machineheart (spelled in all lowercase) made a name for themselves with their breakout 2015 debut EP, In Your Dreams, along with their single, "Circles," featuring Vanic. And the Los Angeles alt-pop quartet wanted to keep that momentum going by releasing "Stonecold," the lead single off their upcoming sophomore EP. We sat down with singer Stevie Scott, drummer Harry Allen, bassist Jake Randle and guitarist Carman Kubanda in New York City after they wrapped the video for the tune and got to know them a little bit better.

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA

Let's start at the beginning. How did you guys get together?

Stevie Scott: We met through mutual friends. The guys are from the Seattle area and all grew up playing in a bunch of bands and playing in bands together. So when we met, we started writing and playing together and hanging out. And it just went really effortless and natural. We also had a lot of fun writing together so we thought we should give ourselves a band name, and so began machineheart.

What's the story behind the band name?

Jake Randle: We sat around in a group with a bunch of band names for a while, and we just started brainstorming daily, monthly, weekly...

Scott: I think that's the hardest thing about being in a band right now is picking a name.

Randle: Yeah totally. And then Carman brought up "machineheart," and it kind of stuck. And we were like, "Oh well, we don't hate it."

Carman Kubanda: We kinda said it as a joke at first. We [the guys] all grew up listening to harder rock and heavier things. And Stevie liked more ethereal kind of stuff. You know [makes air quotes] quote-unquote "girly music." So it was like a blending of the two.

Harry [Allen], Jake, Carman, you all have been playing for a while before Stevie came in, and you just mentioned that you were into harder rock. How did you all get to that happy medium in your sound?

Scott: That's what was so cool about working together. It wasn't like, "OK, 40 percent of that will be this and 60 percent the other." It was the combination of everyone's taste.

Allen: I think we're all influenced by many things. We didn't just listen to hard rock music, but there are so many bands with lots of different styles [that we were into]. I don't think we were trying to right anything specific but just music in general.

Scott: I think that's most songs, too. We have a friend who draws and doesn't just always start from the left-hand corner, and that's the same with music, too. You don't know where you're heading necessarily. You just let it flow and see what comes out.

What's "Stonecold" about?

Scott: Well, I love your quote on what a song means. [Looks at Allen.]

Allen: Oh my Dave Grohl quote? [Laughs.] Well, Dave Grohl just says, or one of the things he says, is that he loves music because he can sing it to a thousand people who'll sing it back to him for a thousand different reasons. So it's what it means to you.

Scott: It's that, too. But it's really a special song that Carman and I were messing around with, and it happened super fast. In 30 minutes, the song was written. It was one of those days where it really pours out of you. And it really felt true to what I was going through, and it was the most tangible way for me to express emotion. It's also [about] that place in a relationship where one day you're on and one day you're off. How do you navigate that terrain, and for me, I see it as this topography of this land, this place, that was a wasteland. That's just what I felt about it.

"Stonecold" has a different sound to what you've previously released. So what inspired that musical direction?

Allen: Funny thing is the first song we put out, "Stonecold," is a specific direction, but the rest of the songs people haven't heard yet. They're not really that different. So for us, we haven't really changed direction. But to other people, it might seem that way. And as we release music, people will know what sound we're going for.

Scott: And the EP, In Your Dreams, only gave a small sampling of sounds. It was only three songs; so it didn't show as much of our dynamics.

Allen: And on our breakout song, "Circles," we collaborated with another artist. So you'll hear a lot of their influence on that song, too.

Scott: We're excited to release new music, too, so you could get a broader taste of what we have to offer.

So what can you tell us about upcoming EP?

Allen: These are songs we've been working on for quite a while that we think are the next step for us.

And what can you say about the video you just shot for "Stonecold"?

Scott: "Stonecold" definitely feels like a bookmark for us, and it's a start of a new chapter for us. Each song or new album is like that. So for this video, we really wanted to dig our heels in for the visuals of the video and allow it to be a little bit more dramatic. [Picks at her jacket.] I had to wear all rhinestones for this one scene, and now I keep finding them everywhere!

I really wanted it to be symbolic of the lyrics. So we decided to go on a less narrative music video path and created something that was more conceptual and mystical and show that desolate place at the end of a relationship or post-relationship.

Randle: Visually it will be really unique.

Allen: Yeah, we shot it on film. So we didn't have a chance to see what it looked like after every shot. And so, we just go with moment.

Randle: You just spray and pray. [Laughs]

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