Echo Magic, whose other members include Scott Hirsch (Hiss Golden Messenger), Daniel Wright (Radio Skies), and Brendan Willing James, offer a holistic, collaborative approach for artists looking to bring creative vision to life through sound. Their process requires a certain vulnerability of its participants; a sort of “hold on to your Truth” methodology, so prevalent in the community they’ve chosen to work and raise their families. The producers — all of whom are accomplished artists themselves — hold space for playful experimentation balanced with empathic insight, breaking for walks in Matilija Canyon and a home-cooked meal, before entering back into the creative feedback loop. What eventually emerges in their echo chamber is the “emotional resonance” of a piece — what the group believes to be the essence of any great work of art. Everything else is informed by and takes shape around that frequency. “Our vision is to make a few really special records every year, that have some long lasting imprint … a real contribution to the music world we all get so much from,” says Daniel Wright.
The collective’s debut is coming Spring 2020 from artist Brendan Willing James, whose seedling demos were transformed via Echo Magic into a vibrant aural tapestry of cuttingly honest poetry, addictive melody, and exploratory instrumentals by the EM family band, featuring their extended musical family (in this case Wilco’s Mikael Jorgensen, Jesse Siebenberg, and horns from Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s Karl Hunter and Andy Rowley). The experience was so rewarding for all involved that James was invited in as a permanent fixture of the EM team, offering his clients the benefit of both his musical guidance and design firm, assisting in content creation, album art and video production to support the release of Echo Magic-made records into the great wide open. As they find their home in music making, Ojai looks more and more welcoming. A hearty musical soup spanning genre, gender and generation percolates on medium heat, bubbling up in “listening rooms” like Ojai Arts Exchange and Greater Goods. These spaces offer an active listening experience — one in which storytelling and sound, rather than cocktails, are front and center. Echo Magic curates a handful of these con-
ck to the Garden STORY BY DARON HOPE • PHOTO ON LEFT CREDITED TO ECHO MAGIC GROUP PHOTO BY MARC ALT certs, blending together evenings of incredible local talent with visiting Echo Magicians, busy by day in their studios. Vaughn Montgomery, the director of Greater Goods (its own warm and funky community art space, coined “Ojai’s living room”) shares this about the current music scene: “Some of what pleases me most in regard to concerts at Greater Goods is the pairing of local artists with touring ones and watching new connections being made, or old connections being strengthened. The guys who make up Echo Magic very much live up to their name. They’ve brought amazing artists like Kelly McFarling, Mia Dyson, and Greg Loiacono to the space, often playing both lead and
supporting roles on the same night. They also do a great job of rallying friends to come out, which is a big help both to Greater Goods and for the out-of-town (artists).” He says, “I hope that support for these kinds of places will continue to grow. At a time when overwhelming heaps of information and potential doom are regularly being broadcast, it seems important to have analog spaces where we can connect with neighbors and share in the gift of live music. Though I’m consistently amazed with the variety of high-quality offerings going on around town, I also think there’s much in the way of untapped potential.” The Echo Magic crew is tapping into its gifts and tuning out the static of an outdated paradigm that exploits artists and requires that great musicians starve. As the fruits of artists’ deep-diving, gut-wrenching, soul-searching work comes to harvest, Echo Magic is there, preserving the joy on vinyl. Says Daniel, “We’re finding a life that we all want, that we all came here for.”
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