Christian Magby
@@mrmagbee2you on his mother’s whicker furniture
-Theatre-
Christian Magby? He moved to New York! He isn’t an Atlanta person anymore.
Yeah, we know Atlanta folks aren’t the most forgiving to those who move away and come back. Move along, I don’t need your sass.
I was headed south to meet up with Christian at his mom’s house in Henry County less then 5 miles from my own childhood home. We didn’t go to the same high school but we grew up going to all the same places. It still freaks me out that we never ran into each other. But we ended up both going to SCAD and are crossing paths more and more.
After a quick catch up and a few snuggles from 11 year old pup Hersey, we got down to business.
Interviewed 5.21.20
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Casey: So, first and foremost, how are you?
Christian: I'm great.
Casey: Are you though?
Christian: I'm pretty good. I've liked being off. In ways I've, you know, prayed and asked to be off. I wish it was a way that wasn't hurting people, other people were suffering from. But no, I honestly have [been] pretty chill at this point. Freaked out at first and a little vigilant against people who have no control but to let you go from things or postpone your stuff. And I think when I look around and really see the rest of the world is going through the same thing and that nobody's exempt and that in somehow, some way, in some form, everybody's been affected. Then it's like, okay, well, it really doesn't matter. My stuff is so trivial compared to what's actually happening. So, I don't mind it. I'm cool.
Casey: What have you been doing during quarantine since obviously this is affecting your very, you know, go get it workaholic attitude? Since like you said, it's great that I hear you saying that everyone's affected so I don't feel like I'm the only one not doing anything so I can then go and relax. So what have you been doing?
Christian: Well, it's funny because I think we all have the the facade of the go get it and then we actually have to go get it. But you know, for most of us, it's the facade of the go get it. For me, I go get it in strokes or in certain scales, I'll go get it. But there are good, they are really, really good days. And there are some that are just like, you know what, it's actually okay not to be okay. I woke up one Thursday after a really, really great week and I did not know why I was sad, but it was like you have every reason to be sad and upset about this stuff.
Lately, I've just been working on music. There are a couple of projects I have in the works. Some are picked up. Some are hopefully on the way to being picked up. And then I have individual clients just here and there. They're just like, hey, I'd like to work on this song or write this song for a wedding . . . . So it's funny. It's kind of just like life, especially for artists, as in we already don't know where our gigs are coming from. And so I think that's why I'm not that frantic, because it's just like, oh, we don't usually always just have gigs. And then when things pop up, it's like, okay, this is a saving grace and then you work on and then onto the next.
Casey: Well, it sounds like you're still working because you have clients who are asking you to do things. What are you doing for your clients?
Christian: Either completely writing songs or just arranging songs. So I have somebody who wants to write a song for their—it was supposed to be for their wedding next month. That's now not happening, but it's still happening in some way, shape, form, and fashion. And so what I'm doing for her is we are writing the song together and then I will have my musicians record remotely from their homes and send it in and then we send off to get mixed and mastered. I usually send all my mixes to Chase Peacock cause he's great. And it's nice because in a way it's also keeping the flow of money. It's like, okay somebody is paying me to do one thing and I'm paying them to do something else. So it's like everybody's getting taken care of in a way. And it also continues to keep that creative bug going. But yeah, it's mostly just writing music for different people and seeing what bites. Did you know I arranged the SCAD alma mater?
Casey: Yes.
Christian: So usually every year I go back to conduct it. Not this year. Instead, they're having, of course, the virtual commencement of which they sent me about ten or eleven different outfits. And I got to have a Zoom meeting last week with about eleven people to watch me try on outfits like the good old days and I absolutely loved it. It was so cool to just see everybody again, Kevin and Cam and, you know, the people at events. So that was that was fun. And then I literally taped myself conducting the alma mater and then sending the clothes back today except the clothes that I wore, I keep those.
Casey: Right.
Christian: Everything else goes back, but there was some nice clothes in there.
Casey: I think I still have, actually, I know I still have one of the bracelets that I stole from P.E.
Christian: Oh, we always have. There was one shirt. It was the first shirt I ever got from a P.E. anything. It was the one that we did 2014 when we did The Cup Song.
Casey: That was my graduation.
Christian: That was your graduation?
Casey: Yes. I graduated 2014.
Christian: God damn.
Casey: I'm old!
Christian: That sure was your graduation.
Casey: Yes it was.
Christian: Oh, my God.
Casey: So I watched it but I was a part of it.
