''Y3W': 'Daughter' by Magic Man

"Your Three Words" features Magic Man's "Daughter," off album "Real Life Color."

ByABC News via logo
July 17, 2010, 3:00 PM

July 17, 2010 — -- This week's "Your Three Words" soundtrack features Magic Man's song "Daughter" off their album "Real Life Color."

Magic Man is actually the dynamic duo of Alex Caplow and Sam Lee, two childhood friends who grew up outside Boston. While they've been playing music together since middle school, Magic Man is a relatively recent project for them.

While traveling through France in summer 2009, the two spent their spare time writing and recording what would become Magic Man's first album, "Real Life Color."

Upon their return stateside, they headed back to their respective colleges -- Tufts for Alex, Yale for Sam -- and began sending each other clips and song lyrics. Their work culminated in the January release of "Real Life Color" with the help of Arcade Sound LTD.

Upon choosing "Daughter" for this week's "Your Three Words," we decided to get to know the men of Magic Man a bit better, so we asked the two band members three questions:

ABC: You guys have known each other since grade school. Does that familiarity make the creative process easier?

Alex Caplow: Definitely, being comfortable enough with someone to be completely honest is really important for a collaborative project like this. We tell each other when we're not crazy about an idea and set high standards for each other. We also have a lot of fun with it, of course.

Sam Lee: We play off each other's strengths, and I think our different songwriting styles work well together. It's definitely a case where two plus two does not equal four--I think working together has allowed us to make music we never could of thought of on our own.

ABC: You recorded most of the album during a trip the two of you took to France. What unique challenges did recording an album on the road present?

Lee: It was a pretty lo-fi affair. We hadn't been planning on doing any recording, so we didn't have any of our recording equipment. We did nearly the entire record on my Macbook using Garageband and the built-in microphone, and even though it wasn't an ideal situation, I think it really helped push our songwriting in new directions. I don't think we could have made the same album if we were at home in a studio.

Caplow: The fact that we only have a laptop and an acoustic guitar forced us to focus on the songwriting and less about live instrumentation arrangements. Sometimes it was hard to find a quiet space to record, and waking others up at night was always a worry, especially considering the wailing qualities of some of the vocals. People generally thought we were pretty weird, but we were also able to get some positive feedback as we were finishing our first rough demos, which was encouraging.