Western Michigan is an unexpected place for electropop group like Stepdad, a band hailing from Grand Rapids, the state’s second largest city best known as the office furniture capital of the world. But damned if their songs don’t shine like fluorescent overhead lighting. Songwriters Mark "ultramark" Tafel and Ryan McCarthy started the band in a Chicago apartment as a laptop duo, and later fleshed out the rhythm section comprised of Nathan K. and Ben Weissenborn on bass and percussion, respectively.

With two EPs and a full-length record under their belts, the band dropped their third EP, Masterbeast Theatre, today. “It was just a silly pun that made us giggle when we were high,” Tafel admits. “Unless you'd already attached a deeper philosophical or intellectual meaning to it, in which case you are correct and that's exactly what we meant the whole time.”

Tafel, an unlikely pop frontman with his beardy, burly build and resemblance to Action Bronson, is as quick with tongue and cheek humor as he is with the beats. We learned this getting the lowdown on the new material, as well as the story about how they named the band using a random name generator.

Hometown: Midland, Saginaw, Ypsilanti, and Grand Rapids—all in Michigan.

Homebase: Grand Rapids, MI

Why are you called Stepdad? Are any of you actually Stepdads?

Ryan: We needed a band name so we used a random name generator we found on the Internet. I guess it sticks but we've thought of much cooler names since, but it's too late in the game to change it.

How did you all meet and form a band?

Ryan: Mark and I formed Stepdad in 2009 when we were roommates in Chicago. Originally, I was supposed to help produce a solo album for him but we just started writing songs together and things sort of just clicked and started moving upwards from there. After we moved to Grand Rapids we played a few shows as a duo but it was kind of lame so we scoped out some more dudes. Originally we had Alex Fives on bass and Jeremy Malvin on drums. Jeremy went on to form Chrome Sparks so now we have Ben Weissenborn as our drummer. He also plays in like 18 other bands around town. Nathan K. has been a friend of ours since the beginning, we asked him to join right before Warped Tour in 2012 because it just made sense.

Did you play music as kids? How did you start making music?

Ryan: I am the only musical one in my family. I started getting into writing/producing when I was about 15 after I heard Nine Inch Nails for the first time. I picked it up pretty quickly and stuck with it. I would sit in my room and listen to how songs were constructed instead of learning how to play an instrument.

Mark: I grew up in a house of piano players. My sister and I both took lessons from about the age of 6 through high school and picked up guitar lessons somewhere in there too. At that young age I viewed it all as a boring, useless waste of time. When I was around 15 and I discovered computer music production it all clicked and I was suddenly grateful for the musical foundation forced upon me.

Why is your album called Masterbeast Theater?

Mark: Masterbeast Theatre is a pun on PBS' Masterpiece Theatre which I shamelessly lifted from the mind of a very good friend of mine named Levi. It was just a silly pun that made us giggle when we were high. Unless you'd already attached a deeper philosophical or intellectual meaning to it, in which case you are correct and that's exactly what we meant the whole time.

What's your favorite song on the EP?

Harm's Way.

Who are your biggest musical influences?

Ryan: When i'm writing a Stepdad song i'm mostly influenced by whatever Mark is writing. He's a songwriting genius and he doesn't even realize it. I've just been trying to keep up.

Mark: Awww, shucks.

What's a piece of gear you can't live without?

Ryan: My Macbook.

Mark: A laptop and a mic are the only real essentials in our line of work.

Does living in Michigan have an influence on your music?

Mark: The biggest influence Michigan had on my musical development was providing brutal winters for me to avoid by sitting inside on a laptop all day teaching myself production.

Do you remember the first song you ever wrote? What was it about?

Ryan: The first song I ever wrote for Stepdad was 'Jungles'. The first song I ever wrote in my life was probably garbage.

Mark: Yes. It was a clever little ditty about white genocide called "Kill the Caucasians" by a 12 year-old numbskull with a collection of cheap punk compilations from Sam Goody and a misguided sense of irony.

What's the craziest thing that’s happened to Stepdad as a band?

Ryan: Super early on, we got asked to play at Beloit College in Wisconsin. It was one of the first shows we ever played outside of Michigan and we thought we'd be playing for some kid and their friends in a basement or something but to our amazement we ended up playing for hundreds of kids who knew all the words to our songs and were singing along the whole time. It was an amazing feeling. The video of this is on Youtube somewhere.

If you were a hashtag, what would you be?

Ryan: #makemyspaceathing2016

Mark: #CamelCapsAreHelpfulInLongHashtags&ShouldBeMoreCommon

As a musician, you must have a Myspace-related story to tell. 

Ryan: Back in 2009 when we first created our Myspace page I remember thinking, "if only we could be the featured artist of the day, that would be huge."