Meduse MagiQ is an innovative arts collective and music label based in Amsterdam. It serves as a community focused on sound that supports locals bands and artists to explore music through collaboration, art, performance and exhibition.
We spoke to its founders to find out more…
Welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about Meduse MagiQ and how it all started?
Meduse MagiQ is a sound and art collective driven by our love for music. We are a record label, a radio station and a recording studio that are located in the centre of Amsterdam in a building with a theatre, a venue and a vegetarian restaurant called ‘Plantage Dok’. We share our headquarters with 50 creatives consisting of artists, ngo’s, food waste collectives, tattoo artists and experimental composers. We started the Meduse MagiQ collective a couple of years ago when we decided it was time for a community that was about sound and only sound. We wanted to support our local bands, artists and our creative network and bring back the focus to art and music. I can see at Meduse MagiQ you are focused on giving musicians their own voice and space to explore music through collaboration, art, performance and exhibition.
What have you been most proud of so far at Meduse MagiQ?
We are dreamers. The most proud we are of daring to dream and the materialization of those dreams. All projects, collaboration and tours came from an open and curious mind. Blue Crime driving 9500km trough Canada, Spill Gold going trough Switzerland and filming in the snowy mountains, making new records in China, the Moon Festival, our research in the Sahara desert and our summer festival in a small french Village in the south are all examples and started with a simple conversation in our studio. We never say no to the possibility of a sonic adventure.
So you’re both in bands – Blue Crime and Spill Gold – can you tell me about about them?
Our bands and musical collectives are a creative group of people where everyone is equally important, whatever it is that they do in the band. We go for unity. Spill Gold is a psychedelic three-piece that unwinds vivid, spiralling stories with their eerie yet persistent songs and brings listeners into a trance-like state. They saw the sirens– and just like that, as they were sitting in the rain, daydreaming on a foggy mountain trip with Japhy Ryder, witnessed the rising of an unusual new moon. A revelation that would not be contained, an unrelenting vision that demanded to be shared. Blue Crime’s stars have a gloomy shine, inspired by myths and dreams and parallel universes. Earth felt too low; space is the place. They started out as a glowworm in a dark atom shelter, and emerged as eerie moonpop, growing grittier in time. Call it moonpsych, noisefolk, call it earthquakes with guitars and vocal eclipses. Or just feel it, and call it nothing at all. Be it love or hate, dark or light… Blue Crime shows no mercy for the sober and cold-hearted.
What are your thoughts about female representation in the music industry?
We love females in the music industry. We love guys in the music industry too. We love genderless. It is true that at the moment the balance between men and women is rather disturbed, like in many parts of society and the world. This is why we like to support women creators and we choose to program them. We don’t think it is important to explicitly focus on gender. A musician is a musician, whether they are man, woman, both or none. We do think it is important to bring back balance. We should all support each other and create equal chances and conditions. It’s everyone’s job to protect diversity in the music industry. The more diversity there is the more interesting it gets. Music is about free expression and that means that every musician is free to be whatever they are. We think it’s important to focus on the artists’ music instead of their appearance or gender.
If someone wanted to get involved with Meduse MagiQ, would they be able to? If so, how?
Yes they would. Come visit our headquarters. Everyone is welcome to write us if they want to get involved in any way. Mail or letter, sonically or images, feel free to connect. You can find all information on www.medusemagiq.com
Finally, as we’re a new music focused site, are there any new/upcoming bands or artists you’d suggest we check out?
Ada Gadass is our newest project. It consists of a continuous sound wave inspired by the Desert. Spill Gold just has an EP out on our label, called Mercury that they will tour in Canada and Blue Crime is off to China to record ‘Xinshi’, their new art project with a Chinese poet and tour. Soon we’ll start our new program called ‘Melting Universe’ which consists of 5 dialogues between female experimental composers such as Jessica Moss and Baby Alien Collective.
Huge thanks to Meduse MagiQ for answering our questions!
Spill Gold play MOTH Club on May 27th – tix here
Get In Her Ears 
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