Magdalena Bay and Their Mercurial Coachella: Florida synth-pop duo Magdalena Bay (Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin) filled the Sonora Stage room on the Friday of the first Coachella weekend, and they do it all again this weekend. We caught up with them between sets.

 

How did weekend one go?

Matthew Lewin: Good. Nothing got fucked up. That’s all we can ask for. I thought the crowd were having fun.

Mica Tenenbaum: We had fun afterwards.

ML: In the moment, you never know.

MT: You’re kinda nervous. You don’t know how it’s going. But we heard that people enjoyed it and had a good time.

 

You were on the Sonora Stage – the line to get in stretched down the field…

MT: That’s crazy.

 

Had you ever been there before?

MT: No it was out first time going to Coachella. So yeah, we stayed through the weekend. It was pretty cool. We won’t be doing it again next weekend – we’ll be just in and out for our show.

ML: But it was worth doing.

 

Have you played other festivals?

ML: We’ve done a few.

 

Do you prefer festivals, or your own headline shows?

ML: Yeah, crowd-wise there’s no competition really. When everyone’s there and they know all the songs, the energy is different. It’s a different experience. We’ve had great festival crowds in the past, but…

MT: In their own way, they’re great. You need to do it obviously. It’s sick. But it’s different, playing to a room of people who know all the songs and all the words.

 

Who else did you check out at Coachella?

MT: We saw some sick stuff. We saw Charli XCX, Sunset Rollercoaster, we caught some of Blackpink, Rosalia, some Kali Uchis.

 

Will you be changing your set for Weekend two?

ML: Not changing. Hopefully improving. We listened back to the livestream, took some notes, and we’re doing all the same songs.

MT: It’ll be all the same. Maybe in our heads, we’ll be thinking of things a little differently. But the performance should be the same if not better.

 

What do you have planned for the rest of the year?

ML: We’re doing a couple of shows with Caroline Polachek in San Francisco, in May. We have some other festivals lined up for the summer. 

MT: We’re playing with Rina Sawayama over the summer, and then we’re just going to be writing. That’s pretty much it.


Magdalena Bay and Their Mercurial Coachella: Go to mercurialworld.com for more info.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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