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Fashion Boys, Lesbians, and a Little Bit of Britney: About MGNA Crrrta
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FK— I knew that we were looking for a name, and I was reading something and saw the Magna Carta in there, like the historical document, and I was like, ‘that’s kinda nice’.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).
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’.
MGNA Crrrta has a very unique sound and accompanying visual aesthetic. Do you think it’s reflective of your personalities as individuals, or have you used MGNA Crrrta as a vessel to create something entirely new?
FK— I would say both. I wouldn’t say that everything we are is reflected into the MGNA Crrrta brand because we’re pretty multifaceted people, but it’s also just an accumulation of everything we thought was cool that we saw growing up.
GS— I feel like the core of it is just doing cool shit and vibing. Like, definitely emphasis on vibing.
If you could briefly describe MGNA Crrrta’s music to a first time listener, how would you do so?
GS— Very fast paced… definitely bold. I feel like bold is a good thing. Production is huge for us — we were producers first, and recently, in music, there’s been a turn away from production in a way that kinda sucks. We want some crazy shit.
FK— EDM pop, electro pop… it’s just combining a lot of things together.
Your North American tour continues this week and concludes in March. Of all the cities you’ve performed in, which feels the most MGNA Crrrta to you?
FK— LA.
GS— That was quick. I feel like New York, lowkey. I mean, LA was such a fun show, but I’m biased. I love New York. New York just goes crazier than LA. The kids in LA are always gonna be a vibe, but they will never outdance New York.
FK— I just think that LA is moreso, like, visually what MGNA Crrrta is. MGNA Crrrta doesn’t really exist in the winter.
If you had won a Grammy at the 66th awards on February 4th, who would you have thanked, and where would you have put it?
FK— We would probably just put it in Ginger’s apartment, next to the speaker on her desk. On the wall behind where the Grammy would be there’s posters of Nicki, Kesha, Britney, pictures of us…
GS— We would definitely post up hella on Instagram with it. Didn’t Kanye West post himself peeing on his? It has to be a little bit weird and perverted, the way you post your Grammy.
FK— I think we would thank all of our friends that have worked with us, because they’ve helped us out a lot, our team, our squad… oh, we would thank our moms and our dads.
On the wall behind where the Grammy would be there’s posters of Nicki, Kesha, Britney, pictures of us…
What era is defining MGNA Crrrta right now?
GS— 2013 dubstep, Britney’s Femme Fatale album, Kesha, but specifically the beginning of the Warrior album and select tracks from the I Am the Dance Commander + I Command You to Dance remix album. It’s very niche, but it’s so fire. Production goals.
FK— 2010s euphoric EDM, too, and we love Miley’s Bangerz era. GS: 2023 Tate McRae. I honestly like her a lot. Nicki Minaj’s “Va Va Voom”… 2013 and 2014 were pretty good.
I see that you’re a part of HERE’s New York City lineup on February 10th. Is there any performer that you’re particularly excited to be sharing the stage with that night?
GS— Underscores! We just did a song that I co-produced with her. Love her, love her vibe, her production’s crazy; it was so fun working with her.
FK— I’ve been listening to Vegyn for a while, so it will be cool to see him. It’s a great lineup – I’m honestly excited for everyone.
HERE is a charity organization that directly supports local initiatives through their events, and following the success of HERE for LA, HERE for NY has been met with a lot of hype. How did MGNA Crrrta form a relationship with HERE, and how do you align with their charitable causes?
FK— I feel like HERE does a really good job supporting and promoting the nonprofits that they’re benefitting, Big Reuse and The Urban Justice Center. A lot of festivals just have their organizations at a tiny little booth, but HERE makes sure people know what the event is about.
Following your performance at HERE, what’s next for you two? Is MGNA Crrrta planning any new releases or playing any more shows in the short term?
