Logan McGranaghan Lays His Soul Bare on Powerful New LP, ‘Wildfires’

There’s a lot to take away from the new LP, ‘Wildfires,’ by the prolific musician and recent SUNY Fredonia grad, Logan McGranaghan.Most importantly, the 12-song, 61-minute album — McGranaghan’s third full-length solo release since 2024 — is as intriguing as it is good.

Second, while McGranaghan’s music is often beyond his years, this particular LP stands out as, perhaps, his most mature work yet.

And lastly, though self-categorized as “electronic,” placing ‘Wildfires’ in such a restrictive box runs the risk of selling short all this record has to offer.

Too often, the term ‘electronic’ leaves the impression of thumping house music, driving for sure, but somewhat empty if not outright shallow. ‘Wildfires,’ on the other hand, is replete with depth. Its songs traverse a wide span of both sonic and lyrical terrain.

Melodically, ‘Wildfires’ is, at times, beautiful, expressive and even soulful. Meanwhile, its lyrics — delivered with urgency, desperation, courage and guttural emotion —

examines and explores deeply personal matters,

Strong throughout, a particular highlight on this album is the song ‘Spark,’ on which McGranaghan — (who is also the frontman for the band New Venice and a former member of Lobotomite) – includes his close friend, bandmate and musical collaborator, Cody Moran, who unleashes some furious guitar work on this track.

It’s interesting to consider McGranaghan’s metamorphosis as an artist in listening to ‘Wildfires.’ This album proves he deserves to be taken seriously as an artist and we’re eager to see and hear what he produces in the future.

McGranaghan, recently, was generous enough to set aside some time to speak with 1120 Press about his new LP. Read our interview below.

1120 PRESS: Congrats on the new album! It’s a very interesting work. How are you feeling now that it’s out?

LOGAN McGRANAGHAN: Saying it was a labor of love is an understatement. It’s like the stress and relief of taking a final exam, except that exam lasted for one-and-a-half years. I can’t express how stressful it was during the final mastering phase of the album, the anticipation to release the album clashed with my perfectionism to create the best release I can. After the album released, it took me two weeks just to cool down. 

Now that the album’s been out, I’ve gotten an overwhelming positive reception to it from friends, musicians, and people who’ve just happened to discover it. Lemme tell you, it feels great. For the first time in my life, I feel the payoff of one of my projects, and it’s a feeling I wouldn’t trade for the world. So yeah, I feel relieved and accomplished, and grateful for all the love and support I’ve gotten for this album.

1120: You mentioned you believe this is your best album yet, even saying it ‘blows (your) previous work out of the water.’ Can you elaborate on why you feel that way and how you believe you’ve grown as a solo artist?

LM: This was the first album that I genuinely sat down to fully plan out. Up until this point, I just kinda threw together whatever I was feeling, and put it out. Not too much thought put into it. But this was different. This was the first time I wanted to make an album where I 100 percent put in all the maximum effort for: No laziness, no shortcuts, no more half-measure.

I definitely think my composition, lyricism, instrumentation, and sound engineering has been the strongest it’s ever been on this album. I took the time over this year-and-a-half to actually teach myself how to become a ‘beginner’ sound engineer just to strengthen the sound of this album and brought songs to my fellow musician peers and composition professors to review and receive critique.

I wanted to make an album that had a story, that had meaning, feeling, and familiarity while not sounding too cookie cutter. This was the first concept album of mine that also required additional planning in mapping out the story/concept, and how it would correlate and be properly conveyed and progressed throughout each song. But I think the end-product, as a whole, has more weight and worth than anything I’ve released prior. Not to say everything I’ve released before isn’t good. It’s just not up to this level of musicianship and technicality.

1120: Cody Moran appears on the song ‘Spark.’ You and him go way back as musical collaborators both as band members and having him on your solo albums. What does he bring to this song and your work in general?

