MAGNOLIA show their bruises on 'Omaha Beach' - Debut EP Out This Friday
Fully committed Norwich art-punk seven-piece, MAGNOLIA trail their imminent, intense and sophisticated debut EP with latest single…
Omaha Beach
Completing a three-year journey of personal sacrifice as their limits were found and broken, MAGNOLIA release the Omaha EP this Friday
Five songs of intense creation lie in wait for listeners, with the band taking time to offer a track-by-track guide to their unfamiliar terrain
MAGNOLIA –Omaha Beach
OUT NOW
From the debut EP Omaha released Fri 30 May 2025
Shake! Shake! Records
www.shakeshakerecords.co.uk
** CLICK FOR VIDEO / AUDIO **
It’s worth doing when nothing is left over by the time it’s done and for Norwich’s hotly-tipped avant folk-punk collective, MAGNOLIA, the bruising making of their debut EP, Omaha, has immersed, fractured and restored each of their lives. With the intense, dark beauty of intricate, wrought creation, the band has completed the five-track collection of wild, whimsical, delicate and courageous song building for release this Fri 30 May 2025.
The EP’s path to being is beaten one more time with the release of MAGNOLIA’S latest single, Omaha Beach, another finely detailed, mood shifting undulation of equally harmonious and discordant sound and sentiment. Following both a busy period of unmissable live dates, including colliding with contemporaries in support for Gurriers and Man/Woman/Chainsaw and their own, energetic headline dates at venues including London’s The George Tavern, the EP completes three years of meticulous work in the rehearsal room and studio for the multi-instrumental seven-piece.
Looking sideways to the abandon and broad sonic palettes of bands and artists including Maruja, Opus Kink and Geordie Greep, the band’s latest single swings from oceanic, instrumental drift to laconic precision. Drawn from the bleakness of noir film to eventually express the purity of love, Omaha Beach is a creature untethered.
“’Omaha Beach’ was made to be war music; we wanted it to be heavy and rocking,” says guitarist and vocalist, George Rodgers. “Lyrically it was inspired by the film ‘Come And See’ which is incredibly bleak, however the lyrics at the end were only conceived during the recording of the song. They became a tribute to people I care about in life as they have helped me stay sane during the creation of this music. At times writing and recording has caused us to become manic and stressed, but the people in our lives that love us kept us grounded.”
Applying their gesamtkunst approach to the band, tying studio and stage together with sound and visuals, MAGNOLIA made sure that Omaha Beach closed out the EP with its own filmic farewell. Rodgers continues: “We added the ending later as I wanted the EP to go out with a much more cinematic ending, initially it was a much heavier finale but it didn’t feel like it gave much closure to the project. Now it definitely does.”
The band’s return to their native Norwich, where they are immersed in the support of local fans and the artistic community, comes next month to mark the release of the EP and cast eyes forward to what could possibly follow their first, cohesive and hard-won body of recordings. Regular visitors to the capital, MAGNOLIA also line-up a brace of shows at Brixton’s The Windmill in May and June. All of the confirmed, upcoming MAGNOLIA live dates are as follows:
Sat 31 May: London, The Windmill Brixton
Sat 14 June: London, The Windmill Brixton
Fri 13 June: Norwich, Norwich Arts Centre
Fri 25 July: Sheffield, Tramlines Festival
Tue 14 – Sat 18 October: Norwich, Wild Paths Festival
Whilst not all of the EP’s five-strong track-listing will be a surprise to listeners, having released the rush of Five Hundred in late 2024, following up with Under The Gaze in March, an extended release of such sophistication never tires of deeper exploration. Committed to leaving much to interpretation at the same time as explaining what they can of the songs that emerge from their friendship and artistic union, MAGNOLIA offer the following track-by-track guide to their Omaha EP:
Track 1. Iceland
“Iceland is the song that’s opened our set for a very long time, initially it was much shorter until we decided to add the build in the middle that has a very intense, relentless drop, “Rodgers says. “The lyrics on this one aren’t about anything in particular, they are mainly just based on feelings of self-doubt in my harsh, self-critical way of making music. As a band when we make music we want to fully commit to, no half measures. The song creates a feeling of a crumbling city and makes us as a band ready to go to war on stage all night. It is also a mission statement for this EP; nothing is too much.”
Track 2. Five Hundred
“Five Hundred was written early in our time together as a band, with minor changes since,” Adam Turner, singer and bassist, says. “The lyrics overall don’t have any major personal meaning to me, it’s a sort of story or journey about a rather emotionally dark subject, yet one I have only observed rather than experienced. That being said, there are a few lines which hold greater relevance than others and can be put to any situation and taken into different interpretations making it more widely resonant.”
Track 3. Thorns
“This song was conceived by the rest of the band whilst Daisy and I were at university,” says Rodgers. “We wanted to merge more ambient sections with funkier, more danceable sections that come into the song later on. Lyrically the song is about people taking shortcuts, in life and in art, and how shortcuts, whilst they seem appealing, always end up leaving you in a situation you aren’t ready or prepared for. As a band we don’t want to take shortcuts and we want to work hard and make sure our music is ready for bigger and better stages before we get there.”
Track 4. Under The Gaze
““’Under The Gaze’ has been changed multiple times to a point where it’s almost unrecognisable compared to how it began,” says Turner. “I am massively proud of this song, Lyrically, it follows the journey of a fictional protagonist who gets hurled into a series of events. That’s probably as much detail as I’ll give, as I like to leave it to the listener to decipher much of what we create. However, it takes the stories and ideologies of religion, cults and harsh landscapes all into consideration.”
Forming in 2022, Rodgers and Turner are joined in MAGNOLIA by their band mates, Daisy Green (saxophone), Tom Reynolds (percussion/programming), Matthew Creegan (guitar), Harrison Peek (drums), Matthew Cassie (trombone).
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