Travis Stewart, better known as Machinedrum, is an American electronic record producer and performer from

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

.Machinedrum Interview
Interview Magazine, retrieved 9/7/12 He is also known as Syndrone and Tstewart. He is one half of

Sepalcure Sepalcure is a musical collaboration between Travis Stewart (better known as Machinedrum) and Praveen Sharma (better known as Braille). Their self-titled debut album, '' Sepalcure'', was released in 2011 on the Hotflush Recordings label. Discogr ...

, with Praveen Sharma, one half of JETS, with

Jimmy Edgar Jimmy Edgar is an American conceptual artist and sound designer from Detroit, Michigan. Influenced by minimalism, Yves Klein and Immaterialism, early in their career Jimmy released two hip-hop glitch albums under the names Michaux and Kristuit ...

, as well as half of Dream Continuum with Jim Coles, a.k.a.

Om Unit Jim Coles (born c. 1980), professionally known as Om Unit, is an English, Bristol-based electronic producer and DJ, known for his work in electronic music and drum and bass. Career Originally producing jungle as a teenager in the 1990s, he then ...

Biography

Travis Stewart was born in

Eden, North Carolina Eden is a city in Rockingham County in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Eden is the largest city in Rockingham County and is part of the Greensboro-High Point Metropolitan Statistical Area of the Piedmont Triad metro region. As of the 2020 ...

. He was exposed to a wide range of musical influences in his childhood. His grandfather played

pedal steel The pedal steel guitar is a console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all steel guitars, it can p ...

for a country band, and gave Stewart his first guitar. His first recordings were made at his grandparents' house, around the age of 5 or 6. His parents kept a house full of instruments, and a singer-songwriter cousin continually exposed him to new sounds and ideas.Menedetter, Valentin
Machinedrum Interview
HHV Mag, 3/5/12Dicker, Holl
Machinedrum Interview
Resident Advisor, 9/19/11 He fostered an interest with

polyrhythms Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhyth ...

while playing marching snare in his high school band, and the

djembe A djembe or jembe ( ; from Maninka language, Malinke ''jembe'' , N'Ko script, N'Ko: ) is a rope-tuned skin-covered goblet drum played with bare hands, originally from West Africa. According to the Bambara people in Mali, the name of the djembe ...

in an African ensemble. Stewart played in two local alternative bands, marching band, jazz band as well as several percussion ensembles before turning more towards electronic music around the time of 8th grade. Using handed down computers, he began to produce his own music, and connected with a community of likeminded musicians over the Internet. He started the Machinedrum project during his final two years of high school, between 1998 and 1999. After graduation, he attended

Full Sail University Full Sail University is a Private university, private For-profit higher education in the United States, for-profit university in Winter Park, Florida. It was formerly a recording studio in Ohio named Full Sail Productions and Full Sail Center ...

in Florida to study audio engineering. In 2001, at the age of 19, he released his first record as Machinedrum, "Now You Know", on

Merck Records Merck Records (2000– 2007) was a record label based in Miami and run by Gabe Koch. It released electronic music. Background Their releases cover a wide range of styles, from cut up vocal hip hop by their most prominent artist Machinedrum, to ...

. Following college, Stewart moved to New York City and got involved with

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

-based boutique label Normrex, and has during that time collaborated with such artists as

Tiombe Lockhart Tiombe Lockhart is an American singer-songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia. She is a former member of Cubic Zirconia. Early life Lockhart was born in Atlanta, Georgia. At the age of 12 she moved to Los Angeles and completed the Los Angeles County Hi ...

Theophilus London Theophilus Musa London (born February 23, 1987) is an American rapper and singer. A frequent collaborator of Kanye West, London was a producer on the 2022 album Donda 2 and was featured on West's 2015 single " All Day" which was nominated for sev ...

Jesse Boykins III Jesse Boykins III (born February 20, 1985) is a Jamaican-American singer, songwriter, and record producer from Chicago, Illinois. Career Boykins is a world soul artist originally from Jamaica, later relocating to Miami and finally Brooklyn. H ...

