“Tell me your company, and I will tell you what you are.”
That line comes from Miguel Cervantes’ seminal novel Don Quixote in 1615 – namesake and phonetic inspiration for this wonderful site – and a version of this sentiment has proliferated for centuries in a number of civilizations. We’re a social species and much of our indiviual growth, successes, and hardships are inextricably tied to the people around us and the greater community we are attached to. Similarly, a community’s strength and vibrance is sustained by the kaleidoscope of individuals who shine together in a chaotic chorus of color as the world spins and tumbles around them.
In North Carolina’s prolific Triangle music community – made up of artists like Sylvan Esso, Hiss Golden Messenger, Watchouse and others in Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh – one artist who’s got a brilliant glow coming from him is multi-instrumentalist and producer Alex Bingham, known by his creative pseudonym Magic Al.
Magic Al is a collaborator extraordinaire who enraptures the people he’s around with an inspiring musicality and tender charisma that has led to a growing list of bands and musicians that want to create with him. He’s multi-instrumentalist producer with a Dilla-mindset and Little Feat-moves, whose musical instincts and atmospheric theatrics have gotten him on record and on tour with acts such as Beth Orton, Phil Cook and The Dead Tongues, among others. The musician’s been holding down the low end as Hiss Golden Messenger’s bassist for the last five years and his corner pocket bass lines can be found throughout the band’s recently released album Jump for Joy.
A producer at his core, Bingham is also a natural at creating fertile creative spaces and has a number of albums and tracks he’s produced for regional friends like Libby Rodenbough, Blue Cactus, and T. Gold. As I’ve been scrolling through albums from around town this past year I’ve just been seeing “Magic Al” here, there, everywhere, using a myriad of instruments, ideas, and vibes to create a lot of different music with people. Whatever he’s had up his sleeves, it was clear he’s been happy to share with his friends for their projects and bring a little magic to the community.
It wasn’t till earlier this year that Bingham had to call on his community to help bring a little razzle dazzle to not only his music, but more importantly, his life. His debut album as Magic Al, Good Grief, is due November 10th on Sleepy Cat Records. Over Instagram, the musician stated, “This album was made for my friends. To dance with the ones living and to grieve and celebrate the ones who passed.” Less than a year ago, Bingham was rocked by the quick successive deaths of his best friend, aunt, and college roommate. After experiencing the greatest season of loss in his life, the artist found support in connections and collaborations that ultimately led to some of the most enriching art he’s ever made.
For the first time, Good Grief finds the musician and producer leading the path of discovery on his musical journey, though he relies on the experiences, talent, and personality of the artist and friends he chooses to bring in – Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath, Caamp’s Taylor Meier, Mountain Man’s Molly Sarlé, Mipso’s Libby Rodenbough, and Lou Hazel, among others – to influence where they go and how they get there.
“My heart is in producing. I love people, as cheesy as that sounds. I feel this huge need to celebrate with my friends,” says Bingham on a mid-July afternoon, over some burgers and beers in the tiny Carolina enclave of Hillsborough. He was kind enough to meet me at The Wooden Nickel, a low key gem in the area (we both agreed they had some of the best burgers we’d had in a long time) and we chatted for a couple hours in the sleepy afternoon heat.
After all the wizardry I had heard on tape, I was hoping I might be able to learn a little bit about what made Magic Al magical.
Alex Bingham has spent the better part of a decade investing his musical self and creative sense of identity into the artistic community of the Triangle region. A Roanoke, Virginia native, Bingham first came to the area by way of a college jazz program and eventually began living in a geodesic dome with some friends. In a way that’s telling of the value he places on the community, he was ultimately hooked on this place via fundraising.
Around 2015, local musicians and artists put together music and events to help raise money for beloved venue The Pinhook when it was experiencing financial trouble. A lot of Bingham’s artistic seeds were first planted during that time – future Hiss guitarist and friend Chris Boerner played in his band The Hot At Nights – and it was in experiencing that love and support those musicians that convinced him he might be able to grow a music career here.
