At Work: Magic Beans
“Beanstalk Festival is an absolute joy. We just celebrated 10 years of the event. I started it when I was 22 and still in college, and it has grown into something we’re quite proud of,” Magic Bean’s Scott Hachey says, just hours before he and his band’s gathering is set to kick off in Bond, Colo. “We get to host both our musical heroes and our favorite smaller bands, showcasing them next to the bigger names in the scene. It’s special to watch fresh bands like Goose, Spafford, Kitchen Dwellers, Fruition and others start on our little side stage and develop into headliners across the nation. We feel invested in them and love to watch them shine.”
The guitarist—along with his bandmates Casey Russell (keyboards), Chris Duffy (bass) and Cody Wales (drums)—have already been performing for over a decade. In 2021, Magic Beans released their third studio album, Slice of Life in honor of the milestone—an introspective, 14-track tapestry that nods to a wide range of American influences. More recently, the Colorado ensemble announced that they were working on a 10-track, fully instrumental album, Unzipped, which was released in July.
“With [Unzipped], we basically took a step back from our usual path—put a hold on it for a minute—and just approached the studio as a new project. It’s an alter ego of sorts,” Hachey explains. “We said, ‘What if we didn’t sound anything like the Magic Beans? What if we started the band right now and had to develop our sound?’ That’s where the neo-soul/ beat-making instrumentals came into play—it’s just a sound we all resonated with outside of jam music.”
The members of Magic Beans cite the likes of J Dilla, Erykah Badu, D’Angelo, The Roots and Common as chief influences on the project. However, despite being a departure from the quartet’s usual jamband vibe, Unzipped still retains Magic Beans’ opened ended, loose feel and—even upon a first listen—one can see how their latest tunes will quickly develop into upbeat funk and disco jams live. “When we track something in the studio, we are really just focusing on serving the song in that format. We try not to bog ourselves down in where the ‘jam sections’ will be,” Hachey admits. “That will happen naturally and, sometimes, we will even purposefully rearrange our songs for the live format.”
While a clear departure, Unzipped is also a return to form. Throughout the 10-tracks, the musicians manage to synthesize an eclectic mix of influences into a sound that is truly their own—following in the footsteps of their original jamband inspirations.
“The moments at shows and festivals are fleeting, but the people we meet there we take back with us into the real world,” Hachey says. “For me, that’s why I got into the jam scene— the people.”
