Machinedrum

Machinedrum is a prolific electronic producer whose chameleonic, bass-friendly style of production has taken on different stages of evolution and various aliases over the years. Born Travis Stewart on 4 March 1982 in Eden, North Carolina, Machinedrum was surrounded by music from an early age; his grandfather played the pedal steel guitar for a country band and his parents' house was full of instruments growing up. By high school, he had developed a love of complex polyrhythms that led him to the djembe drum and various percussion ensembles. Next, he dove into a late 1990s Internet world of online communities and electronic production, one which would eventually herald the creation of Machinedrum during his final two years of high school in 1998 and 1999. He went on to study audio engineering in Florida before dropping his first record as Machinedrum, Now You Know, in 2001 on Miamis's Merck Records, drawing acclaim for his post-dubstep beatscapes while laying the groundwork for his future high-octane hallmarks. He spent the 2000s building his Machinedrum repertoire through releases on Merck, LuckyMe (2010's Many Faces EP) and Hotflush (as Sepalcure with Praveen Sharma) while finding a home in the experimental imprint Planet Mu, releasing Room(s) in 2011. However, it was his breakthrough album for the UK's legendary Ninja Tune label, Vapor City, in 2013 that really pushed his career into new places, nodding to UK-ready jungle and bass influences as well as gleaning from the heady sound of footwork. He went on to put out three more releases on Ninja Tune—2014's Vapor City Archives, 2016's Human Energy, and 2020's A View of U—as well logging a wealth of singles and EPs for the aforementioned label and other imprints, including ZOOSPA as JETS with Jimmy Edgar for Innovative Leisure in 2019 and 2021's "Psyconia" for Ninja Tune. 2022 saw the release of a new ambient album under his tstewart moniker, elysian, while in October 2023 he unleashed the 4#TRAX EP for Ninja Tune.