Starting his own legacy

Magnus Ferrell talks new music, creative process, and roots in jazz

Magnus Ferrell is not someone who is willing to let outside opinions define him. At just 20 years old, he is starting to build his own legacy in the arts. Ferrell is currently a sophomore at the University of Southern California, where he studies acting. While acting may be his area of study, Ferrell has more recently gained traction on social media for his music, which he has been steadily releasing on streaming platforms over the last year. Despite his connections in the entertainment industry through his father, actor Will Ferrell, Magnus is focused on building his own path. He released his debut EP, Haven’t Even Started, in April of this year, following the virality of his single, Life or Death. 

Magnus with his father Will Ferrell dressed as a Medieval Lord

Ferrell’s interest in music began early in life, learning how to play piano when he was nine. He credits his mother, who insisted he learn to play an instrument, for his current passion in writing and playing music. 

“My mom got me into piano when I was about 9 years old, which I think about all the time, because thank god she got me into it then, even when I was less willing to do it,” he said. 

Ferrell began to really enjoy playing music when he was introduced to jazz. He became fascinated by music theory and gained an appreciation for the way different styles of music are performed and written. 

“I started to get into jazz when I was about 13 and it helped me understand how music works and how the different aspects of music come together,” he said. “That’s when I simultaneously started writing my own music and realized how much I enjoyed it.” 

Ferrell said that he found writing became therapeutic for him and that he knew it would be an important part of his life from that moment forward. Throughout high school he continued to hone his skills in jazz music, a genre that heavily influenced much of his early work. Music was a main priority for Ferrell, especially when the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to finish high school online. 

“I had a moment when I was 16 or 17, around when COVID started, where I was really able to focus on being more serious about music in general.” he said. 

While playing music had mostly been a hobby, he started to see it as something that could be a greater part of his life, and could even be a career down the road. 

“I went to a pretty academic heavy high school and that’s where I found out that I am not super academically driven as a person,” he said. “Music helped me focus and find what I really like and what drives me.”

He said that finding this excitement for music was an integral part of his college search and helped him make the decision to go to USC after graduating high school.

“I was thinking about what was going to get me into college and what I could see myself doing long-term,” he said. 

Ferrell met one of his closest friends while participating in his school’s jazz band, Gabe Yaron, who shared a similar desire to create music. Yaron would later become the main producer for Ferrell’s work. 

“Jazz is really how I met one of my best friends, Gabe, who basically produced my whole EP in the spring,” he said. “We still work together and I bounce pretty much all my ideas off of him.”

Ferrell at the time of the interview was in Sweden visiting family. He is continuing to write music while traveling and noted that Yaron would even be flying out to join him on his trip. Even when he is on vacation, Ferrell is still driven to create at any time he can. Ferrell said his general songwriting process is fluid, but that his collaboration with his roommate remains one of the steadiest aspects of the process. 

“The creative process really just depends on when inspiration strikes. For example, one of the songs on my new EP that I produced with Gabe was actually written pretty quickly,” he said. “I was just doing the dishes while he was playing guitar in another room. As he was playing, a melody popped into my head. We went straight to the balcony of our apartment and wrote the verses and pre-chorus, and then went to his house to track it the next day.” 

At other times, Ferrell prefers to sit down with Gabe in a more studio-session-oriented environment. Having a close collaborative partner has made it easier to write in any situation, regardless of the tools at hand. 

Ferrell loves to experiment with different genres but notes that most of his early work was heavily influenced by jazz. In addition to his professional training within the genre, Ferrell’s grandfather, Lee Ferrell, was part of a popular jazz band in the 1960s. Most of Ferrell’s favorite musicians fall in line with jazz and r&b. 

“Part of why I love jazz is that there is so much theory involved. It takes a great ear and an ability to improvise. When I was first getting into music, I was mainly doing transcriptions for music I loved- especially Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, and Miles Davis,” he said. 

Ferrell knew he wanted to continue to evolve his sound throughout the next several years, when he became more familiar with pop music and its relation to jazz and groove music. 

“I really came to appreciate pop music because it is actually pretty difficult to create something that is both unique and relatable for the general public.”

“I knew that I didn’t want to do the jazz thing forever, and I really did want to try my hand at pop,” he said. “It’s really crucial in the industry to find a unique sound, and what is cool about pop music is that it's always changing, which is really fun for me.”

The artists that he has more recently channeled in his work are generally singer/songwriters. He’s found that the key to great writing is being able to link his personal experience in jazz music with the sounds of the artists he is currently most interested in. He said that his current favorite musicians to emulate are Bruno Mars (and his band Silk Sonic) and Charlie Puth. He has tried to weave in aspects of their songwriting into his own. 

Lyrically, Ferrell is always striving to share his own personal stories in a way that he thinks will relate to others. He said that a majority of his lyricism stems from a deeply personal place, and that he finds writing about his own experiences and the experiences of those around him feels very natural. 

“I’m always going to write about real things. Whether it's my experience, or a story someone I know has shared with me, it’s always real stuff because it’s much easier to write a real story than to make one up,” he said. “Once you have a blueprint from that real experience, you just need to find a clever way to tell the story. A lot of times, things almost write themselves out in a weird way. Once you have that initial draft, you just need to make sure it's interesting without being overcompensating.” 

In terms of his current goals, Ferrell would love to be in a place to focus solely on his art. As a student, he’s learned how to compartmentalize his time so that he is as focused on his studies as he is on his music. He’s found that finding a good balance of these things has helped him stay afloat. 

“I hope that I get to a point where I don’t have to focus on anything besides my artistic endeavors, but I’m not exactly there yet. I’m not in a place where I can leave school and drop everything,” he said. “So it’s really just figuring out when I have the mental capacity to balance things. I have to make sure that I’m doing my schoolwork before I finish writing a song. But I also have to make sure I am caring for myself as much as I care about my work and all these things I want to do.”

Ferrell’s dedication to his craft and the betterment of himself as a musician is especially important to him- he wants to develop his own identity in the entertainment industry, apart from his family’s impressive reputation. 

“Getting the ‘nepotism baby’ criticism was something I definitely expected. It was going to be inevitable no matter what I decided to do,” Ferrell said. “I do get more exposure and have more eyes on me, but at the end of the day, the cool thing about music is that no matter who you are, who you are related to, who you know or what position you’re in, the music still has to be good and stand out to matter.” 

“I didn’t come into this world, into this existence with innate music skills, I had to work hard to learn music theory and work on my voice and practice instruments. Music is not something you can shy away from and hide in, you need to be actively working to make yourself better,” Ferrell said. 

Ferrell is currently focused mostly on short-term goals of releasing new music and continuing to play live shows. Ferrell said that playing shows is currently his favorite part of his work, and that he is always looking for ways to innovate his live shows.

“Performing live is the driving force in why I make music and why I want to pursue it,” he said. “It’s the best feeling ever- to be able to emotionally affect a room in that way. There’s so much adrenaline and there’s something so special about feeling a connection with people in a room like that.”

Ferrell has plans to continue to release music throughout the fall, and wants his fans to know that he has no plans of stopping anytime soon. In his words, things are only just getting started.

“All I know is that I’m really enjoying music so far. I think my path will continue to be shown to me as I improve and keep writing and releasing. Ultimately I just want to be able to play for as many people as possible and as soon as I can.”