Magic Number is Ross Hillard, a slow-paced, orchestral composer whose engineering and bass playing can be experienced across a variety of releases. Among others, these include Louie Vega, DJ Spen, Kerri Chandler, Lay-Far and Atjazz, the founder of Mantis Recordings and the eponymous label behind this release. ‘Badly Written Songs’ is, of course, an ironic title. It comprises a variety of carefully structured and well-produced compositions, topped with live instrumentation, commanding vocal performances and high-level production – the result of years of experience in sound engineering and music production. The album features the voices of Sophia Marshall, Clyde and Angela Armstrong.
We have had the pleasure of interviewing him and this has been the result.
Hello! Where can we find you right now? How did you start your day?
In the studio recording with Louie Vega, coffee and a long drive to the studio
When did the idea of starting a project like yours begin to form? Has it always been something you wanted to do?
I started it when I went to South Africa with Atjazz and realised that a track on my first album “That Day” called ‘Fly Away” was a massive hit out there. No one get’s PRS from South Africa, so I had no idea haha. I wrote a second album, Hated it, popped it in the bin and started it again, and here we are now.
How would you define the sound of your latest work?
Quirky, friendly, sometimes funny.
What artists are you interested in these days?
No one. I write a lot of music under different guises/ artist names and don’t want to be influenced in my writing, so If I listen to music it tends to be in genres that I don’t write in.
How do you manage to combine such disparate genres? How do you manage to give them unity and harmony? What do they have in common for you?
I always start with rhythms and then quickly build chords and a melody around them but I’m essentially a songwriter after that I add the layers. When I’m doing an album I tend to pick a certain amount of timbres to use and stick with that so it gives the album a continuity and cohesion. I’m a bit mental and collect synthesisers so at the beginning of the project I went through all of my synthesisers and created about 5 sounds that I then used across the album. The fascination with horns is that I was just writing a big band album and really liked the sound, So I tried combining that with the synths and my quirky sometimes jazzy dram programming and that’s how this album sounds.
How would you define your sound?
As above
Can you tell us something about your current or future projects?
I have a jazz record I’m working on. Very 1950’s sounding. Two other electronic projects under a different name. The third Magic Number is nearly written. We are doing a live Magic Number album in my studio “the paddocks” I’m doing the music for a documentary on the history of Broadway.
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