Almost one year after the release of the four track EP “Psalms for Sinners” Jon Magnusson releases a new EP.
Also this time an eclectic mix boiled down to four original songs.
Since last time Jon Magnusson has also released various remixes and the quite unexpected collaboration “Pensamentos Relevantes” with the Brazilian rapper Brunosmoky as well as made himself a name in the independent music scene.
“Always a Rebel” is produced by Jon Magnusson himself together with Ruben Engzell from Studio Ljudriket.
Ruben has also recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered the EP and contributed with some of the fine instrumentation, even though the lion part are played by Jon Magnusson himself.
Behind the drums you can find Jesper Jonsson, the man behind the amazing project The Courage.
With a drum intro worthy off “Spin Doctors” The EP starts off with “Rely on me”.
This guitar driven and upbeat indie rock tune doesn’t hide its influences from the late 70’s punk scene, despite the fact that it was originally written as an acoustic folk song as a birthday present to the artist’s wife.
The muted guitar in the verses opens up and explodes in the chorus together with goodies like a Hammond Organ and football stand choirs. Together with the declaration of love that makes up the lyrics this song is for sure going to put a smile on the listeners face.
As somewhat of a contrast, in the second song “I’m not the only one” the listener gets hit with a finger picked jazz guitar accompanied by old school synth arpeggios. As if that wasn’t jazzy enough the second bar of the intro offers a crazy 5/4 beat to keep the listener (and the drummer) alert.
The arrangement then leans towards a quite classic Swedish indie pop sound but keeps it’s originality throughout the whole song and gets flavored with some moog-synths, organ and choirs worthy of a Catholic cathedral. The religiousness ends with the choirs and instead the bittersweet lyrics takes the listener inside the mind of a young man gone astray, fighting his demons but lucky enough to have someone fighting together with him side by side.
In the epic “Set me on Fire” the sound gets darker and heavier and the lyrics almost blasphemous. Written as a defiance against the former mentioned inner demons as well as the idea that there is an inherent meaning to life or an objective truth that’s able to find via religion or any other ideology. Instead it encourages the listener to challenge given norms, think for itself and create meaningfulness to a life that otherwise can feel quite empty.
With the first verse and chorus being quite sparsely arranged the wall of sound builds up throughout the song and adds up to a perfectly crafted patchwork where the vocals and four electrical guitars sits nicely side by side with choirs, a Juno-synth and even a distorted Glockenspiel. If someone’s able to knit such craziness together it’s the ingenious Ruben and the end result speaks for itself. If this song doesn’t leave the listener in flames, nothing will.
When done burning, the last tune and also the EP’s title track “Always a rebel”, soothes any possible parching that might have been caused by the previous song. An acoustic guitar every now and then reinforced by a smooth, almost dreamy, delayed electronic guitar and a soaring organ constitutes the foundation of this shimmering sound image. And on top there’s the tale of the hibernated rebel that, no matter the ramifications, keeps his flag flying high and swims against the current.
Equally inspired by real life heroes of the artist and an idealized image of his younger self this story gives a solid ending to this EP that skids between both genres and emotional states.
This EP shows the width of Jon Magnusson musical influences and still it creates a whole of strong melodies, authenticity and a positive outlook on life blended with strong emotions and subjects like mental health, affection and alienation. That combined with the creative impact from co-producer and engineer Ruben Engzell makes this the best work of Jon Magnusson as to this date.
Jon Magnusson’s music has been featured on various radio stations and shows all over the world like Northern Quarter Radio, Riviera FM and Channel One in the UK. Banks Radio and Valley FM in Australia. Strawberry Tounge, Big Blend Radio, The Appetizer Radio Show in the US and also in South African public and private radio as well as in Swedish local radio.
Some of the blogs who has written about Jon Magnusson’s music are Stereo Stickman, For the Love of Bands, Velvety Blog and Music Talks.
Jon Magnusson is a songwriter, musician and producer from Stockholm, the picturesque capital of Sweden. The music he writes and plays is often plain folk with a touch of rock and punk influences and an occasional jazzy beat thrown in to keep listeners on their toes. Most of all, it’s his thoughts and feelings put to lyrics and chords.
He does all his promotion himself with the strategy of building relationships with people and thanks to his genuine interest in people he always looking to make new friends in the independent music scene.
Aside from being an independent artist himself, Jon Magnusson is also a big advocate for the independent music scene and created the community the #MonsterThread in 2017 that he now runs together with the Luxembourgian producer and multitasker Toby Davis.
Thanks to his constant desire to try new things and love of networking he has accomplished more than what could be expected in the year he has been actively a part of the music scene.
With such a strong EP as “Always a rebel” in his sleeve and an always growing and dedicated fan base, who knows where he stands on year from now.
Links:
WEBSITE: http://www.jonmagnusson.se
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/jon.magnusson3
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/jonmagnussonof
SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/beljon86
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/jonmagnussonof