Stepdad

Electronic pop outfit Stepdad came together during the summer of 2009 after roommates Ryan McCarthy and Mark "Ultramark" Tafel began laying down tracks inside their Chicago apartment. Initially operating as a duo, the project earned its earliest widespread notice in 2010 by supplying the theme for the web comic Axe Cop. Later that same year the pair moved operations to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where bassist Alexander Fives and drummer Jeremy Malvin came aboard. The quartet issued its debut EP, Ordinaire, as a self-released digital title and hit the road regionally to promote it. Opening slots alongside Passion Pit and Fitz & the Tantrums soon expanded their audience. In September 2011 the EP resurfaced on the Michigan/Brooklyn imprint Quite Scientific, now augmented by two bonus cuts. The band maintained a heavy touring schedule while also creating the theme for the Atom.com series Top Rope. The next year they finished their first full-length, Wildlife Pop, under producer Chris Zane (the Walkmen, Holy Ghost!, Friendly Fires, Passion Pit). After signing with Black Bell Records, a Warner Bros. subsidiary, the album appeared in June 2012. During that summer’s Vans Warped Tour run, multi-instrumentalist Nathan K joined the lineup. Shortly afterward Malvin exited to focus on his Chrome Sparks project and was succeeded by drummer Ben Weissenborn. Another EP, Strange Tonight, surfaced in 2014 and coincided with Fives’s departure. While readying their follow-up album in 2015, the band suffered a tour-van break-in that claimed numerous recordings stored on a stolen hard drive. Four finished tracks were salvaged and formed the core of the 2016 EP Masterbeast Theatre, whose lead single was “Marquis Marq.”