Elliott Douglas—who performs as M.A.G.S.—is making some of the most interesting and compelling music right now. His work is as bold as it is meticulous and surprising. No two tracks on his new record Destroyer are the same, each entry deftly centering Douglas’ otherworldly abilities to piece together a daring rock song. Employing everything from singer/songwriter storytelling to hardcore patterns to distorted mid-’90s alternative, M.A.G.S. is a talent forging his own genre.
Tapping into Destroyer, I was blown away at every turn. I didn’t have time to catch my breath, as Douglas takes his M.A.G.S. moniker and gives it a technicolor energy set ablaze in static bliss. Sounding like Circa Survive trying to make a soul record, Destroyer is a benchmark turn for Douglas—who’s destined to continue building on his pedigree and continue shapeshifting towards alt-rock and punk perfection.
With Destroyer out tomorrow on all platforms, we invited Douglas to walk us through all nine tracks. The musician gave us much to chew on, with in-depth answers that only deepen the M.A.G.S. sonic universe. Check out what he had to say about tracks like “Sins,” “Wednesday” and “Red Sky” below, and be sure to check out Destroyer at midnight. Pre-save and pre-order links can be found here.
“Destroyer”
“Destroyer” combines the sharp edges of post-punk with melodies and chords akin to a Carole King tune. With vivid lyrical imagery like “you look like a child wandering this world alone…,” “inside your mind, don’t wanna wait here any longer.” M.A.G.S. sets an eerie precedent for what to expect in the upcoming journey. Being the first song and title track off the new record, “Destroyer” throws you head-first into a realm of sonic and emotional turmoil, opening a proverbial pandoras box of self-realization.
I want my listeners to be immersed in the desolation and chaos of this world, I want them to come face to face with the ugly truth…the dark underbelly of their subconscious…all the internalized trauma and destruction. And I want them to be smiling as they face it, because they can see they are not being swallowed by their darkness but that they are, in fact, holding it in the palm of their hand.
“Sins”
“Sins” is a certified emo banger that chews you up and spits you out quicker than you can say “What the fuck was that?” With massive power chords and pumping drums that will keep you head banging right from the start, “Sins” completely shatters the thin wall between indie rock and hardcore punk by adding heavy breakdowns and visceral screaming vocals to an otherwise groovy indie bop.
Lyrically, M.A.G.S. is questioning faith and destiny, looking for the truth in a world full of lies and disillusion. The question weighing on all of human existence; Why are we here? What is our purpose? Why do bad things happen? Questions seemingly without answers or reason.
In church you’re taught to have faith and trust that God has a plan for you. Especially when you’re young and impressionable, this can actually be very damaging because it doesn’t require you to think, you just believe. When you get older and start to ask those big questions, 99.9% of the time the pastor or leaders at your church won’t have the answers you’re looking for, no one actually does.
But that won’t stop them from trying to reprogram you. You’re shamed for questioning your faith, having sex, showing your body or even just having different opinions about whats really going on. Our country is full of people like me who were forced out of religious establishments simply because they weren’t given space to think differently, and it is very easy to become spiteful and turn away from God altogether.
“Elephant”
“Elephant” explores the gritty underbelly of modern rock music from a surrealist point of view. It pulls you into a twisted fever dream and holds you in perfect balance between chaos and tranquility, rarely giving you a moment to breathe. M.A.G.S. dives deeper into a sound that is equally ferocious and calculated, like a freight train about to go off the rails but still manages to reach its destination.
I really let my imagination run wild as I was making this song. Lately ive been mastering all the different styles I’ve picked up over the years and blending them together to make something that is undeniably me. And I was fortunate to get to work with a producer like Jay (Maas), the intuition he has for my vision allowed me to take chances and dive into areas of my sound I hadn’t yet explored.
ADHD is something I struggle with daily. My brain takes me in multiple directions at once, I tend to expel most of my energy just trying to get things done.
“Swimming”
“Swimming” presents another peek at the dark surrealism embedded between all the fuzz and chaos that defines Destroyer. When I wrote this song I had a visual of myself flying through the water, like I was an orca or something. And I was observing all of the underwater creatures surrounding me as I cut through the water at mach speed, only coming up for air momentarily before diving right back in.
This odd-metered track pulls you deeper into unknown territory, a world shrouded in mystery and shadows. It requires you to surrender your expectations and plunge headfirst into darkness, hold your breath until you find the light again. In the second verse, M.A.G.S. asks himself and the listener “Do you know what you really like? Do you know who you really are? Do you even care?”
In our modern world it’s become increasingly obvious that most of what we think we know is a facade; a veil pulled over our heads to keep us in line. Have you ever tried to think for yourself without the influence of the social media or your friends? Do you really like that shit you think you like? When you look past the surface you’ll see how deep the iceberg really goes, but its still your choice to search for the real truth or to accept the reality thats being spoon-fed to all of us.
“Wednesday”
“Wednesday” is a dream-pop anthem with a bad attitude. The atmosphere of the washed out guitars give the feeling of floating through the sky, untethered from reality itself…the feeling of weightlessness is juxtaposed with dance-y grooves supplied by the methodically intertwined drums and bass, and ends with a polyrhythmic breakdown that would guarantee a “stank face” from even the most devout metalhead.
M.A.G.S. sings about being lost in the eye of a storm, searching for a way through the fray of overthinking and self-sabotage. The line “You’d break your skin for anything” refers to the ways we choose to cope with our issues. I’m finding healthier ways of working through insecurities instead of beating myself up every time I fail to meet my own impossibly high standards.
