Music

Exclusive Interview: Mary Magdalan

Published

13 years ago

January 21, 2011

Last week, we got a Top 10 Serial Killer list from Mary Magdalan that was incredibly popular with you readers. However, some of you wanted to know more about Mary. Who she is, where she comes from, the usual. Well, we’ve got just that for you after the jump. Find out about her musical journey, what influence horror has on her and what the future holds for Mary Magdalan.

If you want to stay up-to-date on Mary Magdalan, you can check out her Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.

1) First things first: Give me a quick summary of your musical life.

Music has always been a healing instrument for me. When I was young and i was going through my family drama I would music to channel me away from the madness surrounding me at home. My mom would show up and it would be World War III with my Grandparents. Or one of my uncles would be either going or coming home from jail so I’d just be locked up in the room listening to anything to take me far away from that place.

It’s also what has kept me off drugs. Its the only thing I liked more than drugs so it made absolute sense to me. When DJ Ray (aka Gzus) started making music together we were both pretty strung out on a sundry of shall we say ‘candies’. So when we would get together to work on music things would get crazy real quick. When we quit all that pain from the jones went out into the music. Hence the birth of Mary Magdalan.

2) You’ve got what seems to be an unwavering drive when it comes to getting your music out there and heard. Where does this drive come from?

I think it comes from our goal to rewrite the way things are done as artists in the digital era. We as artists now have the ability to make a name for ourselves on our own and I’m a strong advocate of that. I’m not gonna wait for someone to do for me what I can do myself. I’m gonna do it myself or I’m gonna build my team thats gonna help me do it.

3) Whereas most bands that say they draw from a huge list of influence spanning multiple genres, it’s not exactly obvious when you listen to them. Your music makes that much more apparent, mixing rock, rap, industrial, electronic and other styles. How do you juggle these styles without making it sound “forced”?

We’re creatures of instinct by nature so we apply that to our music. Some of our best material comes from instinct. We try not to “think” to much because the mind can get in the way of the music. We are all also fans of many styles of music so it all finds its way into our sound. Its funny because the new stuff we are writing is really tapping into our signature Hood Rock sound. Its definitely more hip hop/dubstep based with these tasty riffs & razor sharp lyrics. It’s so out of this earth. I think people are really gonna enjoy it.

4) I hear a lot of musical segments that sound like something out of a horror movie. What influence does horror have on the music and the lyrics?

My life was a horror movie for a long time. In turn, that transfers over in my sound. I’ve always been attracted to the darkness. It’s not the best place for me, but I l do love it there. So the horrors that go on inside of my head I put them into songs. Its my way of shedding skin. And it also makes me a much more balanced person. Its like therapy.

5) When in the studio, how do you amuse yourself when you’re not recording?

Well I have three dogs, two pugs and chihuahua. So there’s always some funny jokes going on in their world over here. Not to mention the studio is literally one block from the ocean so if I feel like I’m in the chicken coop I can go down there and clear my shakra. I’m usually pretty ridden in the early part of making an album. I collect pain and emotions to pour into it so I can be pretty wound up. Usually by the end I’m completely cleaned out of the insanity because it all goes into the work so I feel this incredible peace that is amazing. It’s like a birth. And when I’m not recording I’m usually working on my clothing company or on getting the music out there. I am a workaholic for sure.

6) What’s in the future for Mary Magdalan?

Its just another day at the amusement park for us. We’re getting back into the studio to record our next album, which should set the entire world on its ass. DJ Ray bet me $10,000 that i couldn’t write an album without one curse in it, so of course I was like “Fuck Yeah bitch”! He didn’t say anything about cursing in interviews. lolz. Its been a challenge writing all of this new material without any curses but I’m really enjoying the results that I’m getting from it. So thats dropping in 2011. Then its off to tour the world. Hopefully not get into too much trouble but its feeling like there’s gonna be a lot of that going down this summer.

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JonathanBarkan

Managing editor/music guy/social media fella of Bloody-Disgusting

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Music

“He Walks By Night” – Listen to a Brand New John Carpenter Song NOW!

Published

1 week ago

April 9, 2024

John Squires

It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.

“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…