By: Jamie Steinberg
Q) You spent years playing jazz piano throughout middle and high school before leaning into like indie pop and bedroom pop. How does your foundation in jazz translate beyond your sound, and how did that influence your approach to creating Groove Therapy?
A) I mean, the for me, like in terms of in terms of just music in general, like jazz is like like that’s what I had the most fun doing is like learning and getting better at playing jazz piano, and it was just like always a part of like my life growing up. So, there’s like a lot of nostalgia and whatnot in it to begin with. So, I always wanted to add it into my sound, and I think like we’re only gonna make it more jazzy if that makes sense. But there is like a balance between the two, so you have to keep the music digestible to some degree and accessible to people who maybe aren’t you know musicians or like music theory people, or whatever, and so that’s kind of where we have like the balance of like the bedroom indie pop kind of influences as well as like some chords that that it’s just like a tool that you can use to leave the key and then come back and and like make it more interesting and try and make the record more engaging overall.
Q) With your debut EP, Groove Therapy, having just dropped recently in end of September, how would you personally describe it for new fans or those interested in listening to your music? Because I love the title. There’s such an implied duality of the joyful getting down to the fun rhythms, as well as going down into the deeper mental psyche, kind of all at once.
A) Yeah, dude, that’s a really good question. It’s just like authentic to who I am as a human being. It’s the most proud I’ve been about a project because I feel like I’m finally making music that is, like I said, just sounds like who I am as a human being, and like I connect with the music so heavy. For anybody who hasn’t listened to it, I would say it’s just like kind of like R&B kind of soul, but there’s a little bit of pop influence, and I just think Groove Therapy…We tried to make a very cohesive bunching of music, but at the same time, I, personally, think like each single has a different purpose and a different like vibe to it at the same time. So, that was our goal to make a project that had a lot of variety, but at the same time was cohesive. Just to kind of give a preview for like what the development of this project and the development of this world is going to be, and like what an album is going to sound like coming in like the spring, you know?
Q) What has it been like to receive cosigns from from artists like Justin Timberlake and Ty Dolla $ign as well as getting this Best New Artist nomination at the VMAs? I mean, this isn’t just like your dad giving you you some love, but really also legit artists and outlets and music. Like, how does that feel like creatively and where you are as you’re evolving?
A) Yeah, it’s really cool. It’s just more motivation to to to like really live up to those, you know, that level of of mastery and and and and just continue to hone my craft and like I it’s just all amazing reasons to continue to give this like a hell of a swing and and like make everything that I do the best that it can be. It’s crazy to like the VMAs. It’s crazy to to get invited to something because you made music. It’s like really bizarre, and I’m still like kind of processing a lot of these things. It’s pretty new for me, but yeah, man, it’s just it’s just another piece of kind of like validation to help me know like this is what I’m meant for if that makes sense.
Q) You were mentioning like all these big things happening at once, and it’s a lot to process, right? Is there anything specific that you do to kind of decompress and help work yourself through these big things that are all happening at once. Anything in your routine?
A) Yeah, I mean, for me specifically, and I think it’s just different for everybody. But for me, it’s like, like just being just kind of doing nothing and being like alone with my thoughts for an hour or something. That’s kind of all I need to just think about and process everything that’s happening. I mean, sometimes you don’t get that all the time, but you just have to like manage, and then you know, when you have that, really take advantage of just like basic little self care things that you know make when it’s super busy just that much easier.
Q) The album’s title, Groove Therapy, what does that phrase mean to you personally, and how did it end up becoming the album’s title?
A) Yeah, I well, for me, it was specifically during COVID where I started to notice that, like, whenever I would feel a certain emotion, whether it be good, bad, neutral, I would always find myself at the piano, and that was like something that kind of motivated me to continue to like dive deeper into music, and and that’s to me where the therapy comes from. I was like, oh, okay, I do this to help process my emotions and like think about things, and I don’t know. I like to add the groove in because it like describes how the EP is, but also it’s kind of it makes the title a little weird because like you wouldn’t think you could have groove or in in therapy if that makes sense. And yeah, I don’t know. It’s kind of a combination of those three, but also just I just kind of like the way it sounds. It is also as simple as that. But, yeah, I think that’s the best way to describe it.
Q) In your interview with Genius, you talked about how you started to utilize your jazz influences more and more in your music. Did you find that making music became more rewarding after you started doing that?
