KEATON HENSON RETURNS WITH NEW SINGLE “LAZY MAGICIAN” – FT. JULIA STEINER (RATBOYS)
Credits: Danielle Fricke (Keaton Henson) – Amanda Specht (Julia Steiner)
Today, enigmatic polymath Keaton Henson returns with an emotive new single titled “Lazy Magician”. The track marks his first new material since 2024’s instrumental album Somnambulant Cycles and is co-written with Ratboys’ Julia Steiner.
WATCH THE LYRIC VIDEO HERE
This new material hints at Henson beginning to shed the “quiet boy” persona that has defined much of his career – if we’re to omit his myriad efforts composing for film and theatre, an electronic side project, his classical offerings, his illustration and writing work – those preconceived notions might find themselves gradually yielding to a welcome reappraisal.
Embracing the grunge-infused sounds of his youth, the new single sees the elusive songwriter lace fuzzy distortion and surging guitars amongst the confessional vulnerability that has long been a hallmark of his offerings. Produced by Luke Sital-Singh, “Lazy Magician” is a downtrodden duet that unfolds like a wistful daydream with Henson singing “I’m a lazy amateur magician / I can’t even make myself disappear” over muted chords, with Steiner replying “I’m a faulty high flying acrobat / I can hardly get myself out of bed,” before the track launches into a soaring hook-inflected section, which nods as much to 90s power-pop as it does 00s American indie-led garage-rock.
Speaking on the single, Henson explains: “Julia’s voice is so evocative of that sound to me, it reminds me of when I first heard Rilo Kiley. She has a lot of the suburban magic-realism of the American bands I loved back then.”
I wrote the guitar parts and first lines to the drum machine and we both sort of just free-wrote the rest. Allowing our subconscious to form the narrative. I like that it’s almost like these two lonely souls singing next to each other, but sometimes over each other, like we’re so lost in our own self-reflection we’re unaware we’re in a duet.”
HEAR / SHARE “LAZY MAGICIAN” HERE
Those acquainted with his work will surely be familiar with his well-worn reputation as a softly spoken, reclusive figure who rarely performs live – in a 15-year career he’s performed less than 40 times. Since emerging with his debut record Dear… in 2010, Henson has garnered critical acclaim for his mastery at weaving heart-on-sleeve vulnerability into emotionally poignant, folk-tinged outpourings. No stranger to anxiety’s heavy weight, he’s earned a devoted fan base from a self-imposed distance – shying from the spotlight to offer up the finite part of himself he’s willing to give away. “Sadness,” he once confessed, “is a feeling of which I have an excess of.”
This new sound might start to defy preconceptions of the reclusive balladeer. In a nod to his tender tone, Henson’s oft-met comparison to Elliott Smith, while The Independent once dubbed him the “British Jeff Buckley”, but, like the aforementioned pair, his early beginnings also took root in far heavier sounds. “Prior to being a folk thing I played in hardcore and emo bands,” he shares. “It’s definitely pulling from the things I listened to when I was young, but they’re being spat out through the lens of me and my career now. It’s a weird ‘me’ version of that stuff musically.”
From early days in London and his career as a visual artist – illustrating for the likes of Enter Shikari, Dananananaykroyd, and Oli Sykes’ Drop Dead – to the overwhelm of musical renown and his retreat from LA, to the here and now; 37 years old, married, chopping wood in the quietude of his countryside home, there is a wealth of life experience for Henson to draw from. Yet in this moment, he comes somewhat full circle with apparitions of a young Keaton loitering outside the local skate shop, a teenager catching American hardcore acts in the suburbs of South London.
“I was nervous about being too loud, but then it sort of just came out,” he explains. With more new material in the works, “Lazy Magician” leaves us in anticipation to hear what else might reveal itself as Henson continues to step out and show more of who he is, and everything that has brought him to this point.
