Stephen Magnusson
Born 13 February 1969
Stephen's infatuation with music began at the very young age of two.” one of my first words I spoke was Sissy sa (guitar). I remember the first time I saw an electric guitar. It was a Saturday morning video show and I was dumbfounded! It looked incredible.

NOTE: the white guitar that Stephen actually saw on Sherbets "howz that" was a bass guitar...

Stephen began performing at the age of 10 on an electric guitar his school teacher had lent him (thank you Mick Sydenham) and continued to play in bands until the age of 15 when he enrolled at Box hill TAFE (more thanks to Gordon Pendleton) "Box hill was great opportunity for me to hone my skills and be further exposed to improvised and pre composed music".

During his time at TAFE Stephen auditioned for the Victorian College of the Arts and was accepted. At the VCA Stephen studied under the supervision of Tony Gould, Bob Sedergreen and Mike Doyle. After graduating from the VCA Stephen spent the next 2 years playing and practicing as much as possible.

"I joined Reggae bands, jazz trio's, groove bands, I didn't care... I just wanted to improve my craft! I also found teaching a great way of reviewing the material that I was practicing".

By his early 20s Stephen had performed and recorded with many renowned musicians in Melbourne. It was time to travel "I think I reached a point when it was time to see the world. So I ended up in Europe for 2 years playing and traveling ". During those two years away I spent a large part of it playing with an Argentinean drummer named Sergio Beresovsky whom I'd met in Switzerland. We really developed a nice duo sound (check out Healing Songs to get an idea) and would play as much as we could".

After being appointed on staff at The Academy of Contemporary Music- Zurich in 1997 Stephen started performing regularly with Sergio and Swedish Bassist Björn Meyer.

"We found ourselves a gig in an old rundown train and would play there every week. After some time we really started to develop our own sound".

In July of that year fellow Australian Saxophonist Julien Wilson traveled to Zurich to play with the trio. What started out as a vehicle to express more guitar based music soon expanded with the added color and personality of Julien. "It really developed over that first week of playing and recording". The end product of that first week was the band SNAG's self titled CD (re released as 'Hey Guess What' on Jazz head in Australia

Stephen received rave review in Switzerland and was in demand as a player and teacher performing throughout the country regularly with SNAG and many other ensembles. He was awarded two grants through the Arts council POP KREDIT and was nominated for the Swiss Fellowship award in 1999. After 3 years of living in Zurich Stephen returned to Melbourne in August 2000. He was co-winner of the National Jazz Award at Wangaratta Jazz Festival where he performed with his trio. The recorded result is captured on the CD 'Healing Songs’ in 2001 Stephen spent time back in Europe, touring throughout Germany and Switzerland. In October Stephen brought SNAG to Australia for an East Coast tour and appeared at the Wangarratta Jazz Festival. Snag also recorded a series of new compositions. (Previously unreleased check out discography)

In 2002 Stephen spent time in the Northern Territory playing music in Aboriginal communities before returning to Melbourne and forming the band Facelifter (tracks available on discography page)

In 2003, 2004 and 2005 were extremely busy and productive years for Stephen, performing or/ recording with Christine Sullivan, Frank Disario (Boundaries group), Peter Knight, Wilson/Grant/Magnusson trio, Alcohotlicks, Alison Wedding , Martin Breeze's Blackbird, Michelle Nicole, Geoff Hughes, David Shea’s Cinema 21-87, Sam Keevers Nonet, Mike Nock Project, Ted Vining trio, Jim Black, Chris Hale Ensemble, Assumptions trio, Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter, Andrew Gander, Australian Art Orchestra, Mistaken Identity, Paul Williamson’s Hammond combo, Julien Wilson Quartet.

Stephen now lives in Melbourne where he performs regularly at venues and Festivals throughout the country, Stephen's new trio CD 'MAG' is out now (Check out the discography page for a sample!)

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