Released in 2019, “Mrs. Magic” by Strawberry Guy is the kind of song that builds a whole world for the listener. Drenched in reverb, the indie track caught on via TikTok, but it has proven to be more than a flash in the pan. The song has been streamed over 625 million times on Spotify, but it’s also a popular chart here on MuseScore, quietly making it a musician’s favorite and not just a lo-fi YouTube gem.
The sonic atmosphere of “Mrs. Magic” is trippy, and that’s no accident. Strawberry Guy, also known as Alex Stephens, wrote the song after a psychedelic experience that terrified him.
“It’s weird because the song is actually about a time when I was on a magic mushroom trip — I had a horrific experience!” He told NME. “I’d never done any psychedelics before, and I was expecting this really big, grand sort of show, like a hallucinogenic festival in my mind. But instead, I felt like everything that made me ‘me’ was gone. That’s what the whole song’s about; it’s me saying, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here’, while I have no idea where the [expletive]I am. It was terrifying!”
The song recreates that surreal feeling in a few ways, but the first thing that stands out is the sonic textures, which are dreamy, lo-fi, and indie. The entire track has layers of reverb, while the piano has a warbly, slightly scratchy tone. Synthesizer pads help to fill out the vibe. Strawberry Guy whistles alongside a short synth melody, adding to the dreaminess.
Another key to the song’s catchiness is its incredible harmony. Strawberry Guy clearly sets himself apart from what we think of as standard TikTok music creators. In an interview with What the Funk Magazine, the musician detailed his love of film scores, 70s songwriters, and Romantic composers like Ravel and Debussy.
The intro and verse harmony in “Mrs. Magic” falls somewhere between Debussy and Carole King. The song is in Eb, but it opens on a rich Bb13sus4, a suspended, extended chord that immediately blurs the line between major and minor and creates an air of mystery. Instead of spelling out a clear quality, he stacks color tones on top, so the listener feels a suspended, floating tension rather than a straightforward pop progression.
That chord eventually resolves to the tonic, but even the home chord isn’t simple. The Eb is dressed up as an Ebmaj9, adding upper extensions that keep a sense of longing in the sound. On the page, you can see how he voices these harmonies between the hands, often with a solid bass foundation and a more impressionistic right hand—so the progression both resolves and keeps reaching, which is a big part of why the song feels so dreamy when you play it.
“Mrs. Magic” became popular on TikTok on videos by other users, but you can see Strawberry Guy perform the song himself in this clip from Live from Low Four Studio.
Now, step into another world and get the sheet music for “Mrs. Magic”:
