Math the Band is an American

chiptune Chiptune, also known as chip music or 8-bit music, is a style of synthesized electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. The t ...

-based

synthpunk Electronic rock is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music, featuring instruments typically found within both genres. It originates from the late 1960s, when rock bands began incorporating electronic instrum ...

band from

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

formed in 2001 by Kevin Steinhauser. Originally being a solo project by Steinhauser, the band's style has been sometimes called

Nintendocore Nintendocore is a broadly defined style of music that most commonly fuses chiptune and video game music with hardcore punk and/or heavy metal. The genre is sometimes considered a direct subgenre of post-hardcore and a fusion genre between metal ...

. The band has performed over 1000 shows throughout the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, touring with bands, artists and rappers such as

Andrew W.K. Andrew Fetterly Wilkes-Krier (born May 9, 1979), known professionally as Andrew W.K., is an American conceptual performance artist, rock singer, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and actor. Raised in Michigan, Wilkes-Krier began his m ...

Japanther Japanther was an American punk band established by Matt Reilly and Ian Vanek, then students at Pratt Institute. Japanther was featured in the 2006 Whitney Biennial and the 2011 Venice Biennale, and collaborated with a diverse pool of artists suc ...

Wheatus Wheatus are an American rock band from Northport, New York, formed in 1995. They are known principally for their 2000 single "Teenage Dirtbag", which appeared in the films '' Loser'' and ''Bully'', as well as the HBO miniseries ''Generation Kil ...

MC Frontalot Damian Hess (born December 3, 1973), better known by his stage name MC Frontalot, is an American rapper and web designer. Hess began releasing music as MC Frontalot in 1999. His first successes came through Song Fight!, an online songwriting and ...

Horse the Band Horse the Band (stylized as HORSE the band) is an American metalcore band from Lake Forest, California, who are best known for their chiptune, 8-bit video game-influenced sound combined with metalcore. Frontman Nathan Winneke once jokingly desc ...

MC Chris Christopher Brendan Ward IV, better known by the stage name mc chris (stylized in all lower case), is an American rapper, voice actor, comedian, and writer. He is known for his high-pitched voice and for combining his "geek" background with the ...

Peelander-Z Peelander-Z is a Japanese-American punk rock band formed in 1998 and based in Austin, Texas. They bill themselves as a "Japanese Action Comic Punk band hailing from the Z area of Planet Peelander". While the founding members of Peelander-Z were ...

Anamanaguchi Anamanaguchi is an American chiptune-based pop and rock band from New York City. The band has four members: lead songwriters and guitarists Peter Berkman and Ary Warnaar, bassist James DeVito, and drummer Luke Silas. Anamanaguchi combines dig ...

and

MC Lars Andrew Robert Nielsen (born October 6, 1982), known professionally as MC Lars, is an American record producer, rapper, cartoonist, podcaster and educator. Lars is one of the self-proclaimed originators of "lit-hop", and is the founder and CEO of ...

. Math the Band has been featured in several magazines such as

Venus Zine ''Venus Zine'' was a quarterly internationally circulated magazine covering women in music, film, art, entertainment, literature, fashion, indie culture and DIY culture. It was published from 1995 through 2010. Venuszine.com was the daily update ...

and

Keyboard Magazine ''Keyboard'' is a magazine that originally covered electronic keyboard instruments and keyboardists, though with the advent of computer-based recording and audio technology, they have added digital music technology to their regular coverage, inc ...

, and were also featured on

NPR Music NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...

.
Still, with band members spread across the United States, Math the Band is based in Providence, Rhode Island and are a part of Providence's

AS220 As, AS, A. S., A/S or similar may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * A. S. Byatt (born 1936), English critic, novelist, poet and short story writer * "As" (song), by Stevie Wonder * , a Spanish sports newspaper * , an academic male voice ...

and have performed there multiple times. Since 2017, Math the Band has been Kevin Steinhauser, Max Holbrook, Adam Waz, and Matt Zappa.

History

Formation as a solo project and early years (2001–2006)

Math the Band was originally the solo project of sixteen-year-old Kevin Steinhauser created in 2001, "doing his own thing" after getting kicked out of other bands he was in during high school for reasons he attributed to him "not being any good" – most notably, Christian pop punk band The Schwartz where he played guitar and was the only non-religious member. The origin of the name Math the Band originates from Steinhauser thinking of band names and having a pin on his backpack that simply said "Math" on it and he wanted a pin for his band so he named the band after the pin. During this time starting in 2002, Steinhauser released the studio albums: ''Robots Will Rise'', ''Eep! An EP!'', ''One Man Band For Single-Celled Organisms'', ''The Lost Levels'', ''Math the Band and the Secret of Mystery Island'', ''Imaginary Everything'', ''Greatest Hits'' and ''All Good Things, All in Good Time'' all under the Math the Band name and did live shows with a laptop and sometimes a box of costumes.

Transition to duo (2007–2017)

Steinhauser met Justine Mainville after playing a few shows with her then-band The Reaganauts while they were both in college. They later became friends and dated, leading Steinhauser to ask her to join on drums and synthesizer in 2007. The duo lineup of Math the Band released the studio albums: ''Math the Band Banned the Math'', ''Don't Worry'', ''Get Real'', ''No Thing'', ''Stupid and Weird'' and ''Math the Band the Band the Album''.

