It’s complex and beautiful, dreamy synth and sample music; sequencing that runs on choppy half beats, which bustle and flow through a heady brew of R&B via instrumental wash. It’s no surprise that Slow Magic’s sound is so in demand that its maker barely sleeps. When we speak, he’s just stepped off a plane from a European tour – his third this year. “I have gotten very, very good at sleeping on airplanes,” he laughs softly, “but nothing beats getting home and really resting. I think I probably slept for more than 14 hours last night, and that’s great because I’ve got a lot of ideas and half-started songs that I needed to work on… There’s something very solid and reassuring about getting home, and seeing all my equipment ready to go.”
Those half-started songs will form the basis of a soon-to-be-released second album, due in early 2013. His debut album, Triangles Will Never Die, was released earlier this year via LebensStrasse Records (Love Echo, Violetness) and is only available online – all the physical copies of the vinyl and CD have been snaffled up by keen listeners the world over. It’s a glorious mélange of drugged-out synths and wavey vocals that beg at the edge of the ear.
“You like the vocals?” the artist asks, sounding slightly surprised. “I always worry about it, because often they’ll be done a capella… but I do think that sometimes limitations can push you that little bit more.
“Because I’m touring so much right now, I’m just embracing all of those limitations,” he continues. “I start most of my songs on the road, do a lot of remixing, and there’s even these iPhone apps that I’ve been using which make for more of a fun challenge. It’s actually a lot of fun to create remixes, because there’s already something solid there for me to work with on my laptop. Remixing on a pair of headphones in an airport is less than ideal, but I do get to visit some of the same cities more than once, and then I can meet up with people I’ve met before and see what ideas they have,” he says. “It seems like every time I tour, the quality of the people I meet and experiences I have just increases.”
BY BENJAMIN COOPER
