made their public debut at a show in Athens

In 1990—while named Swell—they made their public debut at a show in Athens that Michael Stipe attended. He approached the band afterward and offered to produce some demos for them in John Keane ‘s Athens studio in December. Their first high-profile show was at the July 1991 New York New Music Seminar along with three other bands that were introduced by Stipe. At that event, Morris gave out two demo tapes —one to American rock journalist James Sullivan and the other to Tom Engelshoven and John van Luyn of the Dutch music magazine Muziekkrant OOR . The band proceeded to pass the tape to a promoter in The Netherlands who gave the band some club dates as well as a spot at the side stage of the 1991 Rotterdam festival Ein Abend in Wien . After the positive response they received, they were promoted to the main stage the next day. In The Netherlands, Magnapop was signed to Play It Again Sam Records , who released the Sugarland EP and Magnapop demo album in 1992. Their self-titled first album included four of the 1990 Stipe demos, and was released on Caroline Records in the United States. A music video for the single ” Merry ” was shot and aired in Europe.