Transition to band and ''Flange Factory Five'' (2018–present)

Mainville later left the band and Max Holbrook, Adam Waz and Matt Zappa joined the band. In 2019 and 2020 they performed at PAXEast and

MAGfest MAGFest (Music and Gaming Festival, originally the Mid-Atlantic Gaming Festival) is an annual festival held in the Washington metropolitan area that celebrates video games and video game music, as well as their surrounding culture. MAGFest's pri ...

and played with a setlist featuring yet-unreleased songs announced as part of their young adult fantasy novel. On April 20, 2020 they released the single "Wet Cement", the music video's description announced it as part of ''Flange Factory Five'', a five-part series of releases based on the band's yet to be released at the time studio album of the same name. The album itself released on October 1, 2020, and is the third release in a collection of five monthly releases. The second single from the album titled "Duel of the Deer" released on July 5, 2020. The first release under the name ''Flange Factory Five'' was ''Flange Factory Five: the Novel'' a book which is a "fantasy adventure novel with magic, wizards and other characters". On October 23, 2020, the band streamed the first part of live reading the book on their

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

account. The second release was an energy drink advertised as "A New Sport Utility Beverage" The fourth release was a

guitar pedal An effects unit or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing. Common effects include distortion/overdrive, often used with electric guitar in ele ...

, Steinhauser describes it as "a replica of the pedal that’s a playback device of the album, and you can make the sound go all weird." and was originally planned for a release in November but was released in early December along with an accompanying demo. The fifth was planned for a release in December and be a video game for the

Game Boy Color The (commonly abbreviated as GBC) is a handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998 and to international markets that November. It is the successor to the Game Boy and is part of the Game ...

, it is unknown when it will release but is currently in development, its released date was delayed due to their making sure the game was up to "gamer standards". On March 16, 2021, Math the Band announced an online concert at

for March 25, it was their first show since the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. On April 1, the band released the music video for "That Thing You Don't", in the video the band stars on a fictional TV show titled Good Morning Void, at the end of the video, Steinhauser and a fictional manager are seen in the studio watching the performance, before the manager begins berating Steinhauser, and eventually "firing" him, upon being asked by Steinhauser who would replace him, the release of "Duel of the Deer (Matt the Band)" single was announced and released the same day.

Musical style and influences

Math the Band has described their music as "glitched-out, chaotic, celebration pop for the constantly anxious." Stylistically, the band is characterized as

, punk rock,

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

dance-punk Dance-punk (also known as disco-punk, punk-funk or techno-punk) is a post-punk subgenre that emerged in the late 1970s, and is closely associated with the disco, post-disco and new wave movements.Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978-1984 ...

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

, pop and

pop punk Pop punk (or punk pop) is a rock music genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop. It is defined for its emphasis on classic pop songcraft, as well as adolescent and anti-suburbia themes, and is distinguished from other pu ...

Math the Band uses vintage analog synthesizers, drum machines, hacked

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

and

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

generation video game consoles and homemade synthesizers to make loud and fast, punk rock music. Math the Band, specifically Steinhauser has cited

Atom and His Package Adam Goren (born January 14, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and teacher best known as the artist Atom and His Package. Goren is a singer and guitarist who has released more than 18 albums under various aliases. His music is i ...

, Steve Roggenbuck

Nathan Fielder Nathan Joseph Fielder (born May 12, 1983) is a Canadian comedian, actor, writer, director, producer, and entrepreneur. He is best known for co-creating, directing, and starring in the Comedy Central parody reality show '' Nathan for You'' (2013� ...

, and

Devo Devo (, originally ) is an American rock band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic line-up consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs (Mark and Bob) and the Casales (Gerald and Bob), along with Alan Myers. The band had a ...

as influences.

Band members

Current members

* Kevin Steinhauser - guitar, programming, lead vocals , laptop * Max Holbrook - guitar, backing vocals * Adam Waz - bass, backing vocals * Matt Zappa - drums

Former members

* Scott - bass * Joe DeGeorge - keyboard , saxophone * Neil King - drums * Justine Mainville - synthesizer, backing vocals, drum tom, drum cymbal, sequence track * Jeff McGowan - bass * Jon Pagano - guitar, synthesizer

Former touring members

* Zach Burba - drums * Unknown - trombone

Timeline

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Extended plays

Singles

Compilations and soundtracks

* 2009 - ''Up End Atom: A Tribute To Atom And His Package'' **Features the track "Upside Down From Here" (originally by

) * 2012 - ''Let's Big Happy (Original Soundtrack)'' **Features the track "Bad Jokes" * 2020 - '' AS220 Summer Sampler 2020'' **Features the track "Wet Cement" * 2020 - ''LINE THE FRONT: A BENEFIT COMPILATION FOR RI SOLIDARITY FUND'' **Features the track "Duel Of The Deer (previously unreleased)"

Other appearances

* 2014 - ''For all the Girls - 70 Love Songs'' **"Desirae (feat. Math the Band)"

Music videos

Filmography

Bibliography

* ''Flange Factory Five: the Novel'' (2020)

References

External links

* * *
Math the Band
on

* {{Authority control Musical groups established in 2001 Musical groups from Rhode Island Punk rock groups from Rhode Island Musical groups from Providence, Rhode Island Nintendocore musical groups Dance-punk musical groups Chiptune musical groups Indie rock musical groups from Rhode Island Electronic music groups from Rhode Island Musicians from Providence, Rhode Island American synth-pop groups American pop rock music groups American electronic rock musical groups Electropunk musical groups