Ian Abel On The New Ian Abel Band Single “20’s Magic,” Coronavirus Sentiments & More

The Ian Abel Band is a Los Angeles-based rock outfit led by guitar player and primary songwriter, Ian Abel. Abel — originally from Louisville, Kentucky — has a solid trio of musicians backing him, including native New Yorker Kenny Schwartz on drums, guitarist (and friend since high school) Westray Tackett, and bassist Karthik Suresh. The group’s song “Shoes” was notably licensed in May 2019 to All Elite Wrestling for a promotional video to help build up the historic in-ring fight between brothers Cody and Dustin Rhodes at the company’s inaugural pay-per-view, Double Or Nothing.

The latest single from Ian Abel and crew — as released last month on February 20, 2020 — is “20’s Magic.” Abel opened up to me about the new song with an exclusive interview via e-mail: “This is the song that started it all. We weren’t ready, but we were toying with the notion of going into a studio to record 5 or 6 half-produced songs. In talking about it with Kenny, my drummer, he threw out the idea of slowing it down and pre-producing everything in our lock-out space.” With a hint of humility, Abel is happy with the results of all this: “Reluctantly I agreed, but thank God I did.”

Continued Abel about “20’s Magic”: “The following Saturday, while nursing a wicked hangover, I got a call from him asking if I wanted to get together and lay down the first song. Begrudgingly I threw on some jeans, grabbed my ax, stopped to get a 12 pack of beer and meandered on over to the spot. That 13-hour session became the spark for what would eventually lead us into United Recording Studios, a licensing deal with the AEW and our music being played around the world.”

Noted Abel about the aforementioned drummer of the Ian Abel Band: “Kenny has often said that when we were at a crossroads, he decided to see this through because there was 1 song in particular that struck a chord with him. That song is our next release and it is titled ’20’s Magic.'”

The creative inspiration behind “20’s Magic” came from an unexpected place for Abel, as he told The Hype: “I wrote ’20’s Magic’ with a different meaning, but the recoding and the release fell perfectly in line with the new year so we thought, let’s hold it a couple of months and let it be the anthem for the next decade. Little did we know that 2020 would bring about a damn pandemic.” He continued after a quick laugh: “It’s a song about hopes and going after dreams while staring mortality in the face. The more I think about it, especially now, maybe this is an anthem to help get us through this extremely uneasy and uncertain time we’re living in. And if it doesn’t resonate that way with someone else, then maybe they’ll just play it over and over again for the big 80’s style harmony leads.”

In closing, Abel looks at the song with a lot of optimism: “’20’s Magic,’ at it’s best, is an anthem for dreamers. At it’s worst, a dynamite of an alt-rock song that incorporates a unique blend of classic 80’s pop/metal themes over top of latin rhythms. It’s like great bourbon; keeps getting better with age.”

Official tour dates, band news, music video links and plenty more about the Ian Abel Band can be found online by visiting the group’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ianabelband.

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Tags: 20's Magic, AEW, All Elite Wrestling, Cody Rhodes, Ian Abel, Ian Abel Band, United Recording Studios

About the Author

Darren Paltrowitz Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."