Magnapop - huH Magazine

Magna Come Loudly
June 1996

by Grant Alden

Precious little that might be called regional culture survives today in these United States. Chalk it up to the mauling ma and pop stores have taken at the hands of Corporate America, to a featureless and monolithic television culture, and to our own rootless meanderings across the landscape. And never mind the music industry's periodic fascination with "scenes", that's commerce, not culture.

Still, traces and traditions remain, warm shadows of regional rememberance, not the least of which is a curiously Southern penchant for language. Or maybe it's a rural legacy, one of the joys of living a slower-paced lifestyle. Time to visit, an expanse of imagination across which a long story may be told at a leisurely pace. Either way, too many words have brewed in the pens of Southern writers and songwriters for it to be mere coincidence. Not that Magnapop's Linda Hopper wants or needs to be compared to John Kennedy Toole, James Baldwin, or William Faulkner. It's just that she likes words (and, anyhow, she spent the first nine years of her life in New Jersey, not Georgia.)

"I've been accused before of being too wordy or too vague," Hopper chuckles. "I'm not into videos. I like the idea of being compelling enough with what you say so that it translates, so that people get it in their own mind. The Dylans of this world can write a story and sing it, and it says something. Okay, great. But that's not me, or what I do, or what I'm necessarily attracted to."

This is from a woman who smiles as easily as she writes the lilting lines "Save your tears for the injured man because he drinks too much and you don't need him," while her friend and co-conspirator Ruthie Morris chimes in with harmonies and ringing guitars.

"I've had a hard time when people say, "What's this song about?'" Hopper admits. "But as time goes on I know, I could tell you what they're about. Everything I write is from myself, from me, from my point of view. And I try to keep personal about it, so other people can relate."

Other people have related throughout Magnapop's six-year odyssey, just not so many that it's forced any lifestyle changes on the Athens/Atlanta quartet. They've had three producers, for example: Michael Stipe, Bob Mould, and- for their latest, Rubbing doesn't Help- the venerable Geza X (The Germs and The Dead Kennedys, remember?). They've also had better luck attracting a European following, which explains the import-only release this past January of their Fire All Your Guns At Once EP.

In the end, Magnapop's famous friends almost became an obstacle. "We've never been anyone's darling," Hopper says, quite calmly. "You would think that working with Bob Mould..no, no, it was just a question we always had to answer. Of course he's a nice guy. It just didn't elevate us in any way."

Geza, at least, is a full-time producer; and Magnapop temporarily relocated to Los Angeles to work with Mr. X. "It completely expediated this record to be out here," Hopper says, "because we did it in Geza's studio, at his house, so there wasn't that 'Hey, we're paying X amount of money every day to be here, we gotta go till 3:00'. If it wasn't happening, he lives like five minutes from where we were staying..."

"He shares a house with Josie Cotton," adds Shannon Mulvaney, the mostly quiet bass player. "You remember Josie Cotton? It was cool. We got to see Josie when we had coffee in the morning."

"This is our first time working with a producer that was more of a producer, and less of a performer," Hopper says.

"Yeah," Mulvaney picks up the thread, "And you can tell on the record, too. It's not a slight against Michael Stipe or Bob Mould, either, it's just the first time we haven't been under somebody's protective wing."

"I fought so much with Geza," Hopper says, visibly relishing the memory. " I mean, I love him, but we fought constantly. He, like alot of people, has a concept:'Oh, woman vocals. We're going to double it here, triple it there,' and I just couldn't live with that, because I had been doing it long enough where I felt like 'No, I know how I want this to sound.'"

This is not to suggest that Hopper is a tyrant, only that Magnapop would be happy if their gender(s) ceased to be an issue. Even so, Hopper also recognizes it as a unique strength. "Shannon is completely one of the coolest people in the world," she says while her band mate blanches. "To be in a band that is of mixed genders is completely different than being in a band that's all guys. And probably different from being in a band that's all girls."

Interpersonal issues are of particular importance in a band that only just began attaching a trailer to the rear end of their van, while opening for Sugar. Magnapop have been at this for six years, and they are a close bunch. Which makes the departure of drummer David McNair a particularily painful issue. "We had a hard time recording (the last album) Hot Boxing, because our drummer had alot of things in the way," Hopper says. "And that was really frustrating. And then the live shows had a harder time lifting up and becoming a show. It was more like, 'Uh, only three more to go...can we make it?'"

"And when you start counting into your set list for how many more there is to go," Mulvaney adds, "something's wrong."

"Nobody wants to hurt anyone, or to cut them out," Hopper says quietly, "but it was just like four adults getting a divorce, and their child is the band." Rubbing Doesn't Help was recorded with Josh Friese at the skins. Mark Posgay has since taken the full-time job, after a not unexpectedly difficult search ("You're talking about my roommate for the next year, " Mulvaney notes.). "One British guy called," Hopper chuckles. "You're not going to have a kit (at the audition)? Well, I would need three roadies to load mine in and out."

"That was probably his killer line to hook you," Mulvaney laughs.

"Yeah," Hopper says. "I want to pay for his roadies really bad. In the end I think we got a really cool person. Very nice, completely up-front, and not a fashion victim."

"Has a wife, is a mellow guy," Mulvaney continues. "And he plays drums well, to boot."

And that, of course, is the point of the music. "In L.A., a band gets together and if they are not signed within a year, it's over," Hopper says, shaking her head. "The first year for us, we were putting out our own seven-inch. And I think that helps develop your head and your art, being able to take the time to learn how to really express yourself."

"I think I might even have some weird guilt feelings if the first record had sold two million and from there on it was downhill, like a lot of bands I've seen," Mulvaney says. "Six years down the road, and the time and the effort to let it develop naturally...it sure does make you appreciate where you are now."