# Mk.gee
**Mk.gee** (pronounced "McGee") is the stage name of **Michael Todd Gordon**, an American singer-songwriter, music producer, and multi-instrumentalist known for a distorted, genre-blurring sound built on lo-fi guitar processing, buried vocals, and 1980s pop and R&B references. Born in New Jersey in 1996 (some sources give 1997)[1](https://www.last.fm/music/Mk.gee) • [2](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mkgee-mn0003895425), he released a series of EPs and mixtapes before his debut studio album, *[Two Star & the Dream Police](https://www.edgepedia.org/two-star-and-the-dream-police)* (2024), which drew endorsements from artists including [Frank Ocean](https://www.edgepedia.org/frank-ocean), Eric Clapton, and [Justin Bieber](https://www.edgepedia.org/justin-bieber)[3](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/28/mk-gee-music-review).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Real name | Michael Todd Gordon, born in New Jersey in 1996 (some sources give 1997)[1](https://www.last.fm/music/Mk.gee) • [2](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mkgee-mn0003895425) |
| First releases | Debut single "I Know How You Get" (2017); *Pronounced McGee* (2018) and *Fool* (2018); mixtape *A Museum of Contradiction* (2020)[1](https://www.last.fm/music/Mk.gee) • [2](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mkgee-mn0003895425) |
| Debut album | *Two Star & the Dream Police*, 12 tracks in 33 minutes, released February 9, 2024 on the R&R label[4](https://music.apple.com/us/album/two-star-the-dream-police/1882613139) |
| Signature gear | A Tascam 424 Portastudio used for guitar distortion rather than recording, and a 1995 Roland VG-8 guitar modeler[5](https://www.musicradar.com/guitars/guitar-pedals/hes-not-using-a-guitar-amp-hes-using-a-tascam-424-jhs-pedals-puts-a-portastudio-in-a-pedal-to-help-you-recreate-mk-gees-elastic-lo-fi-tones) • [6](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/04/guitar-sounds-vg8/686807/) |
| Production credits | Dijon's *Absolutely* (2021), Omar Apollo's *Apolonio*, and co-writing and co-producing "Daisies" on Justin Bieber's *Swag* (2025)[7](https://kxsc.org/articles/two-star-and-the-dream-police) • [8](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/hes-searching-anything-that-comes-out-of-his-mouth-thats-pop-music-you-can-really-do-pretty-wild-stuff-behind-that-mk-gees-collaboration-with-justin-bieber-has-arrived-on-biebers-surprise-new-album-swag) |
| Recognition | *Two Star* was named album of the year for 2024 by Clash, Dazed, and the New York Times; the Guardian gave his Electric Brixton show a five-star review[9](https://newmusic.news/mkgee-made-a-33-minute-debut-with-no-guests-and-no-clear-vocals/) • [10](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/oct/30/mkgee-review-electric-brixton) |
## Background
Gordon grew up in Linwood, a small town in southern New Jersey, in a family with musical ties; his grandparents ran a jazz society in nearby Somers Point that held workshops and small concerts featuring figures such as the jazz guitarist Pat Martino[11](https://origin.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64551/1/mk-gee-michael-gordon-interview-autumn-2024-issue-dazed). His mother enrolled him in piano lessons with a Russian classical pianist when he was six, and he took up the electric guitar in his early teens, learning the basics from a teacher who played the upright bass rather than the guitar[11](https://origin.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64551/1/mk-gee-michael-gordon-interview-autumn-2024-issue-dazed). As a teenager he played in a jazz trio gigging in bars along the [Jersey Shore](https://www.edgepedia.org/jersey-shore), and formed the impression that a career in music was not considered realistic in his community[11](https://origin.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64551/1/mk-gee-michael-gordon-interview-autumn-2024-issue-dazed).
