Ruston Kelly is a Nashville-based musician who has written songs for numerous country artists over the past few years, including Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney. However on his solo debut EP, Halloween, he enlisted producer Mike Mogis (Monsters of Folk, Bright Eyes, First Aid Kit) to showcase a different side of his music. Kelly tells Relix, “Halloween was so sick to make. I literally wanted my closest people to me to nod their head rhythmically and in salute of it being something worthy of respect. Truly that was my goal and it also wasn’t my goal. That can’t really be an aim when making something to be received in subjectivity. It’s only a way of putting your iron in the fire. I feel like they like it and everything else as far as other people enjoying it or getting something real out of it is extra.”

Today, we premiere “Black Magic” from Halloween, which is set for release on June 10. Kelly explains, “‘Black Magic’ was a long con for me. An awaited uproar I had no idea about until it actually came to fruition inevitably in a highly dark relationship I was in at the time. Things can make you think twice or different, a song like that to me written in love-oblivion has more power to it when it finds its way to you once you wake the fuck up. I wasn’t awake I was asleep when I wrote it. A bad dream that felt cool and alive. Then I woke up and realized this wasn’t a character in a narrative. This wasn’t a poetic license, it was just me being too honest with myself to realize this shit was actually going down.”