A Lust For The Extraterrestrial: Magdalena Bay Interviewed

I think you will remember the first time you hear Magdalena Bay’s ‘Imaginal Disk’. Listening to it and soaking in its visuals is like getting stoned in a synth-infused fairytale. Or like being in a Wes Anderson-directed Wizard of Oz with AI themes. 

The duo—singer-songwriter Mica Tenenbaum and producer Matthew Lewin—presents one of the most distinctive artistic visions in recent memory. Rather than just releasing music and touring, they’ve crafted an ambitious concept album that immerses listeners in a fully realised extraterrestrial world. 

Drawing inspiration from insects that undergo a metamorphosis, their name reflects the transformative nature of their creativity. Born from months of grafting, including character building, costume design, and extensive mood boards that fuelled their artistic direction.

‘Imaginal Disk’ follows Mica’s character, True Blue, who is abducted by aliens and then implanted with a disk in her forehead. This narrative is enriched with vibrant characters and textures, resulting in one of the year’s standout synth-pop albums. 

Joining CLASH for a zoom (with their puppy in tow), the duo opened up about painting walls, bugs and the future of AI in music. 

—

—

Jake Fitzpatrick: Hey guys, how are you going? 

Both: Hey, nice to meet you. 

JF: Where are you guys calling from? 

Mica Tenenbaum: LA. We’re here with our dog. We’ve had him for eight months. 

JF: Nothing better than cuddling up in bed with a furry animal. How are things in LA? 

Matthew Lewin: It’s really cloudy here actually. 

JF: Where in LA? 

ML: We’re in Silverlake. 

JF: Oh lovely. So, we’re here to talk about your new record Imaginal Disk. I was at the grocery store last night and listening to it. I felt like I was in a magical dream world in the store. Have you listened to it in a grocery store? 

Both: [laughs] No. 

ML: I want to hear it in the grocery store speakers. You know how they play music in there so quietly. 

JF: It was very floaty and vibey. So why is it called Imaginal Disk? 

ML: Well, there’s an imaginal disk spelt with a c which is a thing with bugs. But with a K it makes it into a real disk.

JF: What is an imaginal disc when it comes to bugs then? 

MT: We were reading about the metamorphosis of a bug purely out of interest. The disc is where the caterpillar goes into a cocoon and becomes completely liquefied. It’s trippy because they retain memories from before. When it’s liquid it has the cells that were always in it during its caterpillar days. 

ML: It has the programming for rebuilding itself. 

MT: Like this caterpillar arm will become with butterfly leg. We thought it was cool. 

JF: Really cool. Was it a good metaphor for you two as a duo too? 

ML: Maybe. I think it’s more about personal growth and identity. What it means to be you as yourself. Are you the same you were ten years ago. Ideas of what makes you changes over time. 

MT: It’s another question about that among the many the album asks. 

—

—

JF: The cover art I found quite perplexing. How did you develop that? 

MT: It stemmed from talking about an actual disk. As we developed the album themes, it was about self and introspective questions. 

JF: Who is the artist? It’s beautiful. 

MT: Maria Shatalova. Yeah, we worked with her about developing the art. We knew we wanted a disk into the head and then a demon hand coming from above. Almost like a spiritual iconography thing going on. 

JF: Talk to me about developing the album itself. Was it a long, arduous process or did it all happen quite quickly? 

ML: The sound presented itself as we were writing it. But the process takes a while. You make a demo production as you write. Then over time you flush out the production. You add details until the very end. Even when mixing it, I recorded extra little bits like a xylophone. It takes a while. 

MT: It takes years. 

ML: Start to finish two years. 

JF: So, in terms of visuals, where’s the inspiration: 

MT: Movies, books, Pinterest. 

JF: Does Pinterest help? 

MT: I would see a cool movie on Pinterest and then we’d watch the movie. We watched this film called Donkey Skin. I saw a clip of it on TikTok. You’re just very open to inspiration. We saw it [Donkey Skin] and it has a technicolour feel to it. 

JF: I haven’t seen it. What’s ‘Donkey Skin’ about? 

MT: It’s actually a fucked story. This king wanted to marry his daughter because she’s the most beautiful princess in the land. It’s French and very weird. She has a fairy mother who says to her ‘Don’t do that’. So, it’s about helping her not to do that. It has crazy sets. 

JF: I’m sold. I’ll watch. So how do you compare the process of this to your last album? [Mercurial World]. 

MT: We collected ideas and references whilst sketching the album. We just dumped it into one place. Our goal was to create specific characters. We wanted actual characters. Mercurial world’s visual was looser.

JF: Where did the idea come to develop the story? I’ve seen discourse calling it a concept album. 

ML: We had the album, and it had a flow which suggested a story. With the video’s we like to impose a separate but related narrative over the music. You could enjoy the album without knowing there’s a narrative. 

JF: I’m really curious about the themes too. One of the things you talk about is technology. It’s impact. Have you been frightened about technology? I mean, did you see the Elon Musk robots? 

MT: I saw that! 

ML: I didn’t. 

MT: There’s like a robot now that can make you a drink. 

ML: I’m not scared. I’m more interested in it. How humans interact with it, how it relates to ideas of humanity. The theme’s we talk about on the album. It’s not a warning or anything proscriptive. It’s an exploration of those ideas. 

MT: In ‘Love Is Everywhere’, I was thinking humans dream up things. Like god’s and heroes. Those figures represent us, because we’re human. Now we’re creating these things which aren’t human that don’t represent us. But they’re also like AI and God-like. 

—

—

JF: I think I’ve seen too much Black Mirror! I’m still interested in AI though. What do you think of AI in music?  

ML: It makes you think about music and how it is, in its purest form, a human way of expressing your humanity. 

MT: A computer can make things that sound good too. 

ML: I’m not sure it can ever replace the experience. People who like art, like it for the fact it’s a product of a human being who has something they want to express. I think it’s part of the human experience and it’s never going to be replaceable. 

MT: It might be a replacement for telephone hold music or in the background of an advertisement. 

JF: I don’t think, personally, I would connect with music written by a robot. The reason we enjoy it, is because it’s relatable but if you haven’t felt those things. It’s that thing of, ‘this person has been through something I’ve been through, and they’ve been able to communicate it in a way I could not’. That’s why I like music. 

MT: Humans are drawn to humans. Or a specific experience. 

ML: In ten years, we might look back to this conversation and think we’re off. 

JF: Going forward, you guys just finished touring. How did it go? 

Both: It was awesome. 

JF: Then Europe and Australia? 

MT: Yep. Europe coming up, then Australia in March.

JF: Thanks guys. Much planned for the rest of the day? 

MT: Painting walls. 

JF: Oh really? What colour? 

MT: [Laughs] Vibrant accents. 

JF: [Laughs]. I’ll leave you to it. 

—

—

‘Imaginal Disk’ is out now.

Words: Jake Fitzpatrick
Photo Credit: Lissyelle Laricchia

—