**Early recordings.** A large part of his listening education came from file-sharing-era software; he has said that the low, 12-bit compressed audio of that period shaped his preference for "underwater-sounding" production[11](https://origin.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64551/1/mk-gee-michael-gordon-interview-autumn-2024-issue-dazed). He moved to Los Angeles to attend the USC Thornton School of Music's popular music program, dropped out in his freshman year, and in 2016 recorded and released *8ams* using a cracked copy of Ableton[11](https://origin.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64551/1/mk-gee-michael-gordon-interview-autumn-2024-issue-dazed). His career is generally dated from the 2017 single "I Know How You Get"[1](https://www.last.fm/music/Mk.gee).
## Sound and guitar approach
Mk.gee's music sits between bedroom pop, alternative R&B, indie rock, and 1980s adult-oriented pop, with warped synths, stuttering drums, and random flyby noises such as laser beams and scraping metal mixed into verses[11](https://origin.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64551/1/mk-gee-michael-gordon-interview-autumn-2024-issue-dazed) • [12](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/mk-gee-two-star-and-the-dream-police/). Critics describe the songs as murky, wobbly, and deliberately unresolved; hooks are often buried or interrupted, and his vocals are kept low in the mix behind effects and light processing[3](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/28/mk-gee-music-review) • [9](https://newmusic.news/mkgee-made-a-33-minute-debut-with-no-guests-and-no-clear-vocals/).
**The gear.** His tone became the subject of widespread imitation, spawning "How Does He Make His Guitar Sound Like That?" YouTube videos and Reddit threads[6](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/04/guitar-sounds-vg8/686807/). Two devices central to the "Mk.gee tone" are older technologies repurposed:
- A Tascam 424 cassette Portastudio, used not to record but as a distortion and tone-shaping device in place of a guitar amp. The effect was influential enough that JHS Pedals built the 424 Gain Stage pedal to reproduce it[5](https://www.musicradar.com/guitars/guitar-pedals/hes-not-using-a-guitar-amp-hes-using-a-tascam-424-jhs-pedals-puts-a-portastudio-in-a-pedal-to-help-you-recreate-mk-gees-elastic-lo-fi-tones).
- A Roland VG-8, a 1995 guitar-modeling processor that could emulate different guitar models, amplifiers, microphones, and acoustic environments. VG-8s had sold for around $200 before *Two Star*; within months of the album's release demand rose and prices reached $1,200 in early 2025[6](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/04/guitar-sounds-vg8/686807/).
Gordon plays a 1960s [Fender Jaguar](https://www.edgepedia.org/fender-jaguar) reissue live[11](https://origin.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64551/1/mk-gee-michael-gordon-interview-autumn-2024-issue-dazed), and has said he prefers "taking cheap, bad gear and trying to make the best song with it"[11](https://origin.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64551/1/mk-gee-michael-gordon-interview-autumn-2024-issue-dazed). His touring band includes Andrew Aged on guitar and Zack Sekoff on drums, bass, and samples[13](https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/guitarists/andrew-aged-mkgee-interview).
## Career and discography
*Pronounced McGee* (2018), a "double EP" recorded in his Los Angeles bedroom, drew on beach rock, psych-funk, and late-1970s R&B; the song "You" was played on Frank Ocean's Blonded Radio and broadened his audience[11](https://origin.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64551/1/mk-gee-michael-gordon-interview-autumn-2024-issue-dazed). The EP *Fool* followed six months later[11](https://origin.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64551/1/mk-gee-michael-gordon-interview-autumn-2024-issue-dazed), and the 2020 mixtape *A Museum of Contradiction*, released on IAMSOUND and Interscope, pushed his sound further into instrumental psychedelia[11](https://origin.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64551/1/mk-gee-michael-gordon-interview-autumn-2024-issue-dazed).
