About Son Little's New Magic
Sometimes in order to see the stars, you have to get far away from the city lights. And in the fall of last year, Son Little found himself in such a place, at the end of a tour in the remote, tropical Northern Territory of Australia. “There were these big crocodiles and enormous bats, just wild things I’d never seen, he says. “And I set up in the hotel and just kinda followed the process. All the songs in Australia were written with one mic and an acoustic left-handed guitar I was playing upside-down that was borrowed from this blind Aboriginal musician named Gurrumul with this angelic voice.”
And so what is new magic? To Son Little, there is a feeling and attitude running through the music. And despite its mysterious origins, the musician’s divination ability is just that—divine. “There is this vein of the blues in it, and it can be distilled or boiled down just to the guitar and voice—or even just the voice,” Son Little says. “It’s that scenario of making something out of nothing. I can’t really explain it. That’s the gist of the magic. I don’t know where it comes from, but it’s there, and I can call on it. I can call on it standing by the dresser, walking down the street, driving a car, on a train, a plane, in a hotel room, in the green room, during an interview…it’s just there. I’m trying to pay tribute to that fact. It’s had a really powerful and in some ways increasingly healing effect on my life. Hopefully other people have that experience with it as well. I’m just happy that it’s there, wherever it comes from.”