GS— We have a new single coming out very soon… honestly super soon. I feel like whenever I submit singles to distribution I forget about them and then they suddenly come out and I’m like, Oh fuck. That’s kinda the fun of it. We have a bunch of singles coming out after that one; right now we're spitfiring a lot of stuff that we’ve been working on over the past six months, which has been super exciting. We’ve definitely been evolving our sound a lot, integrating our new inspirations with our old, and escalating everything. We’re gonna be releasing a project super soon, too.
Do you have any post or pre performance traditions?
FK— We do our makeup and hair together. We just talk like we’re hanging out, and we always hug before and after we go on. We like to eat together right when we come home, too. It’s like the big meal after playing a soccer game.
... we always hug before and after we go on. We like to eat together right when we come home, too. It’s like the big meal after playing a soccer game.
Do either of you have a song or video from your library that you are particularly fond of?
GS— “Ohyaaa” just came out, but I fucking love that song. I listen to it a lot — I feel like it’s just ingrained into my brain. “iWanna” is on our first EP, and it’s our least played song but I think it’s our best song ever, so that’s crazy to me. There are so many layers to it that I feel like people don’t understand.
FK— My favorite song of ours is definitely “Ur City Back 2 Life”. That song is just crazy. I love the “I.C.F.U.H.” video, too — it was ahead of its time. I still watch it and am like, ‘that’s amazing’, even though it’s my own video. I also really like the “Um4Hum4H4ye” video because it’s just a vibe. Shoutout Cal Glickman.
Is there an individual or group of people that has been especially supportive of your journey as artists?
GS— I just learned this recently, but lesbians like us a lot. I was told that there were a lot of lesbians at the LA show.
FK— I feel like a lot of fashion boys like us, too. They’ve been there since day one, and they’re just so supportive. People always talk about how fashion boys aren’t loyal, but they’re loyal to us.
What is the most rewarding experience you’ve had so far as MGNA Crrrta?
FK— This tour, and being able to see the country and travel.
GS— It’s such a surreal experience going to a city that you’ve never been to before and being a tourist but then meeting people that know you and your music.
At this point, in 2024, is MGNA Crrrta what you thought it would be when you first came together?
FK— We didn’t think anything would happen when we released our first song; it was completely for fun.
GS— Even though we were very particular with our vision, we didn’t take it that seriously at the same time. We were kinda just like, ‘yeah, we’ll do this for fun’, and then the bit got really real. We’ve always been completely independent; we just started with management recently, so it’s been amazing to watch the escalation, and it’s exciting to have more opportunities come our way. Now, we think about possibilities we definitely weren’t even considering a couple months ago.
MGNA Crrrta continues their North American tour this week alongside artists Ninajirachi and Cowgirl Clue, and you can purchase tickets here.
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Cuco Just Wants to Make Weird Music
BLAZER, PANTS by LUAR, GLOVES, DRESS by WILLY CHAVARRIA NY, SHOES by CAMPER
office spoke to Cuco on how he's avoided "staying in a box,” love songs, and broken limbs.
You’ve been DJing a lot lately… What’s up with that?
Yeah, I’ve been DJing a bunch and doing a lot of sets. I’ve always liked DJing. I’d never been, like, good at it, but I decided to get kind of decent at mixing and finding deep cuts of cumbia. Sometimes I like taking a break from singing and doing crazy stuff live, and just being able to play music that I think is really dope.
Do you approach these sets differently from other Cuco performances?
Yeah, ‘because I don’t have to do anything other than bring a USB stick. But it would be cool to start integrating visuals and all that kind of stuff, because I think it would make it more of a real experience.
I was a little surprised you didn’t have a different stage name…
I was going to, but then it just started being called ‘Cuco DJ sets’, so I just started going with it. But I think, eventually, I just might have to have a stage name.
There was an interview you did with KCRW last year, and the presenter asked you about the worst advice you’ve ever been given. You told him a music rep suggested “staying in a box.” It’s kind of funny how you’ve taken that to heart and done the complete opposite, not just with DJing but with your overall career, too.
Yeah, it’s always been kind of like that. I feel like people are more open now with being weird and making weird music, and so it’s really good. But I feel like [back then] there was this kind of hesitation where they were like, “We really don’t know what you’re doing, so just stick to doing one thing.” But I’ve always been really ambitious to do different things, whether it’s DJing, making different music, different genres, doing visuals, making art and stuff like that. It just keeps my mind running.
There was an interview you did with KCRW last year, and the presenter asked you about the worst advice you’ve ever been given. You told him a music rep suggested “staying in a box.” It’s kind of funny how you’ve taken that to heart and done the complete opposite, not just with DJing but with your overall career, too.
Yeah, it’s always been kind of like that. I feel like people are more open now with being weird and making weird music, and so it’s really good. But I feel like [back then] there was this kind of hesitation where they were like, “We really don’t know what you’re doing, so just stick to doing one thing.” But I’ve always been really ambitious to do different things, whether it’s DJing, making different music, different genres, doing visuals, making art and stuff like that. It just keeps my mind running.
FULL LOOK by LUAR, HEADPIECE by TEENAGE HEART THROB, SHOES by DOC MARTENS
[Laughs]. I’m sorry – I don’t mean to laugh, but it’s a lot going on.
No, yeah, it’s crazy. I shouldn’t be getting injured that frequently. But I think just exercising, and I also drive a lot, I like to collect some of my cars, I like hiking, I like traveling, and just making art. I think being inspired by other things I create––like sometimes through a visual, I’ll think of something to make music-wise, or sometimes I’ll draw something, or shoot a photo on 35mm or 16mm.
Being from California has always played a big part in your music, just as any artist’s hometown does. Have you ever wondered what kind of artist you’d be if you weren’t from California?
That’s a crazy question. Being from California is kind of all I’ve ever known. I don’t even know what I’d be like, even if it was just LA. I don’t know what I’d be like if I was from a different part of California.
You performed at Flog Gnaw last November. How’d that go?
It was sick. It’s one of the coolest festivals in LA, just because it’s very curated to a lot of different artists. But it was great seeing my hometown receive me with a lot of love and seeing a crazy ocean of people being there, singing the songs, and my parents watching me. It was a perfect way to close out the year of touring.
You were growing up a few miles away around the same time Tyler started the festival. Did you go at all back then?
I went one year – I wanna say it was 2016? Yeah, it was ’16. Lil Wayne, Erkyah Badu, and Asap Rocky performed.
I feel like people are more open now with being weird and making weird music, and so it’s really good. But I feel like [back then] there was this kind of hesitation where they were like, 'We really don’t know what you’re doing, so just stick to doing one thing.'
BLAZER by TANNER FLETCHER, PANTS by MELITTA BAUMEISTER
Let’s talk about Hitchhiker. How do you come up with new ways to talk about love and, particularly, messing up?
Literally just living. Living and reflecting on what I could always do better, what’s been done to me, how I receive it and how people receive me, and how to grow from everything.
With this EP, do you still feel like you’re in the Fantasy Gateway world, albeit maybe now you’ve just gone to a new planet?
I think Fantasy Gateway was kind of the start of the Fantasy Gateway world. With Hitchhiker, in its own way, it’s in the world but at the same time, it’s also in a completely other realm, because of the production and how it’s dealing with existential dread, living, love, heartbreak, growth and letting things go. But it’s definitely the step after Fantasy Gateway,because shortly after, I started going through a bunch of different things, like injuries. I had to stay home and recover, so that made me write more music.
Right, I heard about that — something about how you broke your arm twice and then they gave you ketamine?
I dislocated it twice, and the second time they did a cross-sedation on me. They K-holed me. In my experience, it was not fun. That was in July of 2022, and I just started getting over the long-term effects a couple months ago.
Wow, that’s horrible.
Yeah, a lot of dissociative states almost a whole year after that.
What’re you influenced by outside of music? I know you rock climb.
Yeah, I haven’t climbed since my last injury. My shoulder dislocated, and I had to get arthroscopy, so I have hinges on my shoulder, but I broke my leg last June.
FULL LOOK by TANNER FLETCHER, SHOES by CAMPER, JEWELRY by MARTINE ALI, HAT by OPEN EDIT (left)
BLAZER by OFFICINE GENERALRE, SKIRT by TANNER FLETCHER, SHOES by CAMPER, HAT by GLITZ GALORE (right)
The relationship you have with your fans is interesting. When it was announced you were playing at Flog, people commented things like, “No one’s going!” and “I’m staying home!” Funny enough, these same people were your fans. Does it ever trip you up seeing these? Like, is it hard differentiating between who’s a fan and who’s not at all a fan?
I just think it’s funny. I don’t use TikTok that much, but there was a time when I did, and I saw there were comments like “And the crowd goes mild!” and they were [from] a fan. So, I just encouraged it. I don’t really trip out if it’s from people who aren’t fans. I don’t take an insult that seriously, so I just let it flow. But it’s really funny.
By the way, how did ‘Drink your Fuckn’ water’ start?
Oh, it was random. Honestly, I saw my nutritionist, and she was telling me, “Oh, you need to take more protein, you need to do this, take more of that, how’s your water intake? And I’ve always been good about my water. I’m pretty obsessive with how much I drink. So, one day I think I was just like, “Drink your fuckn’ water.” I got into a streak of posting it, and then one day I didn’t post, and people were like, “Yo? Where’s the reminder?” And I’ve just been on a streak ever since. I don’t know how long it’s gonna go [on] for, but I gotta keep it up.
I read recently that you don’t listen to your old music at all. Why?
Even new music, too, when it drops, I don’t like listening to it sometimes. I listen to all of my demos nonstop, and then when it comes out, it’s like, ‘onto the next.’ Not that I don’t like it, it’s just kind of weird to hear my own voice.
I hate rehearing some of the old music. When me and the band need to rehearse it, we’re just kind of dreading it, ‘cause it’s like, 'This song is so easy. We know every part of it.' But when we do it live, it’s super different. The crowd’s singing it, too, and you can see how much love and how much impact a song has over people. That’s when it’s really worth it, and it made me fall in love with my music.
OVERCOAT and JEANS by MELITTA BAUMEISTER, TAN LEATHER COAT by CUCO, SHOES by CAMPER
Surely, you’ve been out somewhere and one of your songs came on…
Yeah, yeah. I have friends that know I don’t like listening to my own music, so they’ll go to the jukeboxes – the digital ones – and they’ll play my music, and they’ll stare at me the whole time. Just super awkward.
What’s it like performing old music then?
Performing it is great. But I hate rehearing some of the old music. When me and the band need to rehearse it, we’re just kind of dreading it, ‘cause it’s like, “This song is so easy. We know every part of it.” But when we do it live, it’s super different. The crowd’s singing it, too, and you can see how much love and how much impact a song has over people. That’s when it’s really worth it, and it made me fall in love with my music.
Yeah, it’s funny, because I saw you curated a playlist for HUF full of songs you were really enjoying. None of your songs were on there.
Oh yeah, nah, I’ll never put my own song on a playlist.
My last question: it’s a new year, new you. How’re you feeling about everything? More importantly, what’s 2024 gonna look like?
It’s busy. Just working on new music and hopefully – same as every other year – just trying to get people to see my growth and trying to motivate people. I think, last year, I saw a lot of people comment things like, “I’m so-and-so this many months sober because of you, I quit doing this because of you.” That’s been super sick, and I just wanna keep doing that for people and be able to express how much I appreciate them. But yeah, also just growing in my own life. Maybe get some more music gear. Maybe get another car – an old one that I can just keep building up.
