Magneta Lane
| Magneta Lane | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Genres | indie rock |
| Years active | 2003–present |
| Labels |
Paper Bag Records Last Gang Records Splendor House Records eOne Music Canada |
| Website | magnetalane |
| Members | Lexi Valentine (guitar/vox) French (bass) Nadia King (drums) |
Magneta Lane are a Canadian indie rock music group formed in 2003 in Toronto.
The all-female line-up consists of two sisters, Lexi Valentine (vocals and guitar) and Nadia King (drums), and their friend French (bass). The group formed after Valentine and King, then teenagers, attended a concert in Toronto and met the band backstage, deciding that watching a concert was not satisfying enough. The trio came together in the fall of 2003 and spent the next year playing shows in and around their native Toronto and teaching themselves how to play their instruments.
The band released its debut EP, The Constant Lover (EP), in 2004 on Paper Bag Records. The full-length album Dancing with Daggers followed in 2006, and then the band moved to Last Gang Records for 2009's Gambling with God. Following Gambling with God, however, the band ran into label and management changes, and took some time off before reemerging in 2013 with the EP Witchrock. That album was released on the band's own new Splendor House label, with distribution by eOne Music. The band also appeared in k-os' video for "The Dog Is Mine".
Witchrock EP 2013
Magneta Lane – formed in suburban Toronto by Valentine, her sister/drummer Nadia King and one-named bassist French in 2003 – was celebrated on delivery by numerous pundits on both sides of the Canada/U.S. divide as an uncannily pop-savvy trio of teenage ingénues when Paper Bag Records issued its debut EP, The Constant Lover, in 2004. Months and months of hard touring at home and in the States ensued, hardening the band into the notably less naïve outfit that was steered towards a more tantalizingly aggressive sound by producer Jesse Keeler (of Death From Above 1979/MSTRKRFT infamy) on its debut full-length, Dancing With Daggers, in 2006. Magneta Lane’s promise appeared endless. And then … pause. Too much, too young. “We were really young when we started. The media thought we were 19, but we were really 17,” confesses Lexi, while sister Nadia sheepishly admits she was 15 years old when the band started playing clubs around Toronto. “In all honesty, we lied because if you’re not 19 almost no clubs here will let you play their stage.” “Also, people wouldn’t take us seriously,” adds Nadia. “Imagine if they’d known we were 15 or 17.” It was, after all, already – as Lexi puts it – “a thing” that Magneta Lane was a band composed of three young women. And while the band had collectively matured enough to seek legal extrication from its first two recording contracts (“We were really young, and at the time we were just excited to be signed so we really didn’t ask a lot of questions”) in search of a better deal for 2009’s Gambling With God LP, it still didn’t feel like it was being taken seriously. Whenever Lexi dared speak up and ask questions of her new handlers about the album’s release, “it was immediately like they were talking to me as if ‘Lexi just put her big-girl shoes on,’ and that really got me upset. And as soon as that happened, I was like: ‘You know what? We’re out of here.’
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