Extraordinary Magnitude: ExMag Comes To Chicago

There’s something deliciously sexy when you hear the future funk downtempo sounds of Extraordinary Magnitude. ExMag is a collaboration of producers with big names in their own right: Eric Mendelson, Mike Lannatto and Tyler Dondero (SuperNicer). This Brooklyn based group has Eric on guitar, Tyler on keyboards and Mike with samples and mixing.

In 2014 they released their full-length album Proportions as a free download, a philosophy of internet sharing that they fully champion. The irresistible combination of neo-soul, trip-hop, downtempo with futuristic feel-good synthesized chords will have you laid back in a spliff-induced zone or up on the dance floor getting your slow grind on.

You are all independently successful artists in your own right. Can you share with us how you came together (which I understand started out as you being roommates) to form ExMag?

I met Eric through a mutual friend. We sent our music back and forth to each for awhile before living together about 8 years later. Eric met Tyler in their hometown at a blues bar. We started living together in Brooklyn with the crew, and all just made music.

 

I saw that you were heavily influenced by the Neo-Soul movement of artists such as Erykah Badu and D’Angelo. I was blown away when I first heard your music, it had so much SOUL. And you’re playing major festivals…so there is hope 🙂 How were you able to draw in a much younger crowd that don’t always have the musical history from which you’re drawing from?

I think our music appeals to people for a lot of different reasons. We’re definitely influenced by neo-soul but there’s a lot of different stuff mixed in there too. I think the younger crowd might not even be aware of some of influences that exist in our music, but they seem to like it anyway. They hear it their own way and make their own.

A lot of music fans like to hear something new, I think what we’re doing is unique but it’s not too far off from what people are used to.

I understand you have a full length album coming out in the spring? What can you tell us about that?

Yeah we have our second full length coming out in April. We’ve been working on it for awhile. We live in a garage studio in Harrisburg, PA, right now, which allows to work without distractions. It’s somewhat of a concept album and is part of a larger concept that will expand across the next few records. As of right now, it’s 15 tracks.

We’re hoping to wrap it up as soon as we get off the road.

We’re very excited to have you in Chicago, I understand you made your debut as a band here in 2013. Anything you’d like to shout out to people in anticipation of your show?

We love Chicago. We have a lot of friends out here and people we like to work with. Our first real performance was in Chicago at North Coast. We love that fest and we’re grateful to have been on it when we were first starting out. That show helped us develop a strong fan base here.

ExMag will be performing alongside Mark Farina (doing a Mushroom Jazz set), DJ Heather and Zebo at the Mid this Friday, February 5th.