LM: You know, having a close friend who’s also a generational musician is like finding a needle in a haystack, and good Lord, I am grateful I found one. We just have clicked together so naturally before in everything we do, whether it’s bands, solo projects, or even film scores. Yeah, we wrote a film score together. (laughs) There’s really no limit to what Cody can do, and with a song that is as unique as ‘Spark,’ I knew he’d add his own unique flavor to it and hot damn does he ADD to it — just listen to the song and his solo within it. It speaks for itself.

Logan McGranaghan

1120: We sort of feel like categorizing your solo work as ‘electronic’ does a bit of disservice to you. There seems to be so much that you bring here on this album in terms of sound, instrumentation, emotion, etc. When you began writing and eventually recording this album, what was your aim sonically speaking and what did you want to put across on a human/emotional level?

LM: You know, I always use ‘electronic’ as a blanket term to describe my music because most of my songs do include electronic elements to it. I think I’d be wasting everyone’s time spending an hour trying to describe the specifics of what my music really is categorized as. Best way to put it: I’m a mutt. A lot of genres combined into one while equally respecting each other and showing more of one than the other at some points.

The sonic aim of the album was to emulate — for the listener — the wide range of emotions I, or the protagonist of the album, was feeling. ‘Spark’ is pure rage, ‘Trying’ is utter emotional decimation, ‘Dandelion Fields’ is deep sadness and hollowness, ‘Redemption’ is newfound motivation and purpose to be better, ‘Finding My Peace’… that one you gotta hear for yourself…but yeah, I really tried my best to make the listener feel the pain and triumph of this album.

1120: This seems like a very personal album. Are we right about that? And what are you exploring here?

LM: This is a very personal album. It re-tells how when I was at my absolute lowest, and when I really wanted to give in, something held on…a glimmer of hope that this too shall pass. What started as convincing myself to push through the day turned into sparse motivation, further into finding just enough will to start to better myself. I got therapy and it worked, but I needed to do more, and I did. Eventually, I found joy and love in life once again. I climbed outta that hole, but the end of the album warns that you may fall back in at one point. Nothing is ever finite. That is life — ebbs and flows of pain and pleasure — but if the pain is overtaking, just know there is always a way to overcome it. If you can’t find solace in yourself, find solace in the friends and family and loved ones who find it within you. 

“This too shall pass, but only if you pass through it” is really the best summary I can give for this album. I also briefly lament on the tragedy that this will most likely be overlooked. I’m practically nobody right now, almost no one knows about me or my works. If I had the funds, I’d advertise and push this album to the ends of the earth till this project was on billboards, not to push me as an artist, but so everyone could see this message I am trying to outreach. But that’s OK. I’m continually striving to outreach me and my audience, and for the few people that will notice and sit down for the full length of this project, I hope they can come out a better person at the end. And I thank each-and-every one of you who will listen.

1120: Thank you so much for speaking with us and again, congratulations. Is there anything else you want to add about this album we haven’t touched on?

LM: A few things! First, I’m selling CDs! DM @mcgs_musicofficial on Instagram and I’ll mail it to ya. I also have a Bandcamp where you can buy the album digitally (at Logan McGranaghan)

Second, shoutout to my friend Julia for the album cover, they did a FANTASTIC job.

Third, huge thank you to Sterling Brownell for the mixing assistance, he’s a fantastic sound engineer and musician and I can’t recommend him enough as a collaborator.

‘Love Letter’ is dedicated to two of my favorite artists, Hers (RIP) and Mac Demarco. I strive to be like them every day. Their musicianship is untouchable. You can hear their influence in the instrumentation of ‘Love Letter.’

I’d like to start gigging with this solo project once again! So, if anyone has any venues in the Rochester and Buffalo area that would like to have me, or recommend to me, please email me at lmcgranaghan15@gmail.com

Lastly, fuck AI. It’s never too late to learn how to create real human art because we could use all the humanity we can get right now.