Magi Merlin Is Building Her Own ‘POWER HOUSE’
Photo Credit: Sophia Perras
Montreal’s Magi Merlin is making some of the most adventurous and genre-bending music you will hear this year. I should really say genre-”breaking” as Magi alongside her collaborator Funkywhat specialize in a singular form they have coined Broken R&B, that brings all sorts of different genre influences under the form of R&B. It is truly singular and is pushing the form forward, as really, most of us listen to all sorts of genres in a given day, so why be stifled under boring rules? Why can’t an R&B song have drum & bass influence or punk drums? This is the reason why Magi Merlin is an artist to watch and her debut album POWER HOUSE is one of the most exciting releases of 2026. She is an artist on the rise, as she appeared in Chandler Levack’s excellent film Mile End Kicks and recently opened for Khalid, so it was a true pleasure to get to speak to her for REVERIE.
Below, read how Broken R&B was born, the origins of some of key tracks on POWER HOUSE (and the origin of the “Power House” concept as a whole), in addition to why she is proud to rep Montreal, which remains one of the most exciting music cities in the world.
REVERIE: We are coming up on a few months since the release of Powerhouse into the world and I know you have done a lot of touring, like some shows in France. How has it been and what have been some highlights from these few months?
Magi Merlin: It’s been super amazing to play the project live and have it be available to people in general. There are a few tracks that are older that we’ve been playing for the last couple of years so it’s just been kind of special to have the opportunity to play it for people who actually might know the music, where it’s not always a discovery but this experience we are able to share with the building of our community. It’s been really, really special. On a personal note, I have been feeling more comfortable on stage, so that’s been really cool.
REVERIE: I want to go back for a second, as I read some really fun origin stuff, like how one of the first CDs your dad bought you in elementary school was Nelly’s Nellyville, which I have fond memories of that era of Nelly too. I know you were inspired by Destiny’s Child early on, and Brandy, who has the nickname the Vocal Bible, for how she pioneered stacking harmonies and the micro-harmonies. Talk about how this era of music inspired you early on and if it still might influence the music you make today.
Magi Merlin: It’s funny because my parents have their own style of music that they enjoyed and played. My dad, I remember him listening to “Candy Rain” by Soul For Real, which I still listen to today sometimes. It was kind of a sprinkle of their influences, but honestly, I felt like growing up I had a lot of, since my parents were not super music-orientated people, they would listen to music, but it wasn’t at the forefront of their mind. I actually listened to a lot of classical music with my family in the car, it was cool as I got to sort of play with storytelling when it came to music. Something my dad and I would do is play the classical music station on the radio and we would make up stories of what was happening in the piece of music. That definitely stuck with me in developing my brain at an early age.
That’s kind of what I was really growing up with. I really had a blank slate growing older, and when I realized making music is what I wanted to do with my life, I was able to find my own influences from scratch, because I was not super influenced by my parents and their tastes. So I would do some research, i’d listen to the jazz cats like Frank Sinatra and Etta James, a lot of older blues music, and then i’d get into rock, like Oasis and the Rolling Stones, then a lot of indie rock, at the time in my high school years, listening to YouTube, and the radio hits. It was really cool to have that opportunity to not necessarily pick up what my parents were putting down, but once I got into the world, I would be like “let’s test everything!” and pick all of these different things that make the most sense to me, figuring out what I want to feel when I listen to music.
REVERIE: That kind of gets into Broken R&B, the genre you and Funkywhat coin for your music, on how R&B remains a touchstone, but it straddles all of these different genres. For example, Janet Jackson is one of my favourites and I love the records she made with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, where those records took you on a journey, straddling genres, all of these fun interludes, and I felt that same feeling with Powerhouse. Talk about Broken R&B.
