Why Does Everyone Believe In Magic?

The power-pop band just shot to No. 1 with the year-old reggae-influenced
song “Rude,” the season’s catchiest anthem about rejection. 
How it will handle its second act is another matter entirely.

Ben Spivak, Nasri Atweh, Mark Pellizzer and Alex Tanas of Magic! photographed July 11, 2014 at Battery Harris in Brooklyn by Dustin Aksland.

It certainly didn’t take long for Magic to live 
up to its name. Virtually 
unknown in the United States a year ago, the power-pop band is currently dominating charts across the board with “Rude,” a reggae-infused smash single that may well go down as 2014’s quintessential summer song.

Magic began with a simple premise. “We were just like, ‘Let’s start a band that sounds kind of like The Police and The Wailers,’ ” recalls Pellizzer, age 34.

“When I met Mark and he started playing that reggae groove, I was like, ‘This feels good,’ ” says Atweh. “I started to be happy around him. When he would play, I started to feel like an artist, like I had value, like I was being heard. He makes me feel that way when we write. And he’s competitive, so we push each other.”

The group’s manager, Charles Chavez, recounted how he met Atweh when the singer produced the “big ol’ hit” “Feel This Moment” for Pitbull, who Chavez has managed since 2007. The exec says he was blown away when he first saw the original “Rude” YouTube stream in April 2013. “I said, ‘Holy shit, I love this record,’ ” recalls Chavez. “I told Nasri, ‘Just let me sign the record. I’ll take it and I’ll do my best to make this the biggest song on earth.’ ”

The band itself, however, acknowledges the challenge of overcoming its potential status as a one-hit wonder. “ ‘Rude’ has achieved so much international success that it’s a blessing and — I’m not going to say a curse,” says Pellizzer, who once played guitar in a gospel R&B group called Divine Worship. “But the success of that record could eclipse some things that are possibly going to follow.”

Atweh is more cocky: “If Magic sticks around — which we will — you’ll hear more about my life,” he says, affecting the voice of a born showman with a fascinating story to tell. “In my autobiography ...”