Zoe Carter – “Magic Pill”
Americana Highways is hosting this video premiere of Zoe Carter’s song “Magic Pill” from her forthcoming album Before the Machine slated for release in June. The album was produced by Jeffrey Wood; recorded and mixed by Alberto Hernandez; edited by Alberto Hernandez and Jeffrey Wood; and
recorded at Opus Studio and Alberto Hernandez Audio, in Berkeley California. It was mastered by Ken Lee.
“Magic Pill” is Zoe FitzGerald Carter on vocals and acoustic guitar; Vicki Randle on background vocals; Dawn Richardson on drums; Paul Olguin on bass; Michael Papenburg on electric guitar; and Lila Sklar on violin.
The video was created and edited by Antje Duvekot with additional photographs by Peter Cunningham. This video captures, visually, the psychedelic underground theme of obsessive attractions expressed in the song. If you’ve ever been absolutely addicted to a person or something else, as there are metaphors afoot, this song will bring it all back – the thrill, the pain, the feeling of being wild. Zoe is onto something with this one. We applaud the new direction.
”Magic Pill is the one rocker on my new album, Before the Machine, and because I am more of an “indie folk” songwriter, it was super fun for me to write and record it. The song describes the thrill — and the pain — of obsessive love, but it could be about any kind of obsession or addiction, whether to a person, a substance or an activity. You’re desperate to be free of it but at the same time you just want more!
I was incredibly fortunate to have the fabulous singer, Vicki Randle, on backup vocals. Vicki has sung with Mavis Staples and has her own band, Skip the Needle, and was such a pleasure to work with. She has this soaring, powerful voice that gave the track an almost psychedelic vibe, especially at the very end. It reminded me of the vocals on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.
The video was made by Antje Duvekot, a wonderful singer/songwriter from Massachusetts. I met Antje when I opened for her at the Listening Booth in Rehoboth Beach last fall and was excited to discover she made videos “on the side.” After talking about what kind of vibe felt right for this song, we decided to go for a downtown New York City feel — a little bit CBGB’s, a little bit film noir. The city definitely had a more gritty, menacing atmosphere back in the late 80s when I lived there and, in keeping with the psychedelic, “magic pill” theme, the images she created have an off-kilter, dreamlike quality. There are also some very cool iridescent green “magic pills” that I am especially fond of! In addition to the video sequences, Antje interspersed photographs taken by a friend of mine, Peter Cunningham, a photographer who covered the music scene in NYC during that same era. I loved watching the video evolve and seeing how the song took on a visual identity. – Zoe Fitzgerald Carter
Find more details and the music here: http://zoecartermusic.com
Enjoy our previous coverage here: Interview: Zoe FitzGerald Carter Seeks “Things You Cannot See But Know Are There” with Solo Debut ‘Waterlines’
