White Magic
Mira Billotte artfully talks about irony, throwback bands, and the difference between imitation and influence
By Ling Ma
Published: November 5th, 2004 | 5:04pm
Somewhere in Chicago on a Friday night, the members of Brooklyn-based White Magic are sitting in the red, graffitied basement of local indie venue Empty Bottle chilling out before their show. To my left is guitarist Andy Macleod, to my right drummer Miggy Littleton, and across the coffee table through the cigarette smoke is vocalist and keyboardist Mira Billotte. Peering out from her deep, heavy-lidded eyes, Billotte, on first impression, comes across as more reserved and quiet in contrast to her bandmates, who are easily talkative and affable.
As the band’s lyricist, Billotte is also responsible for the rich, enigmatic lyrics that are almost otherworldly in their solemn beauty. On “Keeping the Wolves From the Door,” she sings, “The very inner of my being is impenetrable / You will always be on the outside.” They’re the kind of lyrics, evocative of ’60s gypsy psychedelic bands, that, in an age of ironic posturing — think The Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and other throwback bands — might easily be misconstrued as intentionally ironic. These solemn, mysterious lyrics, coupled with Billotte’s haunting, creamy voice, makes up one of the major reasons White Magic has become a hotly noticed band. With only an EP to their credit — Through the Sun Door (Drag City), which was released in May 2004 — White Magic has had critics clamoring for their thesauruses in search of adjectives to identify their sound, coming up with comparisons from Jefferson Airplane to Cat Power.
Two hours before their show starts, the bandmates rehash about how they formed. Macleod and Billotte met as art school students at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She had been studying Printmaking, and he had been studying Fibers. They dropped out on the same day, and later met Littleton when he was working at a Brooklyn record shop. He sold MacLeod a rare ragaee record for a buck.
After that story winds, MacLeod and Littleton head upstairs to do sound checks and finish setting up. Billotte remains behind and answers my questions. She comes across as thoughtful and articulate.
You once said in an interview, “To me the sun door is like the crossroads into the spiritual world. It’s like the portal into another world. What I try to achieve is something beyond this world.” Could you elaborate a little further on what you mean about that?
I guess what I mean by that is my experience from making music and singing is to me kind of like a spiritual crossroads that I cross when I’m performing and writing and singing. And yeah, it just means I feel like what I’m singing sometimes is coming from a different place aside from just my regular life, regular reality. I feel like it’s coming from a spiritual place, it’s coming from somewhere beyond my personality or my identity on this planet. You know what I mean? It feels to me like a window into another world when I’m singing and performing and that’s sorta what I try to achieve.
Do you have an idea about what you try to do for listeners? Is there something you try to elicit from them when they’re listening to your music?
Yeah, definitely, definitely. I definitely don’t have a specific intention. I don’t know what other people’s experience is, mentally or anything. But I just would hope that they experience basically what I’m experiencing, you know. I think that’s definitely what I try to communicate, what I’m experiencing, and I hope that’s what they experience as well.
There’s a slew of current bands out there whose sounds really harken to other musical eras, like the Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. There’s definitely this retro trend that’s going on, not just in the music world, but in fashion and everything —
Oh yeah, there has been for a long time I think.
Would you group White Magic with that cultural leaning?
I wouldn’t. I think that like I said before, some bands are very reactionary to their time or their placement in musical history, and they want to reference something directly out of history and that’s what I think is retro. It’s just the difference between imitation — or whatever you want to call it — and influence, you know. If something naturally influences because you like it, that’s not being retro, to me that’s not being retro or imitation.
And I feel like we fall in that category where we’re just naturally influenced by certain things that we enjoy and other people might see it and want to group it in a certain genre or something, but I don’t think it is. Because we vary a lot. You know, I’ve definitely played folkier songs, played more rock songs, and played very experimental songs. So it’s kind of a combination.
Also, I think with those kinds of bands, you get the sense that they are in fact trying to be ironic.
Mm hmm, oh yeah. If you don’t know who the Rolling Stones are, then you’re not going to get the Strokes or something. And if you don’t know who like whatever punk bands from the ’80s are …
I’ve read a bunch of reviews of your EP, and all of those critics have these different, almost idiosyncratic ways of describing your music. It’s just this whole barrage of things. How would you describe your music?
Hmm. Well, that has always been a problem with me, to explain what my music sounds like when somebody asks me. A lot of critics I agree with. It’s just sort of like — it’s sorta like a dark, folky, experimental — just a moody sound that’s pretty, um, I don’t know. Can’t really explain that. It’s becoming more and more like trance-y and more like, um, I don’t know. [Laughs] I can’t really explain it. That’s a really hard question for me.
Are you guys currently recording an album or have plans to?
Yeah, we have plans to and probably in December to record the LP.
Where do you see your sound going?
Well, already the stuff that’s going to be on the album. It’s just going to be more dark and sort of exploratory. I think this next record is going to explore new territory and different instrumentation. Just a fuller sound than we can even get live. I have plans to maybe add strings or something to change up the instrumentation. It’s just going to be more of the same, but a darker, more coherent sound.
This is kind of schmaltzy, but what does White Magic mean?
Well, it’s pretty simple. It’s basically just good magic. It’s what you would expect it to be: it’s magic with the intention of positive effects.
After Billotte leaves, I walk upstairs and observe the bandmates onstage getting ready. When Billotte does her mic sound check, she lets out this eerie, moaning shriek straight out of the band’s Nina Simone cover, “Plain Gold Ring.” It courses through the empty, cavernous club and pierces the still air.
It sounds like white magic.
Issue #35
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