STORY

On 2012’s Mandatory Pop, Jaguardini was playing with three-note melodies and Nintendo sounds, poking at pop and house without taking either too seriously. From Harrisonburg, Virginia, he describes his approach as treating music like a science project.

The experiments haven’t stayed in one genre. Synthpop and darkwave run through the catalog alongside film scores, while two Christmas records take familiar songs and add synth brass, airhorns and, eventually, a Mortal Kombat yell.

In the live setup, those video-game sounds share space with synthesizers, a vocoder and electric guitar. Jaguardini plays beneath a CRT television while Mickey Sharp sings beside him, bringing the songs into a performance that also makes room for VHS audio and video.

The homemade visuals extend to the music videos: oil projections and found footage in Overture of a Bird, then green-screen footage layered with radio waves and a grid in Saturday Night. The photographs here catch Jaguardini and Mickey at Snug Harbor; the video archive follows the act through other rooms and shows, from the Depot to Montreal.

Working with moving images has also meant writing music to someone else’s story. For Mark Eaton’s experimental sci-fi short Soma, Jaguardini recorded the score in an eighteen-hour stretch with little sleep and several pots of coffee. Sleep Walker takes on The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, following the silent film’s characters and distorted scenery with post-punk, darkwave and psychedelic rock.

That work continues beyond the released soundtracks. In October 2026, after three years of writing, performing and revising a retrosynth score for Dawn of the Dead, Jaguardini announced a VHS edition pairing the film with his music.

Away from the film scores, the records trace experiences shared with other people. Obscene looks back on miles traveled along the East Coast and the venues and electro bands encountered on the road, with Camila Maric’s vocals and Justin Aswell’s production helping shape the two-song release.

Temper turns that reflection inward. Jaguardini began writing it with Mickey in December 2024, then quit alcohol in February 2025. Conversations and writing sessions became a way to look back at the blurry years behind him and record the changes he was making. Dedicated to people struggling with addiction and recovery, the album also thanks those who helped him through it.