band released their major-label debut album, Before the Waves, in July, 2014 on Columbia Records. Members are Alex and Sam, along with Justine Bowe, Gabe Goodman and Joey Sulkowski.

This is the first headlining tour for Magic Man, though they’ve spent much time on the road playing everywhere from small clubs to large arenas. They’ve toured in support of bands like Panic! At the Disco and Walk the Moon, and will now bring their high-energy performance to fans across the country as the main act.

Check out our interview with the band below, and grab your tickets to see them live this Wednesday, 3/25 in L.A.

CGL: Have you guys played at the El Rey Theatre before, or in L.A.?

Magic Man: We haven’t played the El Rey, but we’ve played the Fonda Theater. Coming from the East Coast, playing L.A. is always a lot of fun for us. We get to see our people from the label and others that support us, so it’s always good to see them. We always have a good time playing for our fans out there.

CGL: What can people expect to experience while attending a Magic Man show?

MM: We’re all completely nude! There’s no other way to do it [laughs]. But seriously, one thing that we really try to bring to shows is as much energy as possible, and we try to connect with the crowd as much as possible.
We also keep the show completely live and don’t use any backing tracks, even though we have so many layers to our sound. We love creating that raw live energy with a five piece band. We’re also bringing out a light show on this tour that we’re using for the first time, and we’re really excited about that as well.

CGL: Are there any new songs you’ll be playing, or mostly songs from prior records?

MM: We’re going to play a lot of songs off of our last record, but we also have some new songs that we’re looking forward to trying out on the road. Our set will be a little over an hour long.

CGL: What are you most looking forward to with this tour?

MM: We love playing and being out on the road – it’s a really great rhythm to get into. Playing a show every night is a lot of fun, and it’s great to see new fans and new places.

CGL: How long have you guys been touring? Is this your first major tour?

MM: We spent pretty much all of 2014 and the end of 2013 on the road, so it’s definitely not our first major tour, though it is our first headlining tour. We’ve done everything from small club shows to big arenas with bands like Panic! At the Disco. Sometimes the small intimate shows are really great, but of course it’s also fun to play for thousands of people at the bigger venues.

CGL: What were some of the bigger or more memorable shows that you’ve played?

MM: Sam: One particularly memorable show was playing at the Boston Calling festival in Boston. It’s a great local festival. The fans at that festival are just great and they stick around all day, so the crowd was huge. We did a rendition of “Sweet Caroline” and everyone sang along, it was a great experience.
Alex: Another memorable show was in Toronto. There was a technical difficulty and a fuse or something broke during our first song, and all the lights in the entire venue went out. But the sound was still going, so we ended up playing our entire set in the dark. At one point, all the fans started turning on their cell phone lights to illuminate us, and it looked like all these floating orbs in the crowd. It was one of the most magical things.

CGL: Do you guys do anything differently with any of your songs when you play live, versus the recorded versions?

MM: We don’t play to any tracks, so it’s impossible to recreate every nuance of our recorded songs. We strip it down a little when we play live, and stick to the five musicians on stage. We also like to expand with some different arrangements and different intros or endings to songs. We try to capture the essence of all of our songs, but also bring a lot of raw energy to the performance.

CGL: Do you have any special setups that help to create your live sound?

MM: We use some very elaborate pedal boards for guitar and bass. We’ve also got an elaborate keyboard setup with multiple keyboards being controlled at the same time, which helps us mimic our recorded sound that has tons of keyboard layers. Sam is the mad scientist of live gear.

CGL: How have you guys progressed from your first tours to where you are now?

MM: In a lot of ways we’re doing what we’ve always been doing since we started playing music together. On the other hand, this is now our full time jobs, which is something we didn’t really imagine.
We get to travel the country and the world even, playing our music for people. There are more and more people at our shows now, which is a great feeling. We have definitely come a long way, but it’s important to remember where we started and to still get excited about every show and about every song we write. Keeping the excitement and energy is what keeps it interesting.
Every tour feels like a big shift from the last one, even if it’s just a small change. Our first tour was in our mini-van, then we got to upgrade to a 15 person van which made us feel like a real band! Then we upgraded to a mini tour bus that we could actually sleep on, and now we’re doing this headlining tour, so each time there is something new.

CGL: Is there anything about this tour that you would like to share with your fans, old and new?

MM: For people that haven’t been to a Magic Man show before, we love to feed off the energy of the crowd and see them jumping up and down and singing along! Our music is loud and raucous and we love for the crowd to be that way too.

Catch Magic Man at the El Rey Theatre, located at 5515 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036, this Wed., March 25. http://www.theelrey.com/

Find out more about Magic Man by visiting http://magicmanmusic.com/