Now that it’s been well over a year since the release of their first mixtape, New Jersey, and nine months since their latest EP, I’m on a Saucer, MGNA Crrrta is gearing up for their next chapter, and I had the chance to sit down with them during some of the scarce downtime they have in between shows on their North American tour, which wraps up in March. I caught Farheen and Ginger three days before their February 10th performance at HERE for NY, a charity music festival supporting local New York City organizations Big Reuse and The Urban Justice Center, and asked them about their origins, inspirations, future plans, and everything else in between.
Wesley Breed— I read that you two met through a Minecraft server when you were only eleven years old. What is it that drew you to each other, and how has your friendship been able to evolve over the last decade?
Farheen Khan— When we first met on the Minecraft server, we were beefing, but then we were like, ‘everyone else is just super weird’, and I guess we saw the same side of things. It was very socially oriented, that Minecraft server — we just stayed in touch.
Ginger Scott— What pulled us together was definitely the beef with other people, because lowkey the people on the server that we met on were crazy. I honestly didn’t really trust Farheen at first because she was kind of friends with the older squad on the server, and I was, like, the new generation vibe, so I was sus of her for that reason. We actually ended up creating a divergent server together.
When did you come to the realization that you wanted to perform together, and how did you land on the stage name MGNA Crrrta?
GS— I don’t know, I feel like we were just walking, and then Farheen was like, ‘let’s do a hyperpop song’. We were lowkey just bored. I started producing again, because I was into it when I was younger, and we started making music together. I feel like it’s evolved into performance art.
FK— I knew that we were looking for a name, and I was reading something and saw the Magna Carta in there, like the historical document, and I was like, ‘that’s kinda nice’. I didn’t like all the vowels in it, so I took them out and thought the r’s were cool, so I was like, ‘let’s put three r’s in there’.
Did both of you have a childhood or young-adulthood that was strongly impacted by music? Who were you listening to growing up, and how have they inspired your work?
FK— When I was growing up, I feel like I was really obsessive about music that was coming in and out. For example, when we met, I really liked 5 Seconds of Summer, and by the time I was in highschool it evolved into indie music, like Arctic Monkeys type shit. And then, Crystal Castles — thank God they came into the mix. When I was, like, eight, Kesha really struck me, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez…
GS— Music was definitely huge for me. I loved playing piano, and then I played saxophone at school; I lowkey switched to bassoon, because I didn’t like how the saxophone squeaked, like, it sent shivers down my spine. I loved Nicki Minaj, I was a huge Barb, I loved Beyoncé, obviously… I feel like I listen to all the ‘then’ pop girls now; Britney is definitely a huge person for me. Farheen was the one that got me into Crystal Castles and weird shit like that (and ruined my life in a sense).