Back in 2016, I was heavy into recording full-band demos in my apartment. I had a whole studio set up across my living room and spare bedroom and I was going absolutely crazy making as much music as humanly possible. The original idea for this song came from a project I started but never finished. I made a post on instagram saying that the first 10 people to send me a DM would get a custom song from me. I had a burst of inspiration and ended up making all 10 songs in about 2 days, then immediately shelved the project.
I have a bad habit of getting a project to like 90% done and then getting overly precious with it, like everything that was created during the initial period of inspiration is sacred and unfuckwithable, but at the end of the day things always have a way of coming full circle. Some songs just need time to incubate…or you need to grow up a little to really understand what you made.
“Her”
“Her” takes a look at the fine print of a failing relationship. Staying when you know you should go, opting for the illusion of comfort in spite of the blatant red flags surrounding you. As the saying goes ‘the truth will set you free’ but sometimes it will destroy your life in the process. Like Neo being pulled out of the matrix for a moment of perspective, Her talk about seeing your situation for what it truly is rather than what you’ve forced yourself to believe.
A lot of my guitar influences stem from alternative bands that were prominent in the early/mid-2000s. With this record I was less shy about wearing my influences on my sleeve, this song in particular was saved in my phone as “Coheed song” for months. All my favorite bands growing up were signed to either Equal Vision or Tooth & Nail Records, I remember staying up late one night as a teenager listening to 103.3FM in Buffalo because they would play underground music at like 3am. That was the first time I heard Circa Survive and it changed my life.
We didn’t have internet access at my house so I asked a friend to download their first 2 albums for me off Limewire, which unfortunately ended with his parents’ computer getting a virus and both of us getting in trouble. Totally worth it tho. I combined all of my earliest influences to make one fucked-up problem child.
“Floyd”
“Floyd” implores you to move your body and pushes every thought out of your brain, leaving only a rush of vibrant colors as you dive deeper into this unpredictable mess of punk-pop euphoria. In typical M.A.G.S. fashion, listeners are presented with catchy hooks and earworms right from the beginning, only to be blindsided by the true chorus over two minutes in.
Part of my writing process is to make as many choruses as possible. To me, everything is a chorus. Every part should invariably elicit an emotional reaction….and I’m not just talking about the vocals. I’m saying a lot even in my instrumentals. I have separate personalities for each instrument when I’m tracking and they all have different voices and different things to say.
I pull a lot of writing influence from Motown-era artists like Marvin Gaye, Four Tops, Diana Ross and The Temptations to name a few. Those artists made music that has become synonymous with feelings of nostalgia and timelessness. I believe my music is timeless because its an amalgamation of things from the past and things that are happening right now. When I make these songs I’m thinking about how people in the future will react to hearing it, I like to think my music will still be relevant a hundred years from now.
This song in particular is derived from the music I came up on in the Buffalo music scene. Buffalo has had a unique take on indie music. It combines bright poppy hooks and optimistic melodies with calculated heaviness and the seething ferocity of the winters we all had to survive. I owe so much of the inception of my sound to my friend Steven Floyd, who played guitar in my previous band The Malones. He taught me to think outside the box and play whatever you fucking want if you think it sounds cool. His style was angular and dissonant while still being palatable, and he inadvertently pushed me to simplify the way I look at guitar with some of his choices in chord voicings.
“Red Sky”
You may want to pull out your calculator when listening to “Red Sky.” A keen listener will notice a dizzying flurry of time signature changes and polyrhythmic junctures blended with twisted guitar licks that would make even the most proficient mathematician’s head spin off its axis. The undeniable pulse of the drums and sing-along chants are designed specifically to make your brain slam against your skull with every downbeat. M.A.G.S. pushes the limits of his listeners’ comprehension as he tears through 2 minutes and 45 seconds of controlled chaos.
As the listener nears the climax of Destroyer they are taken on one last journey into the darkest parts of themselves to face the inevitable resolve. “Red Sky” talks about resisting the temptation of taking the easy way out, reverting back to those old patterns that greet you with an all too familiar warmth that pulls you in close and sinks teeth into you when you are in your most vulnerable state.
To be entirely honest I have steered away from doing too much math-y stuff in my songs even though I’m well capable of it. Until recently I wasn’t sure how to combine my pop sensibility with some of the more technical elements of hardcore and jazz that I appreciate in the music that I enjoy listening to. One band that does this effortlessly is Chon, it’s music for music nerds that is still approachable for people who don’t know music theory.
“Supermoon”
The beginning, middle and end of “Supermoon” couldn’t be more different from each other, yet somehow they harmonize and resonate with a mysterious tenor that tethers them together perfectly. Closing out the album with a final message of hope, “Supermoon” takes everything from the songs prior and zooms all the way out, the view of all things from an elevated place.
Your home, your friends and family, all the things that have ever happened in history, all from the viewpoint of the moon. It all seems so insignificant from up here, like you could just reach out and hold it all in your hands. The destruction seems so massive when you’re walking through the aftermath if you don’t have an elevated perspective. I started therapy last year and while it was helpful for me what I really took away from it was that I’ve known the answers to all my problems the whole time. Healing has to be a choice, you can know whats right and still do the wrong thing because accepting the truth requires real sacrifice.
There has to be a level of “fuck it” to everything in life, otherwise things can get really overwhelming and the darkness will swallow you. I’ve made the same mistakes over and over without ever realizing I was going in circles. I’ve burned bridges, I’ve hurt people and ran away from fires that I started. The biggest theme of this album is destroying yourself for the purpose of growth. A tree can’t grow until you prune the dead limbs, we’re the same way as humans. There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel, there’s always a way through the pain and desolation.