Jamband musicians are like theater performers. You had to be there. That’s the magic. But after the 2023 The Very Moon: A Steampunk Musical shows in Philadelphia, Aron Magner wasn’t ready to move on.
“We created this world and wrote all these new songs that I wanted to memorialize. I wasn’t ready to just move on,” said Magner, keyboardist of The Disco Biscuits.
After teaming up with Biscuits bandmate Jon “Barber” Gutwillig & author and longtime New Yorker journalist Nicholas Schmidle in 2023 to put on the highly regarded The Very Moon: A Steampunk Musical workshop shows, Magner pushed the team into the studio. “It wasn’t just that these songs were fun to write.”, the keyboardist explains. “They filled in this imaginary universe we’d been living in, and performing, for the past twenty five years. All of the new songs worked so well with the old ones, but we’ve kept playing the old ones with the Biscuits. And I just wasn’t ready to let that go.”
The end result is a stunning four-song EP that perfectly captures the essence and drama of this theatrical adaptation of Gutwillig’s iconic Hot Air Balloon rock opera.
“Imagine Me”, a Queen-inspired dramatic rocker with lyrics and music composed by the adept trio of Schmidle, Gutwillig and Magner, picks up in the middle of The Very Moon’s first act. The story’s hero Corrinado arrives at (primary antagonist) Manilla’s palace, only to find his long lost love, and Manilla’s captive wife, Leora, imprisoned in her own quarters. “It’s a story about Leora describing her plight. How she’s lost the ability to dream,” Magner explains. “Barber was cultivating these ideas 25 years ago.”
Schmidle says, “This is a show centered around these timeless ideas about the power of art and its ability to change the world. And the threat art poses to those who want to control the world. I’m proud to be putting this out into the world.”
A goosebump-inducing vocal performance from Philadelphia-based actor Hanna Gaffney, whose role as Leora during the 2023 workshops was equally striking, leads the charge, along with musical accompaniment from Jason Fraticelli (bass) and Marlon B Lewis (drums), in addition to Gutwillig (guitar) and Magner (piano).
“Imagine Me” also features a visually stunning music video produced by Todd Kushnir based on a concept by Schmidle. “I knew we had all this great video footage, but I wanted to bring the audience into Leora’s head. So I brought some conceptual ideas to Kush, along with a bunch of still images that he skillfully animated,” the author explains. “Like the Wizard of Oz-esque black-and-white-to-technicolor transformation during the fourth verse. There’s a glimmer of hope in her voice as she sings that fourth verse. She knows Corrinado is in the next room, and she’s suddenly alive to new possibilities.”
While the previous three tracks from the EP, “Falling”, “Eulogy”, and “Take Me With You” have all graced the stage at a Disco Biscuits show, “Imagine Me” feels fated for a different path. “It’s probably the least likely one to be played by the Biscuits but in some ways that’s what made it so much fun”, states Magner. “That’s what makes it such fun.”
Glide is proud to premiere the fourth and final track from The Very Moon: A Steampunk Musical EP, “Imagine Me”, which will be released this Friday (9/26) at 9am EST.
Photo credits Andrew Hutchins
2 Responses
“Take Me With You” has all graced the stage at a Disco Biscuits show?!? U might want to fact check that one
Best band in the land doing a cool at project that I’m excited to see because I have not had the chance yet