Radiohead is not the only band offering fans a “pay-what-you-like” business model. Local rockers Magna Mater have joined the revolution within the music revolution, bypassing things like labels and traditional retail outlets by offering their tunes via downloads directly to consumers who are left to name their own price.
“When we finished our new EP, Rimor, we wanted to make it downloadable on the Internet for free and the website Bandcamp had the best interface for that,” explains guitarist Eric Trabucco. “People can still get our music for free, but if they want to support us, this allows them to. We think, in all respects, this way of obtaining our music seems to be working out well for us and our fans.”
Magna Mater formed out of the ashes of an earlier project founded by Trabucco and singer and bassist Seth Newton. The duo rounded out their current roster by recruiting drummer and percussionist Brian “Boo-Boo” Marcou and, more recently, singer and multi-instrumentalist Paul Carter.
The hard-rocking quartet is named for the Phrygian earth goddess, whose legend informs their overarching philosophy.
“It alludes to nature and the wild, as [Magna Mater] reigns over such concepts,” Trabucco says. “At the time the band started, we were seeking to cultivate a sound that was liberated of our past musical and artistic dogmas and conventions.”
He adds that nature in its truest form exists without jurisdiction and convention, a quality he and his band mates strive for in their sound.
While the group rarely agrees on musical inspirations, its members coalesce behind an interesting quartet of artists: Deftones, Meshuggah, Radiohead, and ethereal Icelandic collective Sigur R?s.
Newton says Magna Mater has spent the past few months on a break from gigs, getting Carter acclimated with the band’s back catalogue and exploring alternate approaches to its material, including the recent recording of an EP of acoustic versions of otherwise electrified tracks ‘Pyramids’ and ‘sun/son.’
The four-piece is also self-recording newer material it plans to make available online, but encourages folks to see the band live for a completely different experience in the interim.
“In a live setting, the energy is more raw and palpable,” says Trabucco. “We move around quite a bit on stage, and the audience absorbs that. Also, you’re going to hear more improvisation and ambient noise than on our recordings, as well as unrecorded material—more than half of our songs have yet to be recorded.”
For more info, including shows and songs, visit www.facebook.com/magnamater.
