We have had our chances, and the only thing we can do is try, try, try again. If only we were guaranteed a redo—a fresh start, a second chance. If only we knew then what we know now. See here: musicians Farheen Khan and Ginger Scott of MGNA Crrrta play God as they bestow the kiss of second life.

You feel it before you see it. Waves of distortion bleed through relentless bass clatter, pixelated synths, and fractured melodies, finding power in its thrilling unpredictability. Though hardly minimal yet intoxicating as it is introspective, the NY- based duo gives you a lot to ponder and absorb as every piece jumps up and scratches you. But don’t think too hard about it— they’re just here to have fun. And MGNA Crrrta has had their fun.They’ve had it up and down all of Manhattan with just a USB in hand. They’ve had it at warehouse addresses texted an hour before doors, in thick-aired rooms, and on slinky rooftops like at the Celine Homme Summer afterparty. They’re everywhere and they are always together.

“It’s giving two halves,” Ginger says. “When we’re together, it’s very much like two halves working as a whole. Farheen unpacks, “When we tell a story, I’ll tell one part and then Ginger will tell the other part. And we’ll bounce off of each other. It’s like we’re giving a presentation.”

Like a duet, MGNA Crrrta is both meticulously designed and anarchically free in a way that feels both alien and intimately accessible. In 2022 they released their debut offering Constitution 2, wherein fractured beats, fleeting refrains, and open-hearted perceptions coalesce into something both gripping and disorienting. This year, their five-track 2010s hymnal, Island Paradise, was followed up by an album of adjoining remixes, expertly titled Island Paradise: The Remixes which features Clip, Rada, Fear Dorian, and Polo Perks. Ginger shares, “I feel remixing gives a whole new perspective on something, and it can really make the original have so much more context. It gives so much more feeling and depth to things.”

Currently on their Summer Vacation Tour, this November, MGNA Crrrta will play in LA at the inaugural And Always Forever alongside the Swirlies, Schwefelgelb, Marie Davidson, Loveliescrushing, Astrobrite, and Croatian Amor. The first of its kind, AAF is a love letter to the Los Angeles music scene, where dense, turbulent, and exposed shoegaze will marry into the pummeling percussion and pervasive force of today’s experimental electroclash. It seems that MGNA Crrrta doesn’t exactly exist in the cold, as they chase the heat like moths to a light, finding solace in the West Coast. For the duo, it’s a continuous summer in the world they specifically crafted. And the girls are no strangers to world-building—they did meet on a Minecraft server when they were 11, after all.

“Like, it’s the sun on your hair and on your skin, and just the sun in general, it twinkles,” Farheen muses. “All the glass in the city reflects the sunlight and it’s always twinkling and shining and there’s always reflections everywhere. It feels like a MGNA Crrrta world. We love flares and crazy lighting at our shows, so obviously we love crazy lighting in real life. And who’s to thank for that? The sun.”

And it makes sense as their sound carries the same sentiments of tender carelessness and unrestraint as the summer months. There is a certain grace of the innocuous parts of every day, the aspects that we might take for granted—like the sun. But it is in these very mundane truths that MGNA Crrrta finds their purpose. “It’s about feeling,” Ginger reveals, “Not even in a superficial way or in a way of interacting with society, but just experiences like walking outside, being in the breeze, and just feeling. I don’t even know how to describe it—experiencing these crazy, surreal experiences in life through nature, the city, and everything. I feel like those feelings inspire us. A lot of times, we’ll go into something thinking, okay, this beat we’re making should sound like the wind, or like a field.”

It’s true: there is nothing that feels as redemptive as a caress from the natural. I ask Ginger and Farheen if every day can be like a remix––if the day can be brought back to life, if a moment can truly be saved. Do they in fact give second chances to people who deserve it, in the same way music is already a reprieve? To which they say, “It depends.”

I guess I can understand that—who are we to decide who deserves life, especially a second? Maybe the sun is the only one that can offer such a chance.

Photographed by Jack Dione

Styled by Eloise Moulton

Written by Bree Castillo

Hair: Andrita Renee

Makeup: Shaena Baddour

Location: Moxy NYC Chelsea