From performing at USC’s Springfest to releasing an EP, artist Magnus Ferrell has had a busy few weeks to say the least. Previously performing at venues such as The Troubadour and The Greek Theatre, Ferrell will be returning to the stage Wednesday for an EP release show at the Moroccan Lounge. Ferrell’s EP “Hasn’t Even Started” has six tracks including the previously released singles “Life or Death,” “Missed Your Chance” and “Don’t Talk to Me Like That.” Aside from pursuing his full career as an artist, the 19-year-old is also a sophomore at USC studying acting.
Annenberg Media chatted with Ferrell about “Life or Death” and how the single relates to his other works.
Full transcript has been edited for clarity.
Note: This episode was recorded in February before the release of “Life or Death.”
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: My name is Magnus Ferrell. I’m a sophomore at USC, my major is actually acting: BA in theater with an emphasis in acting is the full name. I’m from here, LA. And my role in music, I guess, I’m an artist, I do songwriting and singing stuff. And yeah, I think my goal is, I don’t know, my goal is to just do this as a living and do the music stuff for a living and be able to live off that and only have to do that for the rest of my life. Obviously, a pretty lofty goal, but that’s my goal.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: Yeah, I first started just with music as early as five years old. That’s when I started playing piano and then I got into jazz and songwriting when I was like 13. And then up through high school, I was in a jazz band and that’s where I learned all my theory. And I continue to write music. And now I’m here at USC, continuing to write music, and I’m putting out a lot more stuff. Yeah.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: Yeah, I always mentioned the jazz background, because it just gave me all the tools to be able to write the music and come up with the melodies and just the musical background that I have today. And it’s ‘cause when you learn jazz, you learn all these theory things, all these scales, all this stuff that was pretty trivial and boring. But then once you get it down, you kind of forget it all and then you just kind of hear stuff and play. And to be able to do that is – I’m really lucky that I forced myself to do that and that I had people around me telling me to do that because as a result, I feel like I have an ability now that helps a lot. I think it makes the music I make more interesting because I’m able to take as much or as little as I want from jazz, if that makes sense. And yeah, I’m just really grateful for it.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: During the pandemic, there was not much to do, obviously, and I remember I had just got like this mic and this interface. And for my birthday, my mom had gotten me Logic, which is a producing software basically. And there was one day where I went to my room and I just started messing with stuff and making music that was not very good. But I was in there for what I thought was like two hours, but it ended up being like six or seven hours and I didn’t even notice that the time had gone by that fast. I just kind of sat there and was like, ‘Hmm, if I can really sit there for that long and just do this stuff and let time fly by then I think it’s something that I like.’
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: My musical inspirations, they’ve obviously evolved over time. And I mean, everybody takes musical inspiration – like everything’s always cycling through. When I was in my jazz phase, I guess, I was transcribing stuff, so there was a lot of like Miles Davis and Oscar Peterson and those guys and then that turned into like indie-pop guys or more just indie and alternative in general like Bruno Major. And then most recently has then evolved into noticing intricacies of the music of like Silk Sonic and Bruno Mars and Harry Styles and Ruel. It just evolves over time as I paid attention to different styles I guess.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: I love performing. I think that’s the best part about this whole thing is being able to affect a crowd and change the mood of a room just by your art and how much it affects someone. I don’t know. I think performing, I’ve discovered that I like to be just kind of fun and almost flamboyant a little bit. And so, I’ve taken that and tried to just insert that into, I guess, my brand and how I would want people to see me on stage is what I’m trying to portray on social media, through my music, through whatever people see.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: One of my best memories, I remember, going back to my jazz piano days, I was really frustrated with it at first. And I didn’t like it for a long time because it was hard and, you know, people don’t like when things are hard. And I just remember struggling for such a long time with the theory and all the scales. And then one day it finally like – I just remember this one day where it finally clicked. And I found something that I could really mess around with. I think it was some chord and I just remember I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is cool. I’m gonna continue to roll with this. If I just keep working a little bit harder, I’ll be able to find more discoveries.’ So it was just this one moment, I was like 14 at the piano. That’s kinda it.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: [The] biggest challenge has been just finding your sound and finding something that’s unique. With social media, it’s like, you can basically find anything you want. And to be able to find something that is 1) relatable and 2) different is pretty hard to do. I’ve found that for me, I guess, my most unique and I guess most relatable sound is when I’m making stuff I love to make. And yeah, but it’s been pretty hard to figure that out.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: There’s a lot of music that is old, that I think doesn’t really represent accurately what I’m doing now and what I quite frankly want people to hear and see what I’m doing. So who knows, maybe I re-release them, but I just thought that it wasn’t an accurate representation of the sound that I wanted. And some of those songs were also attempts to try and cater to audiences, which I’ve completely flipped that philosophy now of like, I just make stuff that I like, and you’ll find an audience. Rather than trying to look for – like, trying to make a song for that audience, if that makes sense. So yeah, I’m just putting out stuff that I love to make and that I’m passionate about because if I’m passionate about it, then I have emotion and then it’s a good song in my eyes at least.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: My roommate, Gabe [Yaron], he’s a big producer. And I met him in high school through the jazz band stuff and we started working on stuff just for fun when we were like 15. And that’s developed into making stuff that we just really like and have a good time with. And so yeah, it was just another one of those songs that we made. It’s just about, I don’t know, finding a connection with someone, but then also staying in the moment and not rushing things and still being able to have a good time with that person you like, without it having a label, without it having any pressure. So that’s the gist of the song.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: I guess the whole idea is like, I wish right now in this moment in time, I could speed up the process and make myself feel a certain way, like make myself fall in love. But I can’t do that. I also don’t want to say yeah, I feel so strongly right now and then later find out I don’t and then let that person down if that makes sense. Yeah, just wishing that you could feel more in that moment in time. But that’s just not how people work.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: I was doing the dishes. He was playing the guitar in the other room and he was playing those chords. So that melody of the [mimics the melody], that came in my head as I was doing the dishes and so I stopped doing the dishes. I walked in, I was singing to him, that melody. He kind of looked at me like, ‘Oh wait, this is kind of cool.’ Then we went to the balcony and for an hour, we just got a rough verse, chorus and bridge melody and then a couple days later, we then went into his home studio at his house. Yeah, and then we just cranked it out and finished it there. That was kind of the process.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: Yeah, it’s all it’s always gonna be real-life experiences that I’m having or Gabe’s having or whoever I’m writing with is having, always. I mean it’s fun because it motivates you to, one, have more life experiences. Don’t be afraid to get yourself hurt. Don’t go looking to get yourself hurt, but when stuff happens, stuff happens. And it’s just for me and for a weird group of people, we all find it as an opportunity to write about those emotions. And it’s really like a therapy. And I don’t know, it’s like a great loop where it’s like, okay, go out and experience stuff. Go feel stuff, come back. If you feel strongly about something good, bad, in the middle, go write about it. And then you have a new song. And then repeat the process.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: It’s hard to pull like a specific lyric because I think the whole song for me encapsulates what I was feeling at the moment in time well. I’d say my favorite part is the bridge, which is where I’m just repeating that one line it’s like, ‘Come with me and tell me you want me / We’ll kiss in the backseat…’ And we kept looping that until it just builds. I just really like how it blossoms and it has a bunch of background vocals. And they’re all funky too. They’re weird sounding. It’s a weird-sounding chord when it all comes together. And I think that it’s just very powerful to me at least, and you know, I hope it resonates with other people, obviously.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: Oh my god, that screen. That’s a mistake. Literally a mistake. I thought I did bad. And I scream in the mic and Gabe looks at me like, ‘Okay, we’re keeping that.’ I’m like, ‘No.’ I thought he was joking. And he just kept it. So that’s the scream at the end. And it’s at the end so, you actually have to listen to the whole song to hear it.