Christian: Actually, it was fall 2013 going into 2014 and we did The Cup Song. They gave me this—it was a shirt, it was the first time I ever wore, I guess these are what? Baseball tees or whatever? And it was some from Urban Outfitters. I wore that damn thing at least two or three times a day to the point where I would have to start like marking when I post the stuff from Instagram and Facebook because I wore the shirt all the time. Yes, I'm up on my P.E. clothes and suits.
Casey: Oh my god. I can't with that. I want to talk more about that later. But continuing on, so you're quarantining with your mom?
Christian: My mom and my brother.
Casey: How's that going? How are they doing?
Christian: They're good. They're good. Yeah, they're great. My mom actually just went to work and my brother's chilling right now. He was able to take a leave from work and he'll be able to go back. I don't know if it's he's ready or they're ready. But it's nice because they both have jobs to go back to.
Casey: So you're the freeloader.
Christian: I'm the freeloader. Which is, you know, I don't know, I don't mind. I was already going to be here for six weeks anyway. Six weeks is now looking like, you know, four or five months. But it's, you know, it's cool. We've spent more time together than we ever have. Not that we'd never spent time together, but it allows you to see how important that this time is. And so, some days we grill out and we sit on the back patio with umbrellas up and it's like we've never really done that. But this has enabled us to do that—have movie nights and have jokes and play games that I always win. It's been cool. I've liked being here with them. I don't think this time for me would've been bearable without them, though I keep myself kinda locked in my studio for most of the day. I love being able to spend more time with them.
Casey: What do you miss? And I know that there is probably a lot of things and I don't necessarily just mean in the entertainment industry. Is there something that you're like —god, I really wish this was happening or gosh, I really wish that I could go do this?
Christian: Just the sheer convenience of being able to see whoever you want whenever you want. And it's like, wow, I never thought that was something that we've taken for granted. But that's how valuable and important physical contact is with people and hugs, and waves, and rehearsals and, you know, all that stuff. So that that kind of gets hard. I miss performing, but it's also exhausting. So it's like, you know, it'll be there when we get back.
But if anything though, I just miss being around people and being able to hang out with them. And that's strange coming from me because I actually like being by myself. I prefer to be by myself. So I think that's why part of it is also cool with this. But yeah, just the knowing of I can go out and hang out with people. The fact that that's not there. It's like, "Candy you got back to Atlanta, you didn't tell me?" She was like, "What we gonna do, hang out?" I was like, "You right. You right." So. Yeah.
Casey: Yeah. That's an excellent point. So you're still creating for money, which is a very rare thing, indeed.
Christian: Well, some yes, most no. I would say a percentage-wise, of all the things I'm working on, maybe 20, 30 percent are paying, the other 70 percent are strictly passion and hopes of things getting picked up, but it's putting yourselves in the team of the right people so that it ultimately gets there. But no. No. Anything I'm making now is not survivable income.
Casey: Are you finding it hard to stay motivated in quarantine to create, especially when so little of your stuff is paid? Not saying that your only motivation comes from payment, but is creating harder or easier in quarantine?
Christian: It's taking me a while to answer cause I've struggled with that question and that answer. I would say—ask me one more time.
Casey: Okay. Are you finding it hard to stay motivated to create during quarantine?
Christian: Yes and no. And the yes comes from, when you don't see the light at the end of the tunnel, it's kind of hard to write towards the goal. It's kind of hard to keep writing musicals when you don't know the future of musical theatre, you know? Or be like, oh, I want to have 30 people in this show, I want to have 20 people in this show, when you don't even know if that's safe. And if anything is at the bottom, this is just as a composer, to me inside looking out, I feel like the bottom of the barrel for theatre companies right now is definitely new works because that's already the biggest risk taker for them. So that kind of makes it daunting. On the other side of that, what makes me stay motivated is the fact that I know that everybody else. There are other people out there creating monsters of stuff right now. And what keeps me motivated to create is I will never have this kind of time again. I will never have this much time to dedicate to my craft again, comfortably.
So it's definitely been a back and forth battle. Like, I'll be really into something and then it's like, I don't want to work on this, and actually I don't want to work on anything for the rest of day. But then I go watch something like Schitt's Creek and I'm like, well, you can't be on something like Schitt's Creek and not do any work, you know, to get there. I think TV always brings me back to working on my craft because I absolutely love television. I watch enough to be like, all right, well, this is enough to get me back into the mindset of, "I want to do with these people are doing. Let me take the steps to get there." And I've had a couple of auditions here and there which have been nice. But of course, the response is, well, we don't know what we're doing anything, but it's nice to be seen anyway.
