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Musical Miami Duo 'Magdalena Bay' Gaining Attention & Fans

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin, the Miami-born and raised musicians behind the pop duo group Magdalena Bay, are getting lots of attention lately, including being named Best Pop Act 2021 by Miami News Times last month.

That came as a big surprise to them.

"We didn't know about it until it came out," said Lewin.

"My dad is so cute, he's always Googling us. So he saw it and neither of us nor anyone on our team really knew it happened. He sent us the article and we were like awesome," Tenenbaum said.

Tenenbaum and Lewin, who are a couple both personally and professionally, met in 2011 at an after-school music program in North Miami they attended while in high school. They formed a rock band called Tabula Rasa, which, CBS4's Lisa Petrillo know a lot about, her son was a guitarist in the band.

"Full disclosure," Petrillo told them, "I knew you guys when you were in high school."

"Yes. Matt and I met at Live! Modern School of Music. We both grew up in Miami. We put this band together and started playing rock covers and eventually started making our own rock songs and that's how we started work together like 10 years ago now," said Tenenbaum.

In just two years, since they've moved to Los Angeles, Magdalena Bay has been featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, Pitchfork, Miami New Times, and many more. Their sound is now all pop, inspired by Gwen Stefani, Britney Spears, and Madonna to name a few.

"Yeah, I think it's just pop music. It doesn't have a lot of boundaries. There's a lot of different places that pop music can go," Lewin said.

They're also getting eyes on their music through their throwback, kitschy-cool videos posted all over social media, which they shoot and edit themselves out of their small apartment.

"I'm like 'oh my God, I'm in a band and we don't have money for videos. I guess we will make them ourselves'," Tenenbaum said.

"It started in the place of a necessity, like kind of needing visual content but we really fell in love with extending the Magdalena Bay world into the visuals. We've had so much fun. It's really what it's about, thinking about the dumbest and silliest ideas and coolest ideas and kind of bringing them to life," she added.

Magdalena Bay's popularity continues to grow. They now have more than 35 videos on YouTube. They're releasing a new album called Mercurial World this week, but both are staying focused and grounded.

"How does it feel?" asked Petrillo.

"I think we're just trying to keep our heads down and stay busy and can't think too much of in those terms," Lewin said.

"We're totally just keeping busy and happy to see the feedback so far and hope that more people keep hearing it," said Tenenbaum.

Mercurial World drops October 8th. You can find Magdalena Bay on all music and social media platforms along with YouTube.

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