A) Yeah, definitely. Because I like I started liking it more when I had those chords. Like I started when I started to enjoy the music I was making, and like once the work starts to make you happy, it’s like it’s just this awesome like positive cycle you can get into, and then like everything else is awesome, and then that feeds back into like your inspiration to make more music, and and yeah, just really sticking to like what’s authentic to me, because at the end of the day, like I have to live with all these tracks out for the you know for the rest of my career, and I want to look back and be like, oh, I still really really like this song, and I still really enjoy listening to this. I would, it would be like a nightmare if you had to look back and be like, man, I hate this. You know what I mean. So the jazz stuff for me, that’s what it is. It’s like I just love it.
Q) Your new record includes a feature from Jenevieve. What was it like working with her, and how do you feel she contributes to the record?
A) She just adds like, I mean, I mentioned earlier we wanted to add like adhesive sound, but it was still different and similar the same way. Like it’s the same concept with Jenevieve as a feature. Like she sits in the pocket so well, and is like such a smooth R&B voice, but is completely different from my voice. And it just kind of like in my brain hearing she’s gonna break my heart before Jenevieve and after Jenevieve, it just kind of like textures the song in a completely different way, and just makes it more interesting. It was such a pleasure to work with her in the studio because I just get to sit back and watch her do her thing, and she’s just got such a great voice and is such a kind and talented human being. So, all of it was just an awesome experience.
Q) You describe groove as a way of processing your emotions, and group therapy is full of songs about desire, uncertainty, and knowingly waking toward heartbreak. What does putting those feelings into a groove allow you to express that talking about them directly doesn’t?
A) Yeah, I think I think it’s it’s fun for me to because I can easily write like a heart heartfelt ballad or something like and and just kind of have the topic of the song perfectly match the sound of the track, which I think in a lot of cases is the right thing to do. But like with your heart. It’s a song, and really, it’s melon. Just strip it down, and not add all the rhythm. But I think to add like this weird texture that’s like pretty and and and like heartfelt over a beat.
Q) You grew up hearing your grandfather play jazz and R&B, and now you’re taking that musical language into rooms filled with young pop audiences. Is there something about the way he approached music that you’re consciously trying to carry forward, even as the sound becomes completely your own?
A) Yeah, it’s just like the feeling. Like when we we grew up like playing piano together, and and like he would play the left hand, and I would play the blues in my right hand, and like it was just the feeling of how he played helped me learn how to play with me with feeling myself, and this whole experience has helped me really look back on how much of an influence my grandfather has been, just in general. And, yeah, that’s the biggest thing is just putting your emotion and your feeling and your authenticity into the work you’re putting out, because that’s how you enjoy it, and like that’s how you’re gonna make yourself happy by the work, and that’s how you’re gonna have like a long and successful career is if you do that.
Q) In an industry where so many entertainers are competing for recognition and trying to establish their own identities, what do you believe has been the key to carving out a space that feels uniquely yours?
A) Yeah, I think for me it’s like none of us are the same. Like you can’t find the same two people, and like everybody has their own unique personalities, and it just goes back to like the authenticity part of it. If you can continue to get better and get sharper at like your taste, and like in my opinion, your taste is connected with like who you are, and if you can infuse who you are into your taste, and then that infuse like that all like is infused into your work. If you just get better and better at it, and keep practicing and practicing at it. Like it took me five years to figure that out, but like once you get through that process, you’ll eventually find a sound, a look, a persona that is completely uniquely you. But it just comes with like reps. It’s it’s it’s it’s a boring answer, but like it literally is just reps of trying to get more specific with literally figuring out who you are.
Q) You’re saying it took you like five years to learn some of these lessons. So I’m curious, kind of, what you would tell yourself five years ago that you know now, or even maybe someone that’s making music and wants to be in the position that you are in a few years?
A) Just that it’s like I would just continue to think of the whole process before the break happens. Like you have to like know that the break is gonna happen at some point, but that it just might take a different time, and that you should just continue to look at everything as practice and as like reps for when for getting ready for when it does happen, because then like you’ll enjoy it more. You won’t like take mistakes so seriously, and you can still like celebrate wins that will come out of it. And you might get like unexpected wins, and it might you never know. Like it might happen sooner, but if it takes a longer period of time, which in most cases it does, you’ll just enjoy the process more, and it’ll be that much more rewarding for when it does happen. Like that’s what I would say.
