A few months ago, students might remember seeing the viral videos of a lively frat party. Chances are, this isn’t the first time you’ve this video of Will Ferrell DJing at Sigma Alpha Mu during the peak of football season. But you may have caught his son, Magnus Ferrell, a student and rising singer-songwriter helping his dad set up next to him. He’s no stranger transforming a space for music, as he hopes to draw in a crowd with his own art.
@rollingstone dad goals. will ferrell showed up to dj his son’s fraternity tailgate party at #usc this weekend 🎧 (video cred: @Lupitatwins) #willferrell #sigmaalphamu #universityofsoutherncalifornia #willferrelledit
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“In terms of performing, I just try to have a blast because if you look like you’re having a blast, then the audience is going to be like, ‘Wait, I feel like I need to be having fun too,’” said Magnus Ferrell.
While Ferrell is currently a sophomore at USC studying acting, he has focused on launching his music career. He already has four songs under his belt, with his newest release, “Missed Your Chance” having hit streaming platforms on January 16. But how did it all start?
“I started with music when I was like five years old and my mom got me into piano and that was the beginning of it,” said Ferrell. “As I got older, I got into jazz when I was 13 and that’s also when I started writing music. It wasn’t necessarily very good, but that’s when I started just doing it for fun.”
He said that it was during the pandemic when his interest in making music began to take off. His latest piece is an upbeat song about a topic Ferrell finds relatable, and somewhat sad.
“You like someone, and you think that person could be someone you really like, but then they start being weird and playing games, and then they miss their opportunity,” said Ferrell. “When they try to talk to you after disappearing, you’re like ‘No, I’m good, I’m just going to move on.’”
Like much of his other music, Ferrell writes to the experiences of himself and those around him, and the sounds are developed from the most spontaneous moments.
“It’s normally all real-world events happening in my life and my friends’ lives,” said Ferrell. “It can be very informal, where like a song that I’m putting out later, we actually started writing it while I was doing the dishes and [producer Gabe Yaron] was playing the guitar and I came in, and I had this melody in my head, and I was just singing it as I was doing the dishes. Then we just sat out on our balcony, continuing writing the song, and it took us like an hour.”
Ferrell comes from a family of artists. Of course, his father, the actor, but even his grandfather, Roy Lee Ferrell, was a saxophonist who played with the Righteous Brothers.
At the moment, Ferrell feels that his identity is undeniably tied to his lineage, but how does he hope to become more than just the “son of Will Ferrell?”
“It’s just going to take time, and you think about like Jaden Smith, he was Will Smith’s son until he was Jaden Smith because he was making music,” said Magnus Ferrell. “Eventually, you hope that it’s like ‘Oh, that’s Magnus, Magnus Ferrell, isn’t his dad that actor from a while ago?’ We’re not there yet, obviously, but you hope to be there at some point, and I’ve accepted that’s going to be the way it is. It’s a blessing and a curse because it brings a little bit of attention, but then the music has to be good.”
Even so, Ferrell says that his family is supportive of his artistic endeavors, and recalls a piece of advice his father gave him.
“He told me to be wary about the fact that when it comes to music, when it comes to acting, when it comes to any of the performance arts, a lot of times that you can be as talented as the best, but a lot of it comes to luck,” said Ferrell.
And beyond mere chance, Ferrell feels that in a world that is more in tune with listening to and creating music than ever before, he needs to find a way to break the mold.
“I think the hardest part is setting yourself apart from everyone because everyone has access now, and making content, making sure it’s quality content that’s specific to you, but also different enough but not too different, you have to find this perfect balance,” said Ferrell.
He alludes to jazz performers Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, and Miles Davis as influences on his stylistic voice, and even says that he is studying current artists like Charlie Puth as a part of crafting his musical identity.
Part of that is also straddling the line between his acting and music, and while a combination of the two is still down the line, he hopes to bring his best into both types of performances.
“I think that movies and acting and music have a lot in common, and I think right now the focus is really just to go hard on music, and then if I can kind of carve a path and really find success there, I think you can bunny hop into acting, but obviously you still have to be a good actor,” said Ferrell.
In the meantime, Ferrell’s plans for 2024 is to “put out the most music I’ve ever put out.”
“Missed Your Chance” is available to stream on audio platforms and a music video is out now on YouTube.