Exclusive: Sister Ray Captures “Magic” on New Single

If you perform under a name that’s shared with a great Velvet Underground song, then you’ve got my support. That’s the case for Sister Ray, the Edmonton-born, Toronto-based performer whose sophomore album, Believer, is set to arrive on April 4 via Royal Mountain Records. Coming off of their debut, Communion, which was long-listed for the Polaris Prize in 2022, Sister Ray summoned Jon Nellen to fill out their band, a dynamic on cathartic display during “Magic.” Beginning with a seriously heavy dose of piano and guitar, not unlike Oasis’ “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” “Magic” slowly uncoils into a pensive singer-songwriter ballad. Anchored by Sister Ray’s vocal, the single floats into a woodwind climax where a saxophone gives the country-colored, wounded melody an extra expanse of intimacy.

Sister Ray says of “Magic”: “While writing this record, I became obsessed with capturing what it felt like to look ahead at the future as a child. The older I get, the more distance I feel from the version of life I had imagined back then—the wonder that refused to be contained. There’s a great resilience in childhood that I long for, and an instinctual determination to discover, which I find far more elusive in adulthood. Yet, I believe that if I dared to be so brave then, I must still know that bravery now. ‘Magic’ is both a lullaby for time past and a testament to imagination in the future.”

Watch the visualizer for “Magic” below.