**Two Star & the Dream Police.** Released on his own R&R Digital imprint in February 2024, the 33-minute album has no guest vocalists[14](https://framejunkie.media/article/mkgee-two-star) • [4](https://music.apple.com/us/album/two-star-the-dream-police/1882613139). Ten of its twelve tracks were written, arranged, produced, and mixed by Gordon alone, with co-writes on "You Got It" (with John Keuch and [Sam Wilkes](https://www.edgepedia.org/sam-wilkes)) and the closer "Dream Police" (with Keuch); Andrew Sarlo helped arrange some songs and Dijon contributed some production[9](https://newmusic.news/mkgee-made-a-33-minute-debut-with-no-guests-and-no-clear-vocals/) • [11](https://origin.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64551/1/mk-gee-michael-gordon-interview-autumn-2024-issue-dazed). It was Gordon's first charting album, peaking at number 8 on the UK Independent Albums Chart and number 12 on the Scottish Albums Chart[15](https://www.last.fm/music/Mk.gee/Two%2BStar%2B%26%2BThe%2BDream%2BPolice/%2Bwiki), and it appeared in the Associated Press's ten best albums of 2024[16](https://apnews.com/article/cc1c5c3690daebf29601ca4392801c7b).
## Collaborations
Between his own releases Gordon built a production resume in independent and mainstream pop. He was a key collaborator on Dijon's 2021 debut album *Absolutely*, which he co-produced, and worked on [Omar Apollo](https://www.edgepedia.org/omar-apollo)'s *Apolonio*[7](https://kxsc.org/articles/two-star-and-the-dream-police) • [17](https://yespress.io/mk-gee). He has a credit on Drake's "Fair Trade," which samples Charlotte Day Wilson's "Mountains," and produced for [The Kid Laroi](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-kid-laroi)[11](https://origin.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64551/1/mk-gee-michael-gordon-interview-autumn-2024-issue-dazed). He opened for [Bon Iver](https://www.edgepedia.org/bon-iver) (with Dijon) in 2022 and appears on the 2025 Bon Iver album *SABLE, fABLE*[11](https://origin.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64551/1/mk-gee-michael-gordon-interview-autumn-2024-issue-dazed) • [18](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/he-takes-this-expensive-martin-from-the-60s-we-test-it-and-im-like-cool-but-its-just-not-quite-making-me-excited-its-not-doing-the-thing-why-bon-iver-chose-a-hideous-usd199-ibanez-rejected-by-a-rehab-centre-over-a-vintage-martin-for-speyside).
The Justin Bieber connection brought his sound to a mass audience. Gordon described Bieber's approach in a 2024 interview, saying "anything that comes out of his mouth, that's pop music"; the collaboration produced "[Daisies](https://www.edgepedia.org/daisies-justin-bieber-song)" on Bieber's 2025 album *[Swag](https://www.edgepedia.org/swag-justin-bieber-album)*, with Gordon and Dijon both receiving writing and production credits[8](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/hes-searching-anything-that-comes-out-of-his-mouth-thats-pop-music-you-can-really-do-pretty-wild-stuff-behind-that-mk-gees-collaboration-with-justin-bieber-has-arrived-on-biebers-surprise-new-album-swag). He also appeared at Bieber's Coachella set in 2025[19](https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/guitarists/guitarists-of-the-year-2025).
## Reception and influence
[Eric Clapton](https://www.edgepedia.org/eric-clapton) compared discovering Mk.gee to first hearing Prince, calling him a guitarist who "has found things to do on the guitar that are like nobody else"[3](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/28/mk-gee-music-review). Dijon has said of his playing that he "might be creating or transmitting from an alien planet"[11](https://origin.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64551/1/mk-gee-michael-gordon-interview-autumn-2024-issue-dazed). Gordon appeared on [Saturday Night Live](https://www.edgepedia.org/saturday-night-live) and has sold out headlining tours on both sides of the Atlantic[11](https://origin.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64551/1/mk-gee-michael-gordon-interview-autumn-2024-issue-dazed) • [3](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/28/mk-gee-music-review); the Guardian's five-star review of his 2024 Electric Brixton show called him the year's biggest word-of-mouth success[10](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/oct/30/mkgee-review-electric-brixton), and [Guitar World](https://www.edgepedia.org/guitar-world) named him a Guitarist of the Year for 2025[19](https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/guitarists/guitarists-of-the-year-2025).