Casey: Nice to be asked. Andrew would be so proud of you. So you're able to get over that hump of not wanting to work?
Christian: Yeah. I mean, it's a daily hump. Even before you getting here, it was like, "Okay to work out or not work out?" It's easier not to. But if I don't, literally I will sit there the rest of the day being like, "I'm an idiot for not working out." And then that has now spiraled me to being unmotivated to work on something and then my whole day is gone. So literally it's an ongoing thing every day. Cleaning helps. I've noticed cleaning helps. If all of my spaces around me are clean, then I can get things done. As soon as one thing gets messy, that's it.
Casey: I bet your mother is thrilled with that.
Christian: Oh, yes and no. I stay upstairs in my room and then in the studio. So my messes and cleanliness only happen in here. Now, whatever I leave in the kitchen is just whenever I leave in the kitchen, but I'll come back to get it. I always do.
Casey: I was about to say, she's gonna be mad.
Christian: Yes. She's usually not happy about it. But it's fine.
Casey: So kind of to sum up, what are you feeling like you're going to take out of this quarantine? You said you are using this time and you see that this time is valuable and that you'll never have this much time again to work on a project you want to devote your time to. Is there any sort of, you know, personal growth or personal habit or personal idea that you will take forward that you felt like you gained from this experience?
Christian: It's just being, to me, really being able to take the mindset that I had at the beginning of the year, the same go get it attitude through, you know, this whole Covid phase. And it's really being able to see if I can turn that and still be able to use that outside, which I'm hoping that I can. I think it's definitely, you know, an easier said than done thing. But if anything, it's just being able to take the same level of responsibility and just being able to go forward and noticing that the things that helped me be able to create, like a clean space and healthy food, and working out, the things that helped me be able to create now. Using those same things when it's time, you know, when we're all back to work and extremely busy.
I made so much time for friends. Granted, you know, some might say I might not have made as much time, but I've reached out to probably every friend that I have or at least seen them or spoken to them lately, which I don't have time to do. And the same with family members. And so I've loved rekindling friendships and relationships with people over the last couple of months. It's funny, there's a post going around, I think it was Tia Mowry that had made a post or something about, you know, remember who checked on you during this quarantine. You see who your friends are. Then somebody else commented like - this is not the time to check in on anybody or to have people against you for not checking on them because we're all going through a global pandemic. And so everybody does everything at their own time. I'm actually working on a project with P.E. right now, class of 2015 and 16, we're all doing a viral video of a song that Sandy wrote. And it was just one of those things I have not been a part of something like that since we were back to school. And so with everybody's audio recording or video that came in, it just really made me feel like we were all back in that room again. But it's remembering how important that is and how important these relationships are. These are the relationships that matter.
It's scary as we're all really, really climbing our different ladders of success. And wherever they take us into our careers, we see who we still hold on to and we'll work on. You know, I'm sure you've done several different projects and work with different clients and it's like, "Oh, we were all great as a cast, but my friends are over here or they're over there." Like with any show that I did, I think most of my Atlanta theatre friends came from or at least stemmed from In the Heights and then just grew on from there. So, yeah, I don't know if that got way off of what the question was.
Casey: No, no, no. I think what you're saying and tell me if I'm wrong, is that you're gonna try to be a better friend going out of here. And that you're going to hopefully be even more productive than you were before because you were so productive during this quarantine.
Christian: Yes. Yes. Nailed it, fucking nailed it, Hershey.
Casey: Is there anything else you want to share in closing? Any words of encouragement, any final thoughts?
Christian: I just tell people, remember, this is not about you, you know? And I think we all can feel very personally attacked very quickly by all this. And it's like, oh, why me? Why is this happening to me? But it's not about you. And if you are living and you're breathing, literally sky's the limit. And don't take that for granted because literally to wake up every day now, not even now, it's always been a blessing, it's even more of a blessing now than it was then. So I guess I don't know if that's a good word of encouragement, but remember that it's not about you.
Casey: Yeah! I think so, I think so. I think that will be encouraging for people to hear. Good job, Christian!
Christian: There was something Obama said in his commencement speech and I can't remember exactly how he said it, but he was talking about how the class of 2020 have already become leaders because they had to. And it's remembering that going forward, like we had to do this in order to succeed or we had to learn how to do this or we had to learn how to cut our own hair. I didn't do that. But we had to learn how to do things in order to help us succeed. So I feel like in ways we have all become our own leaders. So I think that's kinda cool.
