MAESTROWORKS
Bringing a hard-rock swagger and the majesty of metal to their own brand of prog rock, Magic Pie break a six-year studio silence with Maestro. Frontman Eiríkur Hauksson tells Prog about being a metalhead in a prog world, writing songs at bus stops, and feeling the heat on Cruise To The Edge.
Words: David West
It took a while for Magic Pie to find their muse, but it was inside them all along!
Images: Jørn Mortensen riter’s block – is there any
Wcondition more dreadful to a creative soul? The very anathema of the muses that bestow inspiration, that fearsome struggle to bring art into the world plays a key role in Maestro, the new album from Norway’s Magic Pie. The record is bookended by the two-part Opus Imperfectus, the story of a composer struggling to find the perfect ending to complete their masterpiece. The subject seems apposite when Magic Pie’s fans endured a six-year dry spell between 2019’s Fragments Of The 5th Element and the arrival of Maestro.
“This was far too long,” says Icelandic-born frontman Eiríkur Hauksson. “That was never intended. I think it started with Covid. Many bands used that period to go into the studio and work on stuff. Hail to them. We somehow just fell apart.”