Q) Being a newer artist and already receiving a Best New Artist nomination, congratulations with that at the VMAs. What does finding your sound mean to you? Do you feel like you found your sound yet, or do you see that as something that’s constantly evolving as an artist?
A) I think I think this my sound’s going to change as it as I develop as a human being, and I mean, in a way, I could say I had a sound when I started, but I just didn’t know how to like connect the sound with my personality as well. And like as I continued to to do that more, and as I continued to like infuse real experiences and like vulnerability into the writing of the songs, after a certain point, you kind of reach almost like an epiphany of like, oh, this sound, this is like I like this. I can play this for. There was a point where I, I was like, oh, I would be able to play this in front of 100 people that I knew were gonna hate it and still enjoy it myself, and I think that was the point where I was like, okay, this is the sound that I want to continue because I can just unapologetically share it with the world.
Q) I was wondering if there’s any song that when you’re doing or performing live, does it feel different for you when you were doing it live than when you’re when you did the recording?
A) That was actually it’s funny you mentioned that because that was actually a huge learning moment for me was earlier when we were putting out songs, I felt like the live version was always better than the live than like the recorded version, and there was like this disconnect of like wait, it seems to grab people’s attention when we play it live, and I’d have this thought of like, “Oh yeah, like this is good recorded but oh it’s so much better live,” and then a part of it like the biggest part of it was like okay how do we take this feeling live and make it into the record, and then how do we like make both things like fit? And so yeah, I kind of love playing all of them now live because they all sound live in the in the tracks. I would say particularly my favorite to play live right now is “A Little Fun” just because it’s what we’ve been closing with, and I don’t know. At that point of the show, we’ve gotten everybody like riled up enough that like they’re all up and dancing, and like you know, my goal was always to make people as comfortable as possible so that they can express themselves at my shows as well as me being able to express themselves because it makes me more comfortable to do the same. So, like, yeah, that’s very long answer, but “A Little Fun” is my favorite to play live. But all of them are my favorite, too.
Q) We were talking about the VMAs. So Magnus, I have to ask – your outfit was amazing. Where did the inspiration come from for that all blue fit that you had on?
A) I love like just flowy stuff. I wanted to do this disco thing, but like for me, disco can be like on the nose sometimes. So it was just trying to find like a modern version of something that like I would wear on the street, be comfortable with, but also like the elevated version of that. We found this brand, like the brand we found too, was like kind of smaller, and I thought that was really cool. I like discovering really high quality stuff that that people kind of don’t know about because I think like I can use that platform to like give that attention too. And this brand Viviano like made these really cool pieces, and they all are similar to the blue one. So, yeah, it was like just I really just liked it from the beginning, and we didn’t have to do anything to it. We just wore it, and that was literally how it looks on their Instagram. And I felt good. I felt comfortable, and I don’t know. It was just cool. So that’s my inspiration, I guess.
Q) Magnus, so many artists have like begun embracing you in your music, and you’ve kind of almost become a little brother to some of them. Like Shawn Stockman, he seemed to totally find a special place in his heart for you. What was some advice, maybe, that the musicians that have reached out to you have given to you that you’ve taken to heart?
A) It’s just the reinforcement of like finding like pure freedom in like on stage specifically. I’ve heard also just in exploring and like pushing yourself to grow creatively, and at the same time still like stick to your guns on like what got you here. The biggest thing, and I keep I keep hammering this point, but like the authenticity, man. Like just how they want me to continue to lean into that. Also, like musicianship and stuff. I’m so lucky to have all these mentors and and and and and people who keep encouraging me to continue to like develop my piano sound and like continue to to develop my vocal ability and celebrate all this cool stuff that’s been happening, but to also use that to continue to get better and see where we can take this this thing and then like and like how good we can get and that’s like just the biggest piece of advice I’ve gotten from everybody who I’ve been lucky enough to run into or get like a cosign from-it’s been insane.
Q) There’s been bedroom pop with your previous sound and naivete’s neck bopping tunes for your newest EP. As an artist, what sets your music, your vibe, and your inspiration off when you’re constructing a when you’re constructing a song? Is it a beat, a rhythm, or maybe even a note that directs sort of the groove and energy, or is it something else?
