On July 30, 2025, Keaton Henson returned with an emotive new single, “Lazy Magician.” This song is his first release since his 2024 instrumental album Somnambulant Cycles and is co-written with Ratboys’ Julia Steiner. With this song, Keaton Henson begins to break out of his “quiet boy” persona and embraces a more grunge-infused sound alongside the vulnerability of his lyrics. “Lazy Magician” was produced by Luke Sital-Singh, and unspools into a dreamy song where Henson sings, “I’m a lazy amateur magician / I can’t even make myself disappear” over muted chords, with Steiner replying, “I’m a faulty high flying acrobat / I can hardly get myself out of bed.” The song continues with an infectious hook, and its sound nods to ’90s power pop and 2000s American indie-led garage rock. 

Speaking on the single, Henson explains: “Julia’s voice is so evocative of that sound to me, it reminds me of when I first heard Rilo Kiley. She has a lot of the suburban magic-realism of the American bands I loved back then.”  I wrote the guitar parts and first lines to the drum machine and we both sort of just free-wrote the rest. Allowing our subconscious to form the narrative. I like that it’s almost like these two lonely souls singing next to each other, but sometimes over each other, like we’re so lost in our own self-reflection we’re unaware we’re in a duet.”

If you’re familiar with Henson’s work, then you may know him for his reputation as a soft-spoken and reclusive figure who seldom performs live. In his 15-year-long career, he has had fewer than 40 live performances. In 2010, he released his debut album, Dear, and has been critically acclaimed for wearing his heart on his sleeve and creating emotionally poignant folk-tinged outpourings. From afar, Henson has earned a devoted fan base that relates to and finds comfort in his recognition of anxiety’s weight. “Sadness,” he once confessed, “is a feeling of which I have an excess of.”

“Lazy Magician” introduces a new sound that may start to defy the reclusive perception he’s come to know. The Independent once dubbed him the “British Jeff Buckley,” but, like the aforementioned pair, his early beginnings also took root in far heavier sounds. “Prior to being a folk thing I played in hardcore and emo bands,” he shares. “It’s definitely pulling from the things I listened to when I was young, but they’re being spat out through the lens of me and my career now. It’s a weird ‘me’ version of that stuff musically.” I grew up listening to a mix of the classic emo bands of the 2010s and Keaton Henson’s discography, specifically his 2013 album Birthdays. Hearing this new song feels like a really nice evolution in his sound that’s not too far away from what he used to make, but is different enough to show growth. “Lazy Magician” was a great introduction to his new sound, and I can’t wait to see what he comes out with next. 

Keaton Henson spent his early days in London as a visual artist – illustrating for the likes of Enter Shikari and Oli Sykes’ Drop Dead. Additionally, he was overwhelmed with musical renown and retreated from Los Angeles. Today, he’s 37, married, chopping wood in the peace of his countryside home, and has a whole new wealth of life experience to draw from. However, in this moment, he comes full circle with apparitions of a young Keaton Henson, a teenager watching American hardcore acts in the South London suburbs. “I was nervous about being too loud, but then it sort of just came out,” he explains. With more new material in the works, “Lazy Magician” leaves us in anticipation to hear what else might reveal itself as Henson continues to step out and show more of who he is, and the journey that has brought him to this point.

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