It’s always interesting to have the opportunity to interview a new independent artist, but Magnus Ferrell is one of the most exciting artists I’ve interviewed in a while. He is the son of comedian Will Ferrell and a very talented singer/songwriter with a huge future ahead of him.
He’s been performing and playing the piano since he was five years old and began to write music when he was about 12-13 years old. His background is influenced majorly by jazz music, too. “That kind of broke the foundation of my music background,” he explains. He always loved playing, but it was around 15-16 years old when he really noticed how much it helped him get over strong emotions whenever he was upset about something. He always felt a pull towards the piano and always realized that if he had a strong emotional connection, maybe it was something he should dive deeper into and explore. That’s when he kind of knew.
He recently released his first major track, “Missed Your Chance,” on January 16. “I’m pretty pumped about it. It’s one of the songs I’m super, super excited about and say that in a way that doesn’t discredit any of the other music, but a lot of the time you get tired of those songs because you hear them so much,” he noted.
“Missed Your Chance” is the start of a new chapter in Ferrell’s career and he’s super excited to be “able to share that with the world.” He says the song is “about meeting someone you kind of like and you think they kind of like you and everything is kind of going swell. And then you start to notice they kind of start acting weird at a certain point in some unexplainable fashion. Instead of kind of dragging it out, you’re ‘I think I’m okay. You had an opportunity, you just kind of missed it, I’m just going to do my own thing.”
Not only does Ferrell have influences from pop artists such as Charlie Puth and Bruno Mars, but he also has very strong jazz influences from Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, and Miles Davis.
Now, for him, it might be difficult to distance himself from his famous father, and him as a new independent musician. He explains, “That’s a really good question and it’s something I’ve thought about on my own. I’ve just come to accept the fact, that, at this point in my life, and this point in my career, that’s going to be the first thing that they see. But the good thing is that maybe that piques their curiosity, but then when they see the music if they like it, and they think it’s good music, they just kind of make them notice that I am a whole person myself and I do a completely different thing,” he continues. “You could say there’s a little bit of nepotism involved in terms of the attention that can be drawn at the end of the day, the music still has to be good. Even if you notice my name for my father, if the music isn’t good, you’re not going to want to pay attention. That’s how I see it. It’s kind of a bit of a blessing, a bit of a curse, but I guess I kind of utilize the opportunity I’m given.”
Magnus Ferrell is still an independent artist, but he thinks that when the opportunity serves itself it will happen naturally and organically. He thinks it’s unfortunate because a lot of independent people could get label interest, and then they are super excited because they get somewhat of a big advance, say $100,000 or something like that, but because they’re small, the reality is the opportunity is going to be so much better when you have leverage and you’ve created leverage and can kind of exist on your own without a record label.
2024 looks to be a huge year for Ferrell. He plans to release a few more singles, he wants to drop an EP, and just lay the foundation for songs that he’s super proud of and that he’s proud of.
Contact Magnus Ferrell
