Mary Magdalan

Mary Magdalan Biography

What happened to all the great bands? It’s the same question that everyone has been asking since the millennium kicked in. The new era said goodbye to countless fallen icons and some of the most innovative sounds to hit listener’s ears in decades. The question is, who will take us out of sonic deprivation?

That void has now been filled with the brutally beautiful sounds of Mary Magdalan. This Hollywood band has burst on the scene at the perfect time and with the similar impact as fellow Tinseltown icons Guns-n-Roses. The sound is the brainchild of Gzus H. and Mary Magdalan, and what started out as a chance meeting led to one of the most intense and honest portrayals of human emotion to hit the music scene. The music is an original blend of smash mouth metal, crunk influenced hip hop, dance infectious industrial and 70’s era punk. What makes this band so potent is their ability to bend these genres into their own original sound and Mary’s vocal portrait of addiction, abandonment and inner turmoil, which she carefully splatters all over these intoxicating soundscapes like blood stains on white linen. The lyrics speak the language of the disenfranchised youth with candid and sincere honesty. Her passion is unrivaled, taking the listener on a rollercoaster ride of emotion, only to leave them feeling gutted, as one may feel after looking Lucifer in the eyes.

Mary Magdalan, the woman, was brought into the world by heroin addict parents. By the age of two she was sent to live with her grandparents, who were raising their two children, Mary’s aunt Terry and Uncle Jimmy. At age three, Mary’s mother attempted to kidnap her and move to California only to find Mary’s father strung out upon arriving to the West Coast. Within 24 hours Mary was back with her Grandparents and her parents lost visitation rights to their only child. Within months of this episode, her aunt Terri, who raised Mary like a little sister, was shot in the head in an attempted car jack. Although the bullet did not kill her aunt, a part of Terri’s soul died on that day. After several brain surgeries, the only solace Terri could find was in heroin, which was introduced to her by Mary’s mother. When Mary entered her teens her entire world started to crumble. First her Aunt died from a seizure. Next her mother was found dead of an aneurism from an accidental overdose. Then her Uncle Jimmy was stomped to death by prison guards in jail. As her Grandfather watched his children die one by one, he soon joined them in the form of lung cancer. That was the final straw that sent Mary spiraling down the hole, which led to severe drug abuse and unbridled psychosis. Mary spun a web that would consume her for many years and drove her from her tainted past in Long island to the land of Rape and Money, Hollywood California.

In a city where sin hovers like smog, the Hollywood life had a tight grasp on Mary. She found solace in cocaine and pills with hefty glasses of Cognac to wash away her pain. Through it all she was crafting a solo music career by putting in time with dance music pioneer Paul Oakenfeld, Shifty Shellshock of Crazy Town and pop hitmaker Damon Elliot . An associate suggested she collaborate with a local it-DJ who was making a significant impact in the Hollywood scene.

Gzus H., who at the time was known as DJ Ray, was making a name as deejay to the stars by entertaining such luminaries as Tom Hanks, Adrien Brody and Leonardo DiCaprio and as a West Coast mixtape icon by launching the career of rap star The Game. After a short meeting about a possible mixtape collaboration, the bond between the two became inseperable.

Bumpy roads soon followed when both Mary and Gzus as they were left to face their demons. Both of them had severe chemical dependencies. “The first thing I told Mary when we first got together was it was either the music or drugs. It couldn’t be both”, explains Gzus of the laws of their bond. Gzus himself was a heavy alcohol and substance abuser and Mary’s substance abuse problems had escalated from exsessive to life threatening. After one final trip down memory lane, Mary and Gzus found themselves clean and sober with their only outlet being music. After six months of countless trashed songs and endless fits of frustration, the birth of Mary Magdalan was found in the form of the song “Rehab”.

During the course of their intervention an ex pharmacist friend suggested a collaboration between Magdalan and unknown guitar wiz EricB. The guitarist’s influences ranged from Dimebag Darrell to Johan Sebastian Bach and he had just received his Masters Degree in Classical Performance. Eric’s wizrd like abilities and knowledge of his instrument were exactly what Magdalan and Gzus needed to complete their puzzle. Within the first few sessions the three connected on classic songs “Wasted” and “Rage”. They holed up in their Hollywood recording studio, aptly named The Junkies Den, for almost a ye