M.A.G.S.

Elliott Douglas, a Buffalo native now based in Los Angeles, records as M.A.G.S., creating high-energy tracks that sit between ragged garage rock and muscular alt-pop. He first played drums in the city’s punk and hardcore circles before starting his own project in the mid-2010s. Working as a melodic vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist with a D.I.Y. approach, Douglas released the self-titled M.A.G.S. debut in 2017, then joined East Coast indie Take This to Heart for the 2021 album Say Things That Matter. By that time he had moved to California, and he followed with the visceral Destroyer on Smartpunk Records in 2023.

During his Buffalo upbringing, Douglas began drumming at age 12 and gravitated toward heavy acts such as Underoath, Coheed and Cambria, and Circa Survive. As his listening broadened, he added guitar and started writing and recording original material. In 2015 he joined the roster of local indie Admirable Traits. He chose the name Mags to honor his grandmother Maggie, later styling it M.A.G.S. One year after his first EP, Cellophane, the garage-pop single “My Love” appeared in an episode of the Showtime series Shameless, generating interest in the 2017 full-length M.A.G.S., which included the jagged “Demon” and album highlight “Drugs.” After relocating to Los Angeles, Douglas signed with Boston indie Take This to Heart, which issued Say Things That Matter in 2021. Like the debut, the record paired biting guitar tones with expansive, anthemic melodies that straddled the D.I.Y. indie sphere while aiming for broader reach. In early 2022 M.A.G.S. released an EP that reworked several earlier tracks into an electronic dream-pop style. Signing with Florida imprint Smartpunk, Douglas continued experimenting on 2023’s Destroyer, an album that combined his range of approaches from hardcore through sugary garage pop to shoegaze.