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Talking Tracks: Better Luck Next Time. by Claudine Magbag

The EP is five songs about coming of age and learning how to feel comfortable with how uncomfortable life is.

Dan Ray March 14, 2023
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Talking Tracks: Better Luck Next Time. by Claudine Magbag March 14, 2023

Raised by a single mother in the suburbs of Detroit, Dan discovered an early passion for singing, songwriting, and the arts as a whole. She got her BA in English and music at the University of Michigan, where she reported for the school’s paper, The Michigan Daily. She worked as a Senior News Reporter on the government beat, transitioned to arts writing, and eventually became the managing editor of the social media department. She moved to Seattle in 2017. After losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic and discouraged about the lack of press surrounding Seattle’s music scene, Dan made the decision to turn Dan’s Tunes, a fully fledged music journalism website focused on showcasing the Seattle area’s musicians, into its own startup. There’s so much music happening in the city that spawned Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Jimi Hendrix — among others — and Dan’s Tunes is determined to find and expose those outstanding acts. The goal is to have satellites in every major US city, uplifting diverse and compelling voices and helping music communities thrive. In 2020, Dan was featured in the Seattle Times’s year-end music critic poll. Other than her musical endeavors (singing, playing ukulele, and auditioning for American Idol four times before the age of 24) Ray is passionate about food and education around the American food system, and she’s also a large proponent of eliminating the stigma around mental health. Ray loves cats, especially her own, who is named Macaulay Culkin (but she’s a lady).

Photo by Chris Butcher
On Talking Tracks, music journalist Dan Ray interviews indie artists as they play through their latest drops song by song. It’s a little bit like a curated Spotify playlist, except way more personal and in depth. In each episode, you’ll get to listen to the full album or EP right alongside the artist’s inspiration behind the tracks. Think Miley Cyrus’s Disney+ Backyard Sessions but with an artist you (probably) haven’t heard of (yet). Season two focuses on Seattle musicians.

Seattle bedroom R&B artist Claudine Magbag released their second EP, Better Luck Next Time, on April 8, 2022. In this episode of Talking Tracks, Dan and Claudine break down the meaning behind and the making of each song on the project — five songs about coming of age and learning how to feel comfortable with how uncomfortable life is.

Listen below and subscribe to the full podcast here. Scroll down to see our photo story of the live recording. This episode was recorded at The Rendezvous with sound by Sean Aragon.

Track listing:
1. Aria – 16:05.
2. Over Again – 30:23.
3. Right Now – 42:30.
4. Dezzie – 58:46.
5. Better Luck Next Time. – 1:09:01.

Listen to the recorded album here.

2018 Sound Off! semifinalist Claudine Magbag released their second EP, Better Luck Next Time., on April 8, 2022.

Claudine decided to audition for Sound Off! after they smoked weed in the bushes behind the Museum of Pop Culture. When they went into the museum, they saw a poster for the competition in an elevator and decided they wanted to try it, even though they had never performed in front of a crowd before.

Claudine wrote their first EP, Lost, about coming of age and not knowing how to navigate the newfound freedom of being a young adult. Better Luck Next Time. is about learning how to let the anxiety of not knowing go.
The title track wishes the listener better luck next time. Claudine took inspiration from the track to create the cover art for the EP, which features a lit birthday cake sitting on the counter in a dark apartment.
Every episode, host Dan Ray plays a game with the artist. With Claudine, Dan plays "What pop songstress does this song remind you of?" After each song, Dan asks Claudine to match a woman pop artist with the track.
Aria, the first track on the album, was the first song Claudine recorded for the EP but the last song they finished. Claudine and Dan both chose Taylor Swift as the pop songstress.
Claudine titled track one Aria because they thought the person they were writing about looks like an Aria. Claudine says Dan looks like an Emily.
Shortly before this podcast was recorded, Claudine performed at Belltown Bloom, a femme-only festival put on by Valerie and Veronica Topacio of Seattle indie pop band La Fonda.
After Sound Off!, Claudine participated in The Residency, another Museum of Pop Culture program that acts as a songwriting and hip-hop bootcamp for Seattle youth. Claudine said the bootcamp made them realize they aren't supposed to do everything by themself in the corner of their room. That was when they started to collaborate with other musicians.
Claudine chose The Weeknd as the pop singer for track two, "Over Again." Dan chose Halsey.
At the end of track three, "Right Now," there's a voice memo from a conversation Claudine had with their then-partner at age 19. Claudine said they included it because they like the innocence of hearing artists unfiltered. Claudine said the songstress for this track is a cross between OutKast and Syd from The Internet.
When they write, Claudine usually fixates on a hook that's been stuck in their head and works to flesh out the song around it.
Dan equates the line "white socks and t-shirt" in "Right Now" to the scene in Risky Business where Tom Cruise dances to "Old Time Rock & Roll" by Bob Seger. Neither Dan or Claudine nor anyone in the audience has actually seen the film, so they look up a synopsis (after recording). Turns out Tom Cruise plays a high school senior who turns his house into a brothel to raise money to pay the bill for the prostitute he hired. Before knowing this, Claudine jokes they may write a song about their mom doing laundry.
"Dezzie," the most intimate track on Better Luck Next Time., is about finding a fresh start and coming to terms with the fact that life is not linear; some days you feel great and some days you feel overwhelmed by change. Claudine describes the track as "very big 'oh shit' energy."
The main hook in "Dezzie" says "I'm so lost." Claudine said they still feel lost but more comfortable feeling that way.
Claudine chose to end the EP with the title track because it finishes the story; it ends the EP in a more hopeful, accepting place than it starts.
The track is about moving on from things you're fixating on but are out of your control. The lyric "better luck next time" is taken in earnest; it's about learning from your mistakes and going forward. Claudine said this song sounds like OneRepublic, who was one of their first concerts, doing sports.
At time of publishing, Claudine had released four new singles post- Better Luck Next Time.: "Circle Back Every Time," "Is That the New?," "Time Moves Slow," and "How Could You Say?"

Photos by Chris Butcher.

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Raised by a single mother in the suburbs of Detroit, Dan discovered an early passion for singing, songwriting, and the arts as a whole. She got her BA in English and music at the University of Michigan, where she reported for the school’s paper, The Michigan Daily. She worked as a Senior News Reporter on the government beat, transitioned to arts writing, and eventually became the managing editor of the social media department. She moved to Seattle in 2017. After losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic and discouraged about the lack of press surrounding Seattle’s music scene, Dan made the decision to turn Dan’s Tunes, a fully fledged music journalism website focused on showcasing the Seattle area’s musicians, into its own startup. There’s so much music happening in the city that spawned Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Jimi Hendrix — among others — and Dan’s Tunes is determined to find and expose those outstanding acts. The goal is to have satellites in every major US city, uplifting diverse and compelling voices and helping music communities thrive. In 2020, Dan was featured in the Seattle Times’s year-end music critic poll. Other than her musical endeavors (singing, playing ukulele, and auditioning for American Idol four times before the age of 24) Ray is passionate about food and education around the American food system, and she’s also a large proponent of eliminating the stigma around mental health. Ray loves cats, especially her own, who is named Macaulay Culkin (but she’s a lady).