Azealia Banks Azealia Amanda Banks ( ; born May 31, 1991) is an American rapper, singer and songwriter. Raised in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, she began releasing music through Myspace in 2008 before being signed to XL Recordings at age 18. In 2 ...

and

Mickey Factz Mark Williams (born July 13, 1982), better known by his stage name Mickey Factz, is an American Hip hop music, hip hop recording artist from the Bronx borough of New York City, New York (state), New York. Early life Mickey Factz attended Adlai E. ...

, among others. For

, Stewart produced and mixed the ''Jam Mixtape'' as well as ''This Charming Mixtape''. For

, he produced the tracks Barbie Shit, Luxury, 1991, Van Vogue, L8R, and Fantasea among others. From 2001–2010, Stewart is credited for having released 8 albums, as well as numerous remixes, mixes, singles, and EPs. Stewart's collaboration with Praveen Sharma, known as

, began after the two had collaborated on parties Percussion Lab and Cassette NYC, then decided to record music together, which gained the attention of

Hotflush Recordings Hotflush Recordings is a British record label. Founded by electronic musician Paul Rose, the label began as a UK Garage night on Stokes Croft in Bristol when Scuba was studying at University of Bristol, booking the likes of Artful Dodger (duo) ...

, who signed the duo. ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' considered their self-titled LP one of 2011's Top 50 albums, and the song "Pencil Pimp" made the list of 2011's Top 100 Tracks. In 2010, Stewart and Sharma wrote and performed the song "Outside the Lines" for the film ''

Black Swan The black swan (''Cygnus atratus'') is a large waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia, the black swan is nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon c ...

''. Also in 2010, Stewart signed to the label LuckyMe and released the ''Many Faces'' EP, followed by the "Alarma" single in 2011 and the ''SXLND '' EP in 2012. In 2011, Stewart released the album Room(s), on

Planet Mu Planet Mu is an eclectic English electronic music record label created and run by Mike Paradinas. The label started out as a subsidiary of Virgin Records then Paradinas set up the label independent of Virgin. After releasing intelligent dance m ...

. The album was made mostly on the road, with Stewart limited to his laptop and headphones. His single "She Died There" was featured in the video game ''

Grand Theft Auto V ''Grand Theft Auto V'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh main entry in the Grand Theft Auto, ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2008's ''Grand Theft Auto IV'', and ...

'' on the fictional radio station FlyLo FM.. In 2013, Stewart signed to

Ninja Tune Ninja Tune is an English independent record label based in London. It has a satellite office in Los Angeles. It was founded by Matt Black and Jonathan More (better known as Coldcut) and managed by Peter Quicke and others. Inspired by a visit ...

and announced his debut LP for the label, '' Vapor City'' which was to be released later that year. Since then Machinedrum has released two more LPs on Ninja Tune: Human Energy in 2016 and A View Of U in 2020. Additionally he went on to produce most of

Dawn Richard Dawn Angeliqué Richard (born August 5, 1983) is an American singer-songwriter. She started her career after auditioning for ''Making the Band 3'' in 2004. During this time, Richard became a member of girl band Danity Kane, from 2005 to 2009, a ...

's 2016 album "Redemption", as well as collaborated with artists like A$AP Ferg, Freddie Gibbs, Sub Focus, Rochelle Jordan, Tigran Hamasyan and many more. JETS, a collaboration formed in 2012 between Stewart and long time friend

, have released 1 LP "Zoospa" and 3 EPs together. They continue to produce music for artists like Tanerélle,

Flohio Funmi Ohiosumah, known professionally as Flohio (stylised as FLOHIO), is a Nigerian-born British rapper based in South London. Her music is characterised by unusual beats, expansive themes, genre fluidity, and periodic double-time flows. Though s ...

, and B-La-B as well as collaborating with artists like Tkay Maidza, Theophilus London, Dawn Richard, Mykki Blanco and Roses Gabor. Travis has recently scored the music for a new German true crime drama series called "Das Geheimnis Des Totenwaldes". As a performer, Stewart has played such venues as the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...

