September, 2017 RollingStoneAus.com | Rolling Stone | 43
SOUNDS LIKE: A boot-stomping,
banjo-toting collective delivering
boho-chic pop hooks somewhere
between the Avett Brothers and
the Chemical Brothers
FOR FANS OF: Mumford & Sons,
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic
Zeros, Imagine Dragons
WHY YOU SHOULD PAY AT-
TENTION: The Los Angeles trio
recently performed single “Set
on Fire” live on America’s Today
show, and the song spent multiple
weeks in the Top 40 of the Bill-
board Alternative Songs charts.
Prior to founding Magic Giant,
frontman Austin Bisnow notched
credits writing for David Guetta,
Steve Aoki and Nickelodeon boy
band Big Time Rush. His ear for
creating upbeat infectiousness and
four-on-the-fl oor rhythms is still
present, but now a wealth of folk
instrumentation sets the tone.
Bisnow, banjo player Zambricki Li,
and guitarist/cellist Brian “Zang”
Zaghi’s mirthful debut full-length
In the Wind features fi eld recor-
dings captured by their solar-
-powered mobile recording studio.
Co-produced with Ben Allen (Walk
the Moon, Animal Collective), the
album binds together the three
collaborators’ disparate tastes and
emotions. So far, Magic Giant’s
touring has teamed them with the
Revivalists, Mike Posner and Eric
Hutchinson, and festival appea-
rances include Electric Forest and
Wanderlust. “We have all these
diff erent backgrounds and we butt
heads at every moment of diver-
sion,” says Zaghi. “There’s three of
us, so there’s never a tie.”
THEY SAY: “The most common
thing we do is play in front of a
ton of people, but [performing on
Today] was in front of no people- except [the hosts] and a crew
of people behind cameras,” Zaghi
says. “With no people to bounce
energy off of, we found it within
each other. They’re either really
good at faking how much they
loved us, or they really loved the
performance. It all went over so
smoothly. We were like, ‘Wow, this
is what paradise feels like.’”
HEAR FOR YOURSELF: The pro-
pulsive, folk-fl avoured “Set on Fire”
is perfect music festival fare.
(^) REED FISCHER
Magic
Giant