With so much new music floating around the interwebs, sometimes it’s hard to dig a little deeper and find out more about a promising artist.

That’s why The Profile is breaking it down for you. The Pitch takes care of the nitty gritty factual bits, The Plot serves as a Q & A with the artist, and The Plug is where you can go for more. 

The Pitch

In the European winter of 2011, two Melbournites met in a typically smoky and tiny German bar. They were Alex Badham, of experimental pop band Aleks and the Ramps and lyrical folk songstress Lucy Roleff.

Throughout 2013 they wrote and recorded their debut album between a Northcote basement and a coastal holiday house in rural Victoria. Somewhere in the middle of that they released their first single, Golden Boy before returning to Germany for a string of shows.

Now back in Melbourne, they are preparing to release their debut album Let Me Hold You While You Fail. The first instalment of the album is new single Tone, a woozy folk song informed by the aesthetic of modern pop music. Its accompanying music video is a lo-fi psychedelic epic and was filmed on a Mediterranean island during their recent travels in Europe. Lucy from Magic Hands gave us a run down on this talented duo.

The Plot

Hometown: “I grew up in Ferntree Gully. We lived near the foot of the Dandenong ranges, which is perhaps why I feel quite pleasant when surrounded by hills or mountains.”

Genre: “Dream pop inspired by 1970s psychedelia, traditional folk styles and modern electronic music.”

Influences: “When we started writing the album, we were staying in my aunty and uncle’s beach house in rural Victoria. We would treat ourselves after a day of writing with a Hitchcock movie. Psycho is much scarier when one is distanced from neighbours/street lights. Anyway, we ended up in this spiral where we became a bit obsessed with the actor Anthony Perkins, who plays the psychopath. ‘Tone’ was actually inspired by his curious personal life.
Musically, the following get under our skin in a very good way: Hawaiian folk songs, Cambodian pop, Shoegaze, Arthur Russell, Cocteau Twins, These Trails, Chris Isaak, a small selection of Kylie Minogue songs and the sound of my cat purring after she’s just devoured kangaroo flesh.
I have been listening to this song on repeat for a few weeks now, Elizabeth Fraser is in a league of her own where melodies and phrasing are concerned:”

First song you ever wrote: “That would have been my 1997 smash-hit Stacey’s Babies. I was ten and the neighbourhood tramp cat, Stacey, carried her freshly born kittens to our front door. I named them “lightning, thunder, bubbles and cookie” – and this was the opening line of the song.”

Favourite local act: Totally Mild! They’re supporting us at our single launch. Liz’s melodies are super good and interesting. We like melodies.”

Favourite local venue: The Grace Darling. Between us we’ve played there the most over the past twelve months – it’s always a nice time and I like that they shifted the bar upstairs.”

Dream collaboration/s: “We recently composed the music for a short film for The Australian ballet and it was actually quite liberating to have clear guidelines in terms of genre. The classically trained side of me responds well to this structure I think. We would have enjoyed being alive to compose the music for Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Hausu.”

Dream rider: “Coconut water, pumpkin pie and something involving salted caramel. Or even just a coupon for Red Rooster would be fine.”

Best gig you’ve ever been to: “We saw Oliver Mann and Grand Salvo play in a church a few months ago. It was beautiful. I cried.”

Venue Or Festival you’d love to play: “Albury Bowls club. Failing that, Fuji Rock.”

The Plug

You can download Magic Hands EP via their Bandcamp.
The Ep features “three additional tracks; a remix by Melbourne electronic musician WORNG (think slow-motion Enya-jamming-with-Billy-Ocean-on-valium), an acoustic “Campfire Mix” version, and a cover of Kylie Minogue’s 2004 banger I Believe in You in which (according to wikipedia) Kylie “does not believe in anything except her lover”.

To celebrate the release of Tone, Magic Hands will be bringing their LED lights and projections to The Grace Darling on Friday, 11th of April. Supports from Totally Mild and WORNG.

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