MGNA Crrrta: BFFs IRL
Once upon a time, there was Ayesha Erotica and Slayyyter. Each other's sexy little BFFs. Even Amy Poehler and Tina Fey displayed how every blonde needs her brunette. Now, a new pair of fated BFFs have emerged, and they make the mystical music to match their cosmic connection.
Ginger Scott and Farheen Khan are the 22-year-old vocalists/producers/visionaries behind the electronic pop project, MGNA Crrrta. The girls met online as tweens, playing on the same Hunger Games servers in Minecraft. From there, the two began musically maximizing their online origins, debuting in 2022 with the single “American Experiment” and the full-length LP New Jersey.
Since then, Scott and Khan have built a 2010s-inspired, aquatic, iridescent world with their sounds and visuals.
This year, MGNA Crrrta released their mixtape Beautiful Disaster. Across its 9 tracks are moments of complete chaos, like on “Infinite Pleasure,” where searing synths underscore lyrics that belie the beauty of a sleepover with one’s #1 girl. There’s also more pure pop cuts, like the aptly titled single “Pür Love.” Its post-chorus breakdown is still brash, and features what sounds like a lion’s roar; it’s not a far cry from something off Cannibal by Ke$ha, who MGNA Crrrta cite as one of their greatest sonic inspirations.
While Beautiful Disaster brought them exciting critical acclaim, helping solidify the two as a true force in the evergrowing scene of ethereal electronic musicians, they’re backing up this praise the Beautiful Disaster North American tour, which continues through Summer.
MGNA Crrrta sat down with PAPER to discuss the intersection of artistic collaboration and friendship, their tour and the pillars of their artistic identity. It’s worth noting that Ginger joined our Zoom sitting beneath a Hunger Games poster. How incredibly sweet.
How has the Beautiful Disaster tour been going?
Ginger: The tour itself is good and epic and amazing, honestly. On an actual level, it’s so much fun. With Beautiful Disaster, there’s a coming-of-age, dreamy vibe. It’s fantastical and, in a a way, the tour is all those things manifesting in reality. It’s like a continuation of the mixtape in a spiritual sense. Meeting everyone and dancing with our girls every night is so fierce and beautiful.
That’s lovely. A physical manifestation of Beautiful Disaster. Was that a result of lots of planning? Or would it have happened regardless because of the music’s nature?
Ginger: I think it was meant to be in the universe. It’s so aligned with the stars. Beautiful Disaster is the diary entry and the tour is what manifested from the entry.
Farheen: It's like the movie adaptation.
Love.
Ginger: It’s sooo the movie adaptation.
What do you guys do in-between shows to stay sane? Do you spend a lot of time together off stage?
Farheen: We live together and do this together, so we’re always together. There’s not a day I don’t interact with this girl.
Ginger: It's very sisterhood.
Farheen: It's so random. Sometimes I remember how we met online when we were 11, then I’ll look at her and be like “this is so random.”
Do either of you have biological sisters?
Both: No.
Ginger: What we have is the truest version of sisterhood in our lives.
I saw my little sister yesterday. It was wonderful. What do you guys do together to maintain your friendship outside of MGNA Crrrta?
Farheen: Everything.
Ginger: Literally everything. We watch trashy TV.
Farheen: We made our global entry profiles together.
Ginger: We go out to eat a bunch. We just hangout.
Farheen: We walk around and go to the store.
Ginger: It’s a 24/7 sleepover. It feels normal for us but I realized that isn’t normal.
When did that start? Since you’ve been friends so long and it started online.
Ginger: This year, when we moved in together. Before that, we were still doing everything together. We would go to sleep at different houses, that’s the only difference. It feels like iCarly or Victorious. It’s so Nickelodeon vibes where we have our own rooms and they’re completely different. After the day’s episode ends we go to our rooms.
How does collaboration look as a duo? When you bring in an artist like After to remix “BFF,” what does that look like? Do you guys go in with a plan together before bringing someone new in?
Ginger: It comes really naturally. Everyone we collaborate with is a friend. With Ninajirachi and After, we were already such close friends. The collaborations came very naturally. We all love music and each other’s, so it’s like, why not do it together?
Farheen: It’s so exciting to be in each other’s canon.
What were some of the pillars of inspiration for Beautiful Disaster, musical and nonmusical?
Farheen: The main inspiration was our lives for the past few years after making MGNA and becoming adults. Musically, Ginger?
Ginger: The pillars are abstract. It’s friendship, love, music and spiritual awakening. Those are the four in my mind. We wanted it to feel like a diary of our lives, but it’s abstract in my mind. Some people won’t fully understand it. Sometimes, we’re speaking in languages people don’t understand or describing our dreams. The beauty of it is that it puts everything on the table and leaves it up to the listener to experience it. That was our goal. For it to be true to us. To make a Beautiful Disaster.
Who are you guys listening to right now?
Ginger: Grimes and Ke$ha are the biggest inspo for us. Farheen, who else?
Farheen: We love Hole and Paramore.
Obsessed with Paramore right now. I bought a Paloma Wool skirt last week because Hayley Williams wore it on her tour.
Farheen: Her album is so good. I love “Parachute".” It’s so tea.
Can you guys speak about your visuals? It’s very Gen Z to have such a visual identity, through videos and social media and merch.
Farheen: They’re a huge part of the MGNA identity. I wish we had fancy references, but most of it is pulled from our brains.
Ginger: We pull it together in real time.
Farheen: We love adventure videos with loose plots. We love psychedelic vibes.
Ginger: It so comes from our hearts. It comes so naturally. Lots of artists clearly build their visuals from crafted, corporate Pinterest boards. But for us, Farheen will fuck around on Photoshop for a half hour, then we use it. It feels instinctual. It’s like our wavelengths, between our brains, put into reality.
Obsessed with you guys. Ya’ll are woowoo.
Farheen: That’s so funny. We don’t even do any woowoo practices. It’s just how we function.
Ginger: I compare it to the creepypasta where the chatbots are speaking to each other in English, then it quickly switches to random symbols. Thats how Farheen and I communicate. People overhear how we talk to each other and they don’t understand. I don’t even know what happens.
You two are from the world. Like how Law Roach said in that interview. You aren’t from anywhere specific. It’s lovely. What does the future of MGNA Crrrta look like?
Ginger: We’re finishing up our tour. And after the tour, there’s a rumor we have a few singles coming out. Beautiful Disaster, as a mixtape, really tied up a lot of the ideas we’ve had since starting MGNA. It fleshes out our sound and vision. It’s a genesis for everything to come next. We have a lot of evolution coming. Beautiful Disaster is like the first book of many.
Farheen: Like a short story.
Ginger: A fable. And long-term, MGNA Crrrta is for the people. It comes from our hearts. It’s our dreams, visions and realities. It’s from the world for the world. It’s our expression and communication and as long as we feel inspired to do more with it, we will.
Images courtesy of MGNA Crrrta
