Machine Girl appear in our Winter 2024 Issue with cover stars L.S. Dunes, Wisp, Fall Out Boy x WWWYF, and Chase Atlantic. Head to the AP Shop to grab a copy.
Machine Girl are kindred spirits of the hardcore community, igniting stages with the same dizzying ferocity while adding electronic glitchiness that offers you little choice but to give into the chaos. Named after the Japanese action film The Machine Girl, the duo — producer/vocalist Matt Stephenson and percussionist Sean Kelly — refract its extreme violence through sound.
Read more: Girl Pusher end seven-year hiatus after three days locked in a garage
Their latest album, 2024’s MG Ultra, conjures a dystopian universe, littered with references to technology and how it can manipulate, and disrupt, our everyday realities — as well as the anger they hold for those who try to inhibit, and ultimately control, free-thinking individuals who live on the internet. It’s alien and unorthodox, unremitting in its messages but always feeling alive and hopeful for a world that will untangle itself from algorithmic brain damage. In the midst of their fall headlining tour last year, Stephenson took us through the music that shaped him, the band’s statement of intent, and green room reads.
WHAT THE LONG ISLAND MUSIC SCENE WAS LIKE GROWING UP
Shitty. Everything was pay-to-play matinee shows until we started getting booked at house shows just before our first high school band broke up.
FAVORITE APHEX TWIN SONG
Either “Fingerbib” or “4” because they were the first two songs I got into and my gateway into electronic music.
THE MUSIC THAT YOU PLAYED IN HIGH SCHOOL
Wannabe Primus funk-metal fusion shit.
WHAT YOU LOVE ABOUT HARDCORE AND ITS COMMUNITY
We’ve never really been part of the hardcore community. It wasn’t really my thing growing up, and we didn’t start playing with hardcore bands until the last couple of years. It’s cool, though — I love the energy at those shows.
THE MEANING OF MG ULTRA
The ultimate Machine Girl and also the mind control program we snuck onto the album in between certain frequencies.
AN ALBUM YOU LOVE THAT PEOPLE WOULDN’T EXPECT
12 Golden Country Greats by Ween.
THE PURPOSE OF MACHINE GIRL
Machine Girl is an agent of chaos; a positive force of destruction.
YOUR FAVORITE CONSPIRACY THEORY
Birds aren’t real.
WHAT YOU WANT TO HAVE ACCOMPLISHED FIVE YEARS FROM NOW
Clear sinuses, minimum anxiety, and a home studio.
WHAT YOU’RE CURRENTLY READING
I was reading Left Hand of Darkness but lost the book in a green room early on in the tour. So instead I’m about to start The Cyberiad.