Magi Merlin: When me and Funkywhat started making music, we weren’t really sure what we were doing at the time. We were just like “let’s make stuff!” When we started landing on things, I think it was after we just finished the last demo for “Wtver” the drum & bass track, we were like “what exactly are we doing?” We were kind of pushing our own boundaries, not even intentionally, it was very natural, as we have a lot of influences. Like I was saying before, touching on a lot of different genres, it continued into my early adulthood, and the same goes for Funkywhat, he has so many different influences.
When we were coming together, there was stuff we both listened to and connected with, like Sly & The Family Stone, and then there was also a lot of stuff I was listening to that he was not touching, like the soft indie, guitar-driven stuff, that was so me in high school, and he didn’t know that music at all. So all of these different things, these punk influences too. The bedrock was R&B, because I had been for the last couple of years saying my genre was alternative R&B. As we started developing this sound and making more music, we realized that alternative R&B might not be the right label anymore. So we just landed on Broken R&B, in the best way possible, being able to chip away at different parts of different genres. I love the driving drums in punk and how loud and aggressive it is, but then I also love a lot of harmonies in my music, and a lot of lyricism that is singer/songwriter.
So we were just kind of chipping away at all of these different genres and creating this mosaic. It is kind of like the Japanese artform of Kintsugi, of broken pottery attached with gold, it kind of reminds me of that. “Broken” is a positive! To be able to tear apart and put back together exactly how you want it to be is quite a gift we are able to do with globalization and having access to so much music and so many different things. You can just do research and dig into so many different areas, to find and connect to things that you wouldn’t have been able to know otherwise.
Photo Credit: Sophia Perras
REVERIE: I have been playing Powerhouse since July, it is endlessly replayable. The care that you and Funkywhat put into the album, the production aspect, there are so many cool effects. Talk about the recording process for Powerhouse.
Magi Merlin: The recording process, I find it quite lax in a way, as we are very much in that generation of home studios and buying equipment that is not so expensive. Like if it’s a mic that is sort of mid, we can go to Ableton in post and buy a couple plug-ins that are $30 and kind of tweak things that make it sound nice. In terms of the recording process, it’s maintaining this sort of homely-ness, this comfortable aspect. I am never in the traditional recording studio scenario, where I am in a studio behind the mic, and Funkywhat is in another room across the way behind the glass. When I am recording, he is usually right next to me at a desk, it’s the most janky set-up, shit is like taped together, and we are recording in that way. A lot of the music for Powerhouse, we recorded at a cottage, which is not the best environment for recording vocals, with the high ceilings, but it was fine. Vibe over everything, you know? We recorded half of the album in his apartment living room and half at a cottage. I always felt safe to experiment and try stuff, to be like “oh I don’t want to do that, let’s scrap that and do something else.” So the recording process is really about maintaining this accessibility, as anyone could have recorded it this way.
REVERIE: There was a great quote I saw you say, where you were talking about your creative process, and how at the pace that you and Funkywhat make music, you don’t overthink it, which I think is so true. I saw you shout out Del Close, speaking as a comedy nerd I appreciated that, which comes from the improv school where they flat out say don’t think, just create. How did that help you create your art?
Magi Merlin: I feel lucky, as I was able to have that sort of mentality reinforced by Funkywhat as he’s very much like that, where it’s like “do not stick on this!” There’s no point in getting stuck in the nuances, we are all about moving forward and trying things. If it is really bothering you later, then you could touch on it again, but to be able to move and create and go fast is super fun. It’s so entertaining. It's the ADHD brain at work, where it’s like “go go go! I am over this, let’s do something new!” That is really fun and I love working that way. I try to bring that into all of the sessions that I have, even if it’s by myself.
I actually work quite fast on my own. If I am tracking vocals, where I can be like “I don’t like that! ctrl-Z! ctrl-Z! Erase, let’s do it again!” Even working with other people, it’s a liberating sensation, as you realize if we are getting stuck, we can stop and try something else! If somebody is messing around on the keys and there’s something interesting happening, we can pause that idea and hop on this train and keep moving forward. Actually quite a few of the songs we have made, we were working on one track and then Funkywhat is messing around on the CS, and we are like “oh this is so cool! Let’s record!!” so we open up another project and keep it going like that. It’s really fun to be able to work this way and almost override the self-critical voice that can slow a lot of people down. It’s like, you are making a lot of amazing stuff and the self-sabotage, and the self-critic inside you is like “is that good tho? Is it?” Stop asking questions and just move forward!