Bingham leaned into the music community with conviction. His jazz background had primed him to be a collaborative player able to fit in with a range of styles and his hustle had him piggybacking gigs into new opportunities. “If you are working hard and you are doing it for the right reasons people will recognize that, and I think most of the time I was doing that. I was obsessed with records and music, so hungry. I made the most out of the scene without being annoying,” laughs Bingham.
It’s that last part I pay attention to, as it reveals some of the stuff that makes Bingham sparkle. The music is usually what brings bands together, but it’s the people that keep them together. I could attest, even in the short time of me knowing him, there was an enchanting ease to being around the dude. He was engaging to chat with, quick with a laugh, and there was a pleasant zen that rippled from him. He was a good hang and Bingham recognized that as an important, if not the most important, reason for his early success connecting and playing with people.
“It’s a long game and the biggest thing is, are you cool being in a band with that person for eight hours a day? There’s enough people who can do my job, but I have a real good attitude and I’m helpful on the road, a good team player. Most people are not going to be tired of me sitting in a bus for hours,” says Bingham.
One group of people who certainly haven’t gotten tired of him yet are his musical brethren in Hiss Golden Messenger, including the aforementioned Boerner, Nick Falk (drums), Sam Fribush (keyboards), and lead singer, songwriter, record curator, and Deadhead honcho Mike Taylor. Bingham’s been touring and recording with the band since the Quietly Blowing era and over the years has developed a flexible and intuitive relationship that flows from deep album dives in the tour van to heady tone quests in the recording studio to letting songs stretch their legs a little bit on stage when the moment’s right.
“There’s been truly little conversation. He’s [Taylor] leading us by what records he’s putting on in the van and what resonates with all of us. Mike Taylor is one of the deepest record heads, he’s such a special curator in a way no one else I’ve ever met. First and foremost he’s a record collector, who is also a great songwriter,” says Bingham, getting giddy at the thought.
Jump for Joy is quick to find the groove, easily the most vivacious in the Hiss repertoire, reflecting the bright tones Magic Al brought to the party. “Shinbone’s” sticky warmth and the Dead-dub bounce of “California King” are rhythmic highlights, with plenty of songs imbued with Al’s mystical white noise and textures from his electronic rig, egged on by Taylor and engineer Scott Hirsch. “Nick and I would lay our parts down, get the rhythm section done. I’d go onto headphones and get on my rig, starting to add stuff. They’d look at me and say, ‘What’s Magic Al got?” chuckles Bingham.
It’s an album that exudes the love and creative confidence the members of Hiss have in each other. They’re all about doing what’s best for the music on a creative level, which almost always is doing what’s best for each other on a personal level. “It’s about Nick Falk knowing how to open up the floor, Chris Boerner taking solos. The rhythm section of me, Nick and Sam is important in how we support Chris and Mike. It’s what I ultimately connect to,” says Bingham.
Those creative and personal connections came together in new, unexpectedly tragic, but beautiful ways on Good Grief. Bingham’s best friend John, best man at his wedding, had been battling brain cancer for years. His trajectory had trended upward as scans came back clean, with everyone lulled into a sense of relief that the worst was behind. But in late 2022 John passed and left a wife, family, friends, and Bingham behind. “We were recording Libby Rodenbough’s album at the time. She had just lost her mom, Joe Westerlund had just lost two best friends. Everyone in that session had been affected by death and was grieving at some point,” reflects Bingham.
But it was just the first domino to fall. Within a few weeks he lost his mom’s sister, Aunt Angie, to cancer as well, later followed by a college roommate who took his own life. “It was tragic, I just got swallowed,” says Bingham. “It was one thing after another of anticipating and not anticipating death, dealing with that, and going through grief counseling.”
By early 2023, Bingham was still working his way through the trauma and after math. After a couple tours fell through and he was left with an unexpected gap in his schedule, the musician saw an opportunity to not only record the solo album he’d always put off while investing in other’s musical ideas, but also to process his grief with a memorial of song, dance, and creation.
“I set the intention that I’ve just lost these people who are some of my closest friends. I am lucky enough to be in a place where I can take two months out of my life and spend that time trying to be creative with my friends, to honor those who have passed. If nothing comes out of it, that’s fine, I was lucky enough to spend that quality time with people. I was lucky it was an extremely productive time,” says Bingham.
