Introducing…Magana

Here at Bearded we aim to shed light on acts who don't necessarily have giant labels or muscley budgets waving banners behind them. This Introducing series will focus on artists who we think are great, regardless of how much hype surrounds them or where their origin story lays.

Bio
Name: Magana
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Genre: Folk, Electric Folk
Similar Artists: Daughter, St Vincent, Lianne La Havas
Contact: Website Facebook Twitter Instagram
Events: Release of Golden Tongue EP on 28th October

Jeni Magana, or simply Magana as she goes under with this line of her musical career, is a photographer and a musician, painting various pictures of intimate single moments spread out across three minutes of song. Throughout her Golden Tongue EP she expresses herself at the level that Daughter did when they first revealed their EPs onto the music world – intimate and harrowing, careful and melting into darkness rather than shouting at punters from a fast-moving car.

Almost surprisingly for an indie artist, Magana has recorded a number of commercial jingles – then again Allen Ginsberg created the, “brusha, brusha!” advertising slogan before he was recognised as a beat poet; people got to make a living. In a slightly more recognisable line, she has been a session musician for Dropkick Murphy’s, which is still pretty bloody different from what she’s demonstrating on Golden Tongue EP.

A good example of what you’re signing up to here, with melody and a softly picked, clean electric guitar is the harmonious, ‘The World Doesn’t Know’. It’s a meandering song that plays with diminished melodies around the solid line of a guitar progression. A lot like the relaxed blues of Lianne La Havas’ Lost and Found EP – it is simple and yet very addictive. It can be easy to listen to, but also easy to pay attention to. And right at the end a repetitive, “every cell in your body belongs to the thought in my brain” enters as a hypnotism, an enticement and a resignation to the way that things will be. Regardless of any other desire. The whole EP is a collection of four songs to listen to, on repeat, in a quiet space.



Instead of pushing out a collection of songs out before the session music and commercial jingles Magana has taken her time and produced intimate songs talking about being “inches apart” or popping out highly strung, colder and well worked guitar harshness talking of events that will “make you lonely ‘till your old.”

Jeni Magana is a musician with an interest in all things arty. A photographer and a collaborator, she has delivered an EP which will give her something to build on. Her range of session work for other bands will have contributed to this end product, as does anyone eager to learn. In her own words Magana believes herself to be stifled as “a quiet person, in addition to being a female, (which) makes it easy for people to overlook my words and this is a chance for me to carve out a space for myself to speak.That's kind of the idea with the artwork as well.” And on that basis we can look forward to more medians, more methods and possibly an even more visual art expression from Magana in the future.