REVERIE: I fully agree, it’s a great way to live. You are based out of Montreal, one of the great music cities in the world. I have spotlighted a lot of my favs in Montreal for Reverie, like Marlaena Moore and Knitting, it’s such a great music city. What do you love about being part of Montreal?
Magi Merlin: I think you are totally right, it is such a fantastic musical city with so many different musicians who are pushing in so many different directions. It’s like a small quiet city but at the same time it’s so vibrant and exciting, in all of the different scenes. It’s not just music, but the art scene in general. There are so many incredible designers, there are people making jewelry, it’s crazy. Specifically when it comes to music, there are so many people in my own personal circle that I love and admire and that I learn from all the time. For example, Fraud Perry is a really crazy artist, a rapper/singer who does post punk sometimes. Kaya Hoax is great. Jashim is Latinx artist who is kind of reggaeton. There’s so much cool music coming out of Montreal that I think people should be checking in way more often. I feel really inspired by living here and it is consistent. There is always somebody new coming up to pay attention to.
REVERIE: I know for myself as a music fan, as the end of the year rolls around, there’s always at least a few Montreal artists who are on my favourite albums of the year list, Powerhouse certainly included. I want to discuss some of my favourite tracks from the album, beginning with “EAT!ME!OUT” There are some really cool jazz elements on it, there’s a sax I think at some point, and then it ends with Freak Master on the outro, which really ties it together. Talk about the origin and creation of this song.
Magi Merlin: It’s one of the older tracks from the record. When it comes to the themes, I was thinking of Funkadelic with that big grandiose intro, and the same thing with Freak Master, he is inspired by the textural, kind of grand thing similar to Funkadelic. I love this idea of the overseer. We have this all-knowing version of ourselves, the intuition basically, that is what the Freak Master is for me, this internal knower. I thought it was also nice to attach the Freak Master to this track, as the song is talking about living as a woman, the consistent contradictions that we face as women, and moving on in the world and just being challenged because we are alive and walking down the street. The intro to the song kind of has that in the lyrics, you are breaking necks and acting as if you “wanted it,” like people are craning to look at you because you look really good but it’s your fault somehow that people are taking a peek and harassing you. I was trying to make it a bit tongue in cheek and a bit dramatic. I think it’s cool to have space where you can be loud and boisterous, taking up space.
REVERIE: Another one I want to shout out and talk about is “Crawl” which is SUCH a cool song. You want to talk about Broken R&B. This song sounds like it was broken apart and you are putting the pieces back together later or something, it’s such a great listen and so inventive. Discuss the origins of Crawl.
Magi Merlin: Funkywhat and I were in Amsterdam with one of our friends, Gayance, who is a crazy producer, who is now based in Lisbon, but is originally from Montreal. We were staying at her place at the time in Amsterdam, we made another track called “collect$$$save” and this song, “Crawl.” With this process of constant movement of, “oh we’re done with that! Next one, next one!” we were going through samples that Gayance had on her computer, we were like “let’s play around with this.” It’s always really fun to make music in different environments, it pulls from different parts of your brain. If you are in a new place, it’s always very interesting to write and make music, so we were lucky to have that environment. So “Crawl” was really fun to make, there are some really little audio artifacts of us in the apartment and me messing around with my water bottle. It’s a real time capsule, even for me, of that movement. I call it my Bette Davis movement, I was channeling her!
REVERIE: Along those lines, “Salt” is in a similar way, this under 90 second song that is all jagged edges, but it’s so compelling, and then you end on some dialog, bringing that together. How did Salt come to be?
