There must be something artistically inspirational in the water of rural France. Lifelong friends Sam Vanderhoop Lee and Alex Caplow spent a summer working on farms in exchange for room and board. In their spare time, the guitarist/keyboardist (Lee) and vocalist (Caplow) worked on songwriting in the nation’s idyllic countryside, and reached their “a-ha moment” of creativity that propelled them toward their professional goals. “For starters, as you can imagine, it’s really beautiful; the French countryside in the middle of summer,” says Lee, now one-fifth of Boston synth-pop band Magic Man, which headlines Slim’s Thursday. The duo laid the groundwork [...]