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: The more recent stuff is gonna have a narrative. From “Drinks on Me,” “Missed Your Chance,” all this stuff is, I don’t know, it’s really just experiencing life while being still young. I mean, I’m only 19. So it’s just a display of being super present, and trying to stay present and talking about feelings in different moments. And not really I don’t know – like taking risks and not really committing to one thing and just experiencing stuff. And I think that’s the best narrative I can give you is just experiencing stuff while still being young, and you have so much life to live and there’s no need to solidify certain decisions right now, if that makes sense.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: I mean, the stuff that I most recently put out like “Missed Your Chance” and then this one coming out is obviously more upbeat and just kind of vibey I guess, more R&B, and that’s gonna continue to be the theme. But, I am intending and I’ve been working on a lot of stuff that’s way more emotional. And I mean, it’s all emotional, but it’s more, I guess, heartfelt, and I have definitely a deeper connection to it because it’s real, raw stuff. Definitely in the future, there’s gonna be more ballad-y stuff.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: Yeah, I just try and make sure I’m just honest with myself and honest with the people around me. I’m lucky to have good friends and people that I’m comfortable with sharing my opinion, nicely, obviously. And I just make sure that all this stuff feels like it’s me. And all this stuff feels like it could be performed onstage and have that same vibe. And it’s all stuff that I’m thinking like, ‘Okay, if I had a favorite artist. Would I wear these types of clothes? Would I like this type of vibe? Would I like the music video if it looked like this?’ And if I do, then I roll with it. And as long as it’s just accurately representing the message I want to send and the artistry I want to show.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: So I’m still kind of staggered, I feel like my music has progressed a little bit more than, I guess, my acting, just journey. And, yeah, it is something I do want to get back into, which is why my major is my major ‘cause I felt like it was way easier to do the music stuff outside of school than to do the music stuff in school and then not do any acting or be running around doing auditions when I probably wasn’t ready yet. But yeah, I think the acting stuff would come off of hopefully the success of the music. Kind of like how Childish Gambino, Donald Glover does, what he does and how he does that. I think that’s really inspiring. And that’s something that is definitely something I’m interested in. So we’ll see where that goes, but yeah.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: My realistic goal for the year is just to put out as much music or the most music that I’ve ever put out. That’s my goal. And so through your intuition, you could probably guess that there’s gonna be more stuff beyond the EP this year. Yeah, and we’re just gonna see where that takes us. It can be very unpredictable, in good ways and bad ways in the music world, so I don’t know. We’ll see. Hopefully, good stuff.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: Oh, I’m gonna sound like such an ass. Sorry, if I swore, but so when I went to Coachella, my senior year of high school. I went with a bunch of buddies. And I just remember being mad because I wasn’t on the stage. And that was a moment of like, ‘Oh, I really want this if I am mad watching incredibly talented artists in the crowd.’ And it was such a privilege to be there. And yeah, that was my moment of like, ‘Man, I want to be on that stage.’ But in general, I want to be doing the biggest shows I can be doing. And you know, I want to be putting out music. I want to be the best. And you know, I just really want it. If that’s gonna happen, we’ll see. But, yeah, that’s my goal. Oh, also, I want to play in the celebrity NBA All-Star game. That’s what I wanna do.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Ferrell: What’s fulfilling about it is that, for me, it’s been there and it’s been there to help me through whenever I’ve been sad, wherever I’ve been feeling pain in whatever sort of way. It’s there and it’s like a therapy. I know, I said that before, but it really is truly a therapy. And that’s the most fulfilling part. Actually, that’s one of the most fulfilling parts. The other most fulfilling part is to be able to affect a room of people. And if you do it in the best way possible, if you’re good at it, the goal is to like if you’re singing a song that made you cry when writing it, you’re gonna make the whole room cry if you’re good at it. If you made a song that made you so happy and made you elated, you’re gonna make the whole room happy. And so that’s the most fulfilling part and I think that’s the ultimate goal is to make people feel what you felt when writing it or making it so yeah.
[Musical Interlude: “Life or Death” by Magnus Ferrell]
Host: You’ve been listening to SC Unplugged, a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the inspirations, creative processes and musical goals of your favorite Trojan artists.