With a weighty discography spanning a quarter century, the LA-based artist and producer Machinedrum is a certified electronic music legend, which is why we at Nina couldn’t be more excited to present an exclusive pre-streaming look at his forthcoming two singles and EP, his first independent release after years of a label partnership. Today, it’s the first single, “No 1 Knew,” a skippy, twisty bass tune that plays to all of the producer’s strengths.  It also comes with some Nina-exclusive bonus multimedia material that you are just going to have to check out yourself. To go along with the drop, we sent a few questions over to the producer, whose real name is Travis Stewart. Read the article and listen to the track, which is out on Machinedrum's new label IAMSIAM, below.

Could you tell us about how this new project came about?

“No 1 Knew” is the first single I've released independently as Machinedrum. For the past decade or so I've been collaborating with vocalists frequently, and recently I've been making a more intentional separation between my Machinedrum instrumental work and collabs with vocalists. Going back to basics. I still love using vocals as an instrument so you'll hear fragments sprinkled throughout my songs, but for this track specifically I'm tapping back into my love for original UK dubstep and 140 sounds that I was exploring in early Sepalcure and ‘Room(s)’ era work. There's something nostalgic about it, yet I have a lot of techniques and skills I didn't have back then that make me more confident writing these kinds of tunes now.

How does it feel to be independent after years of a label partnership? Anything scary about that? Exciting?

It's exactly that, scary and exciting. The biggest takeaway so far is that I don't feel any outside pressure in my decision making, and that gives me a sense of freedom I haven't felt in years. I'm so grateful for the advantages I had working with Ninja Tune and their amazing team, but there's an interesting psychological shift that happens when you're making all the decisions yourself. I also haven't had artist management for almost two years now. For an overly empathetic person like me, external factors like label A&Rs and managers have been a real obstacle to being creatively unfiltered. I know plenty of musicians who don't let that stuff affect their choices, but it took me a long time to get past it. So this new freedom is very welcomed.

What is the hardest thing about making fully instrumental tracks?

I don't necessarily think making fully instrumental tracks is difficult in the actual process of creating them, but I guess you could say that it is more difficult to convey a specific feeling or message without words. Instrumental music is more abstract in that way, it's more like a feeling in your body instead of evoking specific thoughts or emotions that can be defined by words.

How did you get in touch with Joseph Durnan, and how did your collaboration grow from there?

I've been a fan of Joe's work for years. When I approached Dom from LuckyMe for advice on creative direction for my last album 3FOR82, he suggested Joseph and it was an immediate yes from me. We instantly clicked and started sending inspiration back and forth. He totally understood where I was coming from with my concept for the album. It's quite effortless working with him, which is something I value highly in collaborations. There's very little friction. Joseph is really good at taking visual concepts I have and going so much deeper on the research side to bring forth new inspiration and direction for visual identity and world building. We created an art book/zine together for 3FOR82 which is one of my favorite physical artworks I've had as part of a project, and he's continuing to do creative direction for what I'm working on now.

Do you ever feel nostalgic for previous eras of the internet? Is this project any way to try to recapture that spirit?

There is something mysterious and exciting about the early internet. A sense of freedom that is missing now because all of our online experience is filtered through a few different platforms' UI and algorithms that decide what kind of information you're going to consume. It's become so monochromatic in that way, we're all having the same dull experience with seemingly no end in sight. Before social media the internet was kind of the wild west. You'd stumble upon sites like superbad.com, wwwwwwwww.jodi.org, or praystation.com and explore them for hours being immersed in someone else's art project. How you experienced the internet was really up to you and not up to algorithms desperately seeking your attention. Apparently there's actually a new movement of web revival/indie web creators that are also tapping into this, using old school "link" pages to build community. I fuck with it!

What is your favorite thing about playing extended DJ sets?

Extended DJ sets allow me to take more risks and play things I normally don't play in traditional sets. It allows me to explore more and go deeper on certain tangents that shorter sets just don't allow me to do. For example, if I start playing some 90s Detroit electro and see that people are really reacting well to it, I know I can go deeper into my collection of tunes like that before having to switch gears. My influences are so immense and constantly expanding and it's hard to fit it all into a set, even at three hours!

What kind of music have you been excited about in 2026?

I'm very excited about Lone's new album, he's always so inspiring. Alix Perez's new album Sabotage is also phenomenal. Radiant Light Unit is someone you should all be looking out for as well, very exciting artist that thinks outside of the box. EVA808's latest I AM MOTHER NATURE album is really sick too. Simula, Ring Noord, COIDO, GLM, QZB, Quartz, Northern Road, Dr Ushuu, Bukez Finezt, Eprom, G Jones, L-Vis 1990, and Envy are all killing it right now as well.