A) If I can like, it’s like whatever gives me like goosebumps and like, whenever I have like a profound, like emotional moment, and I’m kind of a sensitive guy, so like it happens a lot, and it could be something super simple, like a cool sunset, or like a really cool soundtrack to a movie was something that happened the other day. I was like, “Huh, why do I feel this way? Okay, whatever.” Like, think about that, and like that can turn into inspiration in weird different ways, and and and something that’s like maybe made me sad can turn into a beat that’s super funky for whatever reason and just to I don’t know, I just take inspiration in weird ways, and and like I let that make sense in the most natural way possible. I just try and flow. Like sometimes we start with a beat, sometimes we come in with like an event that happened, and sometimes the melody. It’s like just a variety of different things, but whatever can get us into like the flow state.
Q) Now that Groove Therapy is finally out is there a song on there that you understand differently now that it’s like fully out in the world than when you were first starting your writing process with the EP?
A) Yeah, I think “She’s Gonna Break My Heart.” That one we had for a while and we just kind of like made it randomly, and it really took. This always happens. It’s like the songs where there’s no pressure, and the songs where we’re just trying stuff is where the like magic happens to me, and like literally we were we made it in like an hour, the the verse and the chorus, and we just kind of had it as like a whatever. We’ll maybe come back to this song, and when we got Jenevieve on it, like the meaning and and and the effect on it had on me when we had like a female on it, and it was like a guy versus a girl, and they’re singing about the same thing. I was like, “Oh, this is what it was meant to be,” and it was interesting that it just kind of spawned out of nowhere, and it took me that long to understand like what the song was meant for. So, that was one that definitely changed, and then hearing it and showing it to people when it was out, that made it kind of double down in the meaning.
Q) You just started the Burning Up All Over Again tour with the Jonas Brothers recently. What’s one thing you’re hoping happens on this tour that you couldn’t have prepared for?
A) That I couldn’t have prepared for? Yes. We’re gonna alter some of my set a little bit because we thought I jammed in too many songs, and I like want to have some more talking moments. I’m excited to have some.
Q) I have been loving following your career ever since two years ago when “Life or Death” came on my Discover Weekly. So, it’s been really fun to watch you grow as an artist and all the way to the VMAs red carpet that was so cool. Has a review of your work ever changed your perspective of your own art?
A) Oh yes, a little bit. But it was more of a learning lesson. I like there was a music critic that got a review, and I had been watching him for a long time. It was weird. I always had this kind of dream that he would be the. He was kind, and he’s kind of like tough on an artist a lot, and is very picky and whatnot. And I just had this idea that I would be the one, like I would get a good review from him, and I didn’t get a good review from him. That was really hard to see, but hard to listen to. So, there was a couple days where I was kind of questioning everything in my whole life, but then I kind of came to terms with it and and and and realized that this is kind of what I was talking about and preparing myself for when you know I was just thinking about how like not everyone’s gonna like the stuff, and and everyone is allowed to have an opinion. And I think that what makes art cool is everybody’s gonna interpret it differently, and that might not sound so pleasant, but I think that moment was really effective in just like okay, let’s interact with people who enjoy the music. Let’s interact with people who want to be a part of this thing. And there’s not really a reason in engaging with any reviews and opinions that are negative. It’s like it doesn’t do anything for you. It just makes things worse.
Q) What are you listening to like right now? Like, what’s on your playlist?
A) D’Angelo Voodoo. That’s what I’ve been listening to lately. Kind of that, only that. I like to just sit with an album for a long period of time and then move on to the next one.
Q) Hearing that this project is complete and you’re moving on to the next, I’m really curious what is something you’re trying to prove to yourself with the music you’re making right now?
A) That it’s possible to get to the level that I like have been admiring for so long and like I can get to this point like this goal of musicianship that I’m I’m trying to get and I acknowledge that we’re good at that now but like I have this lofty goal that’s even deeper and like even better, and just to see that the music continues to improve will be an indicator that progress will continue to be made, and like I will reach higher and higher levels if I just keep going.
Q) Since jazz is all about capturing the spontaneous moment, how do you balance that with modern pop production? Like when working on Groove Therapy, how did you decide to leave it as is, improvised take, versus when to refine it?