The musician spent February 2023 holed up at a family house at Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia, co-writing, producing, and recording with friends who all had been an important part of his musical journey. It was the first time producing his own music but the confidence in himself as a producer and the comfort he had with his collaborators had songs coming together quickly.
“I’m going to create an atmosphere they resonate with. You see it in their body language and you support them in a way that moves them towards something you feel fantastic about. You keep it honest and the communication flowing and you’ll have the basis of a song. For a lot of the records, within the first day, 90 percent of it was done,” says Bingham.
The result is Good Grief a raw, shimmering mixtape offered up as an ebullient lament to the ones he’s lost and a celebratory ode to the ones he can still dance with. It’s like you’re following Bingham – as Magic Al – around his own house party as he hangs, hugs, and vibes with all the different people in his life. In a very palpable sense, each song is emblematic of Magic Al’s weird wonderful relationships with the specific musicians he has on the tracks. Tell me who is on Magic Al’s album and I’ll tell you what it sounds like.
For example, lead single “Party for One” is a tender dance vamp co-written with Lou Hazel (Chris Frisnia), pairing Frisnia’s sincerely cute lyrics of teenagers at prom with Bingham’s ambivalent rhythms, with the sweet supportive harmonies of Amelia Meath helping it all along. “Whatever creative endeavor your throw at [Chris], he’s going to turn something out that is fucking insane. He’s in-tune. He has a hard time with certain struggles and is so sensitive with what he resonates with. Luckily we resonate on a lot of things, we can pop off together,” says Bingham.
Luckily for him, for his friends, and for the growing number of fans tuning into his frequency, there seems to be a great number of quality people that want to pop off with Magic Al. Hiss Golden Messenger will be touring Jump for Joy this fall, including a run of hometown shows at Haw River Ballroom September 15th -17th in Saxapahaw. It’s an opportunity for Bingham to find new joy in these songs in front of adoring crowds, ripping it up with his boogie woogie brothers.
“Hiss has never felt more like a full on band to me than it is now. We all have been together through enough ups and downs on and off the stage and have gotten to a place to support each other better than ever. The new album gives us momentum into this next chapter. … We are chasing the long term beauty of submitting and celebrating what we do as a group,” the musician says to me in a follow up email a couple weeks after our lunch.
Good Grief will be released in November and Bingham is looking forward to playing more Magic Al shows as that time draws closer. He’s excited about finding his audience and connecting with the people who’ve found good in his grief. “I’m not here for musical therapy, but I like being real as an artist and saying to the audience, ‘Hey y’all this has been the shittiest year of my life and this is some of the music that got me through, will you join me in getting down?’ Because that’s probably what we all need,” says Bingham.
A couple weeks ago in August the musician was able to commune with some of his closest friends and family in the Tetons, to grieve, celebrate, and continue the legacy of his friend John. As John was an avid outdoorsman and Type II-fun enthusiast, they all decided they’d complete a somewhat hell-ish multi-day trek through the mountains that he’d always dreamed of. He couldn’t be there with them, but they were all together thinking of him, living with him in the mountains, making sure the love and connections were still alive.
“Rain, thunderstorms, surprise extra mileage, altitude sickness, and lack of water, had us questioning things at so many points in the trip. But we would always huddle together, think of what John would say and do, and carry on with impressions and stories. It was beautiful,” says Bingham over email.
At his core, Alex Bingham is a collaborative spirit with a zestful sound, a man whose vitality and artistic expression comes from the people he loves and interacts with. I had spent close to three hours with the guy trying to understand where the twinkle in his eye came from. It wasn’t till I listened back to our conversation that I realized he had revealed who he was no more than 10 minutes into our conversation.
“I love my friends, I love my family. I love taking advantage of any moment I can to have that golden time. It doesn’t have to be happy, just the connection, the community, the realness. The feeling of being with people is my heart.”
Turns out the magic within Magic Al is the love that flows between Alex Bingham, his friends, his family, and his musical community, as they dance through life together.
Boogixote 