16: Jeni Magaña of Magana on the Tension, Release, and Resolution of Making Music

Had Jeni Magaña on recently, and her band is Magana. She’s a multi-instrumentalist and producer who is always creating and releasing art into the world. Her EP Bad News came out earlier this year. She also plays bass in Mitski and has another band called Pen, Pin. I think that if the world shut down again, her innate desire to create would probably produce so many albums within a year, as much of her life is spent on tour, and the time isn’t always there.

Magana was kind enough to share notes connected to the music she’s put out, and we get into them. I’ll attach a link so you can see said notes. I decided it’d be fun to incorporate artists' notes on their creations into the show because one, the name of the show, and two, to see some of their thought process of how they formulate their creations. Magana and I get into a lot, from Doing Art for yourself to being a working musician.

Ideas of tension, release, and resolution came up a couple of times in making music, so I’m attaching a link to “Adagio for Strings” by Samuel Barber because Magana mentioned that piece, and it’s really quite powerful, and as she notes, illuminates these ideas clearly.

Episode Spare Notes:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hmPkbfMjyVYdMpt48Vq0ppy8MsmWRsvbcDuAErfPKAU/edit?tab=t.0

Episode Track Listing:

Snippets: 1. Fantasie Impromptu (fast) by Chopin. The rest are by Magana: 2. Girl in Chains (Teeth) 3. Lawyers Were Our Friends (Dreams) 4. To My Love 5. Shower Song (Bad News)

Full song: Half to Death (Bad News)

Magana

Website: http://s976828381.onlinehome.us/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maganarama/?hl=en

linktree: https://linktr.ee/maganarama?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAadKGy8cxI2jxORKhFHCS1D2s9PMT6wx5XE0wdNFADlm2H1vvTiaD452Aws0Jg_aem_r0CxzPeFlkcbBGLbQqKfyg

"Adagio for Strings" by Samuel Barber: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izQsgE0L450&ab_channel=MarshallJ.Hendrickson