Stream: M.A.G.S., ‘Elephant’

Kevin Bronson on February 3rd, 2023

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We have lived through this: It’s sometime in the 1990s, and the listener is in the middle of a mind-numbing drive home, maybe the 5 southbound or the 60 east, late night, mercifully sparse traffic, the guy behind the wheel hoarse from shouting along to the choruses on rock radio, and also paying too little attention to the speed limit, and … bam, damn, CHP is gonna finish the song.

The new M.A.G.S. single, “Elephant,” released here in 2023 as his first song from Smartpunk Records, taps into that long-ago feeling. It’s a muscle car on an open road, ample guitars under the hood and crisply handling the melodic curves.

It’s the first new song from M.A.G.S. — Buffalo-bred, L.A.-based Elliott Douglas — since the 2021 album, “Say Things That Matter.” Douglas made it with producer Jay Mass.

“I really let my imagination run wild as I was making this song,” Douglas says. “Lately, I’ve been mastering all the different styles I’ve picked up over the years and blending them together to make something that is undeniably me. And I was fortunate to get to work with a producer as knowledgeable as Jay, the intuition he had for my vision allowed me to take chances and dive into areas of my sound I hadn’t yet explored.

“‘Elephant’ is really about staying true to yourself and trusting your gut. I’m ADHD as fuck, so my attention rarely stays in one place for more than a few moments, distractions can take me off my path if I’m not mindful. In a lot of ways, ‘Elephant’ represents a peek inside my mind at any given time.”

||| Stream: “Elephant”