A) Oh, that’s a really good question. Because you can go, you can go, man. You go through a rabbit hole of like overcorrecting, and then you get to a certain point. Like you can refine, refine, refine, refine. But after a certain point, you’re just it’s like taking good ideas and you’re just switching them around, and you and they’re not like better than the other one. It’s just like different choices. And so for me, it’s like whatever feels the best. If it feels good, like you kind of don’t want to change it if it just came out and and and it still feels good. But sometimes I can lie to you, and you go back and forth. You just have to like continue to chip away until you get to a point where you can listen through and be happy. So that’s the kind of thing. And so, like a good example is a little fun. The drums changed a lot, but we tried to fiddle with the structure of the song, and it didn’t work. So we kept the structure of the song and just changed the drums and like added more synth bass in the production and tried to make it a little bit more modern, and that just felt right.
Q) What would you say is the most kind of intuitive track on Groove Therapy. Like, what came the most natural to you?
A) Let’s think. For me, I think “On Your Dress” came the most natural. I think that we just had such a clear, such a clear story to it that we just the best is when you just write what happened, and you just kind of in a paragraph tell the story, and you literally can just slot it into lyrics. And “On Your Dress” is pretty much exactly what happened, and so when that happens, it’s so easy to like find the feeling because you’re just like reliving that experience, and we get to do that with with on your dress.
Q) So when you were saying some things just come really naturally, do you find that there are a lot of things in your life or experiences and emotions that you want to write about, but you have a really difficult time translating into a song?
A) Oh, for sure, yeah, yeah. Sometimes it just doesn’t work, and like I say all this, like, you know, letting things happen naturally and whatnot, while acknowledging like there are times where you let things happen naturally, and it’s just kind of like it’s not it’s not good that day, and that’s fine, and and and you just accept that that’s gonna happen, and like a part of just like flow, like literally flowing, and and and and letting like yourself express everything is that you’ll express all like the bad ideas with the good ideas, and you’re just catching the good ideas and you’re keeping with them. And for me, it’s so many different things. It’s like music I heard or like a something I learned when I was practicing piano, or or like you know a video you see on YouTube and somebody singing really crazy, or maybe it was like a YouTube. I like I watched this YouTube animated documentary thing, and like that can inspire. Like life just has to inspire all the things, and like so, it’s so important to live your life and interact with people and talk to human beings and and and try and and and try and observe like the weird, wacky things that happen constantly if you just look a little closer. So, yeah, it’s all those things, all those things that help get the feeling into the songs.
Q) You’re stepping into your own as an artist after growing up in a family that was immersed in the arts. So, how did that environment shape your musical identity, and what made you decide that it was finally time to claim your own sound or your own voice?
A) I think that because I was around it growing up so much, there’s just nostalgia in all of it. There’s nostalgia in like you know going to the movie set and seeing my dad work and like nostalgia and and and little things like watching him do his thing just like around the house and like being creative with with people you know when he was writing scripts and stuff and also then like going to see my grandpa play live, you know, with my family, and then him playing with me up at like like at a wedding, like we played together, and I sang something. Like it’s just all those moments that we got to share growing up. That is just so ingrained in my personality and like who I am as a human being. All it just feeds into everything. I think also like entertainment. There’s a lot of parallels between all of it. I think it’s just the best entertainers are the ones who are able to like express themselves and be vulnerable in front of human beings and like be so free, but then also like be so personal about things, but then also not care. Like, all of that is just what I learned growing up, and I think that that’s what I try and apply today, and I continue to try and improve at that, and I will get better at it, and and I’m still practicing it, but those things are so important, and that got me to be, hey, I’m gonna do this. Like this is just what I grew up with. This is what I’m gonna do, and this is who I am.
Q) “Asleep Talking” earned song of the month on SiriusXM’s “The Heat’s Future Fire. So how did that recognition change things for you as an emergent artist?
A) Yeah, those moments are cool. I, for me, it’s just another indicator to like keep going and and like let’s keep building on that. It’s super awesome and it’s super cool to get recognized. But it just motivates me to chase like the in-person stuff as well, like that, and and and just knowing that it’s having an impact on real human beings, and that and that I can make change. That’s just like a marker of that. And like, let’s just keep going. Let’s keep doing that. How many more people can we have in this big community of people who like to listen to funky music? Like that’s what it makes me think about, and it’s sick.
Q) What’s next after your EP release? Do you have any plans for a fuller album or for touring or just any other projects?
A) Yeah, I don’t know like when these things will happen necessarily, but definitely like plan to go out and have and have a run and like we’re definitely planning on doing an album. Like 100% we’re gonna do all those things. I don’t know when though, but it’s happening. I promise.
Press Conference