, the Nokia Theater in New York City, Zócalo Plaza in Mexico City, The Roundhouse in London, the Sonar Music Festival '11, '12, '14 and '15 in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, and

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

Personal life

On 14 June 2021, Stewart announced the birth of his youngest child named Billie Josephine.

Discography

Albums

*Syndrone: ''Triskaideka'' —

Merck Merck refers primarily to the German Merck family and three companies founded by the family, including: * the Merck Group, a German chemical, pharmaceutical and life sciences company founded in 1668 ** Merck Serono (known as EMD Serono in the Unite ...

(2000) *Machinedrum: ''Now You Know'' — Merck (2001) *Machinedrum: ''Half the Battle'' — Merck (2001) *Machinedrum: ''Urban Biology'' — Merck (2002) *Syndrone: ''Salmataxia'' — Merck (2004) *Machinedrum: ''Bidnezz'' — Merck (2004) *Tstewart: ''Living Exponentially'' — Merck (2006) *Machinedrum: ''Mergerz & Acquisitionz'' — Merck (2006) *Machinedrum: ''Cached'' — The Inside (2006) *Machinedrum: ''Want to 1 2?'' — Normrex (2009) *Sepalcure: ''Sepalcure'' —

Hotflush Hotflush Recordings is a British record label. Founded by electronic musician Paul Rose, the label began as a UK Garage night on Stokes Croft in Bristol when Scuba was studying at University of Bristol, booking the likes of Artful Dodger (duo) ...

(2011) *Machinedrum: ''Room(s)'' —

(2011) *Machinedrum: '' Vapor City'' –

(2013) *Machinedrum: ''Vapor City Archives'' – Ninja Tune (2014) *Machinedrum: ''Human Energy'' – Ninja Tune (2016) *Sepalcure: ''Folding Time'' – Hotflush (2016) *JETS (with

): ''ZOOSPA'' – Innovative Leisure (2019) *Machinedrum: ''A View of U'' – Ninja Tune (2020)

Singles and EPs

*Syndrone: ''Triskaideka EP'' — Merck (2001) *Machinedrum: "Half the Battle 2" — Merck (2003) *Machinedrum: "Half the Battle 3" — (2004) *Machinedrum: "Late Night Operation" — Normrex (2009) *Machinedrum: ''Many Faces EP'' — LuckyMe (2010) *Machinedrum: ''Let It EP'' — Innovative Leisure (2010) *Sepalcure: "Love Pressure" — Hotflush (2010) *Machinedrum: ''Sacred Frequency EP'' —

(2011) *Machinedrum: "Alarma 12"" — LuckyMe (2011) *Sepalcure: "Fleur" —

(2011) *Machinedrum: "Ecstasy Boom" — Independent (2011) *Machinedrum: "SXLND" — LuckyMe (2012) *Machinedrum: ''Nastyfuckk EP'' — The Index (2012) *JETS: "JETS" — Leisure System (2012) *Machinedrum: "Eyesdontlie" –

(2013) *Machinedrum: "Gunshotta Ave." – Ninja Tune (2013) *Machinedrum: "Fenris District" – Ninja Tune (2014) *Machinedrum: "Angel Speak" (feat. Melo-X) - Ninja Tune (2016) *Machinedrum: 'What Is This" - Ninja Tune (2017) *Machinedrum: "1 2 B Needed" - Ninja Tune (2017) *Machinedrum: "Hype Up" - Ninja Tune (2018) *Machinedrum: "Psyconia" - Ninja Tune (2021)

Selected remixes

Jacques Greene Philippe Aubin-Dionne (born 1989), better known by the stage name Jacques Greene, is a Canadian electronic musician based in Toronto. He has released music on the LuckyMe and Night Slugs labels and co-owns Vase Records. Greene released his de ...

– "The Look" (Machinedrum remix) *New Villager – "Rich Doors" (Machinedrum remix) *Grems feat.

