When they met in their first year of college, Rainer Collins and Evan MacFarland initially bonded over a shared interest in subversive fashion designers. The two never planned on starting a band, but their mutual lifelong experience with classical instruments led them to start playing together. In the summer of 2024, they began experimenting with electronic music and formed the band New Agency.
Similar to how the duo’s unique sound draws from their extensive backgrounds in classical music, their distinct personal styles are informed by meticulous observation of avant-garde fashion design. Both dressed in vintage Dior and Yves Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane, a mutual favorite, the two also named Rick Owens