Magi Merlin: At the time we were listening to a lot of Liv.e, she’s a crazy musician. There’s this really engaging use of looping, essentially smashing your fingers on a keyboard and then topping it up and that is now the rhythm section of a sound. To have all of these different sounds which sound random but as you loop them, it puts them in context. I really love “Salt” for that and I love the subject matter, pulling on these contradictions of how hard we are working to climb to the top of this mountain, where it seems like a rigged game. I am kind of playing this cocky character of what I am singing and saying but at the end of the track I am like, everybody’s salty, everybody’s jealous, but then I am also salty, because there really is no end to that. The peak of the mountain is within, there is no way to find it externally. I really like that track, as it really gets into a dense topic in only 90 seconds.
REVERIE: It really works! All of the music is really wonderful to listen to. There is always something going on, which I love.
Magi Merlin: for sure! It’s that ADHD Brain!
Photo Credit: Sophia Perras
REVERIE: It makes it perfect for replays, as when you listen again, I am like “oh I never heard that!” There’s a lot of cool stuff. I discussed the live experience to begin, how has it been to translate these songs from the Power house record into a live environment?
Magi Merlin: It’s been really, really cool and special to be getting attention outside of our home city of Montreal and home country of Canada, but I am excited to return home to showcase the music to the people and places I have grown up with and am representing. There’s pieces of where I am from in the music. I am super excited to be able to play for my people. It’s been super special to almost practice outside of home and then prepare for the home game! It’s like for the home game you gotta pull out all the stops and show up for the people! It’s exciting.
REVERIE: I love what I have heard you say about the positive, hopeful core of the Power house album, of how capable we are as human beings. We are our own Powerhouse, which begins with ourselves. Elaborate more on the themes from the record and the feeling of being a Powerhouse.
Magi Merlin: I feel like the way I have been describing the record, the Powerhouse, is like having a bunch of different rooms with a bunch of different emotions, with a lot of contradictions. One thing that I kept coming face to face with was my own contradictions and how difficult that can be sometimes to be face to face with the “you” you want to be, to be the best version of yourself. All of this other shit that is very human and it makes a lot of sense, but it can be hard to look at is “I just want to be perfect! I want to make change! I want to show up! I want to do well!” So coming face to face with accepting those contradictions and difficult feelings, it has shown me that it is also powerful.
That is what empathy is, ultimately. I think that is the most powerful tool a human being can have, being empathetic, to place yourself in another situation. When you are really taking a minute and looking at yourself, looking at different rooms and feelings and accepting that, it makes it way easier the world around you and the decisions that people sometimes make and their contradictions. You are then way kinder and accepting and understanding of that. That is also the key to finding answers to how we can make it so that the majority of us are safe, healthy and happy and surrounded by love. That should be a humanitarian goal for the majority of the world, that shouldn’t be a crazy thing to say, unfortunately sometimes it can be.
There is always going to be push back. I feel like looking at the world this way, looking at myself this way, it enables you to have more stamina for the hard parts. There is always going to be shit that’s like “why is that person doing that?” It makes you think, “let me take a minute to see where they are coming from” and then counteract that and find balance. It’s really dense, there’s a lot to think about, I love that as a position to write from.
REVERIE: I agree, those themes come through on the record. Is there anything else you want to tease that is coming up for you?
Magi Merlin: There are two shows, like I was saying the hometown shows, that I am super excited about. There’s the November 26th show in Montreal that I am super hyped for! Being able to be home and work with all of these artists that I love and can’t exactly afford to bring with me on the road yet. I can show up and really give it my all and think as much as I want and think and embody POWERHOUSE live for the people that I love in Montreal. There’s also a Toronto gig that I am really excited to play, as they are neighbours. I am really hyped to do that. I am always making music! There is more music on the horizon and more shows, I can’t wait.
REVERIE: It was such a pleasure to speak with you. I don’t know if you have been to Calgary, but we love to have you!
Magi Merlin: I would love to come to Calgary! I would love to come everywhere, honestly, everywhere at home. Canada is home so I am super down to visit all of the homies!