Foreign Beggars Foreign Beggars were an English hip hop and dubstep group. Since their formation in 2002, the group's trajectory had seen them evolve from an underground hip hop group to an electronic crossover act. The group consisted of four artists individ ...

– "Broabilly" (Machinedrum remix) *Salva – "Keys Open Doors" (Machinedrum remix) *Sub Swara feat. Dead Prez – "Speak My Language" (Machinedrum remix) *

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...

– "Belshazzar" (Machinedrum remix) *

Solange Solange (died 10 May, c. 880) was a Frankish shepherdess and a locally venerated Christian saint and cephalophore, whose cult is restricted to Sainte-Solange, Cher. Saint Solange was the patron of the traditional Province of Berry, of which Che ...

– "Sandcastle Disco" (Machinedrum remix) *Sound Tribe Sector 9 – "Tokyo" (Machinedrum remix) *Edit – "Certified Air Raid Material" (Machinedrum remix) *Lazer Sword – "Gucci Sweatshirt" (Neon Black mix) *Mochipet – "African Trampoline" (Machinedrum mix) *

Bonobo The bonobo (; ''Pan paniscus''), also historically called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often the dwarf chimpanzee or gracile chimpanzee, is an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus '' Pan,'' the other being the comm ...

feat.

Andreya Triana Andreya Triana is a British singer and songwriter, ''Red Bull Music Academy'' alumna and MOBO nominated artist hailing from South East London, Her debut album, '' Lost Where I Belong'' released in September 2010 on London based record label Nin ...

– "Eyesdown" (Machinedrum remix) *Scuba – "M.A.R.S" (Machinedrum Remix) *Gang Colours – "Fancy Restaurant" (Machinedrum remix) *Dominique Young Unique – "Stupid Pretty" (machinedrum remix) *Son of Kick – "Playing the Villain" (Machinedrum remix) *

The Glitch Mob The Glitch Mob is an American electronic music trio from Los Angeles, California. It consists of edIT (Edward Ma), Boreta (Justin Boreta) and Ooah (Josh Mayer). Chris Martins of ''LA Weekly'' noted that they "have undoubtedly found the largest a ...

– "Between Two Dreams" (Machinedrum Convergence) *

Rudimental Rudimental are a British drum and bass band, signed to Asylum Records, Atlantic Records and Black Butter Records. The band consists of Piers Aggett, Kesi Dryden and Leon "Locksmith" Rolle. They were nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2013, and ...

feat.

Will Heard William James Heard (born 26 April 1991)Will Heard , Biography ...

Anne-Marie Anne-Marie Rose Nicholson (born 7 April 1991) is an English singer. She has attained charting singles on the UK Singles Chart, including Clean Bandit's "Rockabye (song), Rockabye", which peaked at number one, as well as "Alarm (Anne-Marie song ...

– "

Rumour Mill "Rumour Mill" is a song by British drum and bass band Rudimental. It features vocals from Anne-Marie and Will Heard. The song was recorded for Rudimental's second album, ''We the Generation'' and was released as the fourth single on 28 August 201 ...

" (Machinedrum remix) *

Noisia Noisia (stylised as NOISIΛ; "VISION" turned upside down) was a Dutch electronic music trio consisting of members Nik Roos, Martijn van Sonderen and Thijs de Vlieger from Groningen, Netherlands. They produce a wide variety of music including dr ...

- "Get Deaded" (Machinedrum remix) *

Hermitude Hermitude is an Australian electronic- hip hop duo, originating from the Blue Mountains, New South Wales. Biography Early years and ''Explanetary'' Multi-instrumentalists, Luke Dubber (a.k.a. Luke Dubs) and Angus Stuart (a.k.a. El Gusto), ha ...

feat. Bibi Bourelly - "Stupid World" (Machinedrum remix)

References

{{Authority control American electronic musicians Intelligent dance musicians Tracker musicians Living people People from Eden, North Carolina Musicians from North Carolina Hotflush Recordings artists Planet Mu artists Year of birth missing (living people)