**Wider effect.** His tone has been widely copied by other artists and producers, and the renewed interest in his gear, especially the VG-8, has been read as "nostalgia for a time when digital was still new"[6](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/04/guitar-sounds-vg8/686807/). As of late 2026 he was working on the follow-up to *Two Star & the Dream Police*[20](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/shows-festivals/weddings-parties-anything-dijon-and-mk-gee-serenade-the-nuptials-of-their-producer-jack-karaszewski).
## References
1. [Mk.gee, Last.fm biography](https://www.last.fm/music/Mk.gee)
2. [Mk.gee biography and discography, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mkgee-mn0003895425)
3. [The Sleazy, Unsettling Sounds of Mk.gee, The New Yorker (July 2025)](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/28/mk-gee-music-review)
4. [Two Star & The Dream Police, Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/album/two-star-the-dream-police/1882613139)
5. ["He's not using a guitar amp. He's using a Tascam 424": JHS Pedals Gain Stage, MusicRadar](https://www.musicradar.com/guitars/guitar-pedals/hes-not-using-a-guitar-amp-hes-using-a-tascam-424-jhs-pedals-puts-a-portastudio-in-a-pedal-to-help-you-recreate-mk-gees-elastic-lo-fi-tones)
6. [The Guitar Sounds New Again, The Atlantic (April 2026)](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/04/guitar-sounds-vg8/686807/)
7. [ALBUM REVIEW: Two Star & the Dream Police, KXSC Radio](https://kxsc.org/articles/two-star-and-the-dream-police)
8. [Mk.gee's collaboration with Justin Bieber arrives on Swag, MusicRadar (July 2025)](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/hes-searching-anything-that-comes-out-of-his-mouth-thats-pop-music-you-can-really-do-pretty-wild-stuff-behind-that-mk-gees-collaboration-with-justin-bieber-has-arrived-on-biebers-surprise-new-album-swag)
9. [Mk.gee's Two Star & the Dream Police and the Buried Vocal, New Music News](https://newmusic.news/mkgee-made-a-33-minute-debut-with-no-guests-and-no-clear-vocals/)
10. [Mk.gee review, Electric Brixton, The Guardian (October 2024)](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/oct/30/mkgee-review-electric-brixton)
11. [The miseducation of Mk.gee, Dazed (Autumn 2024)](https://origin.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64551/1/mk-gee-michael-gordon-interview-autumn-2024-issue-dazed)
12. [Mk.gee: Two Star & the Dream Police Album Review, Pitchfork (February 2024)](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/mk-gee-two-star-and-the-dream-police/)
13. [Andrew Aged interview, Guitar World (April 2025)](https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/guitarists/andrew-aged-mkgee-interview)
14. [Mk.gee's Two Star & the Dream Police: The Guitar Record the Year Needed, Frame Junkie](https://framejunkie.media/article/mkgee-two-star)
15. [Two Star & The Dream Police wiki, Last.fm](https://www.last.fm/music/Mk.gee/Two%2BStar%2B%26%2BThe%2BDream%2BPolice/%2Bwiki)
16. [AP's top albums of 2024, Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/cc1c5c3690daebf29601ca4392801c7b)
17. [Mk.gee profile, YesPress](https://yespress.io/mk-gee)
18. [Bon Iver's SABLE, fABLE session, MusicRadar](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/he-takes-this-expensive-martin-from-the-60s-we-test-it-and-im-like-cool-but-its-just-not-quite-making-me-excited-its-not-doing-the-thing-why-bon-iver-chose-a-hideous-usd199-ibanez-rejected-by-a-rehab-centre-over-a-vintage-martin-for-speyside)
19. [Guitar World's Guitarists of the Year 2025](https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/guitarists/guitarists-of-the-year-2025)
20. [Dijon and Mk.gee perform at Jack Karaszewski's wedding, MusicRadar](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/shows-festivals/weddings-parties-anything-dijon-and-mk-gee-serenade-the-nuptials-of-their-producer-jack-karaszewski)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musicians and ensembles › Individual musical biographies › Pop and R&B singer-songwriters › Indie and alternative pop, 2010s to present › Indie rock and alternative pop artists*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license