Meet MGNA Crrrta: The Girls With Two Macbook Pros and a Dream
E.D.M.’s digital dreamers talk U.F.O.s, Insta filters, and building a world that feels larger than Earth.
There’s something otherworldly about MGNA Crrrta. Maybe it’s their grunge-tinged whimsy, hypnotic electronic beats, or enchanted-forest-meets-Y2K universe that exists somewhere between club land and a lucid dream. Whether Farheen Khan and Ginger Scott are dancing at the club with Kesha, remixing Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” into oblivion, or cracking open the emotional core of their debut mixtape, Beautiful Disaster, the New York City-based duo lives in their own little romantic, alien world. Below, they talk what inspires them and the wreckage at the center of their latest project.
What were your biggest inspirations for the mixtape?
Farheen Khan: Our diaries, dreams, hopes, fears. Reality, Earth, and beyond, and every girl that’s done it before us. We wanted to make a project that felt sincere, naive, ambitious, angsty, and reflective of this moment in our lives: The beautiful disaster. It’s the completed exposition of MGNA Crrrta, and a genesis for everything to come.
Is there a song from the project that feels most you right now?
Ginger Scott: “Infinite Pleasure” holds a special place in our heart. It’s just pure chaos and feels so theatrical. It’s about youth, friendship, unity, but it also gets sidetracked by an alien invasion towards the end of the song. It then goes into “I’m on a Saucer II,” which is the song that’d play in the U.F.O. during our abduction.
Is there someone this project wouldn’t exist without?
Farheen: An endless number of people. Our collaborators. Our inspirations. Our friends. The Universe. God. Beautiful Disaster is a vision but also a product of our world.
What does your creative process together actually look like?
Ginger: Texting. Chatting. Two Macbook Pros and a dream. We sometimes get to go to studios now, but we still end up always recording our vocals in Ginger’s room.
How would you describe your sense of style right now? Are there fashion references, designers, or eras you always come back to?
Farheen: Colorful and textured. Psychedelic and whimsical. When it comes to defining our style, we always work with our best friend and stylist Eloise Moulton; references she’s been thinking about right now include Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2006, Christian Lacroix Fall/Winter 1997, the over-saturated colors in proto trance/euro dance music videos, and the kaleidoscopic multi-media visuals of Madoka Magica.
Where do you go out in NYC when you want to feel alive?
Ginger: Our apartment rooftop.
Is there a song you wish you wrote?
Farheen: Literally any of the songs on Victorious.
Have you ever spotted someone wearing your merch somewhere random? What happened?
Ginger: Our friends have sent us spottings, but we don’t really know what we would do if we were walking on the street and saw someone in a MGNA Crrrta shirt. It would feel personal.
When people say “2016 is so back,” what does that bring up for you personally?
Ginger: Kylie.
If MGNA Crrrta were an Instagram filter, which one?
Farheen: Rio de Janeiro.
The best place to listen to MGNA Crrrta?
Farheen: In a mystical forest.
Finish the sentence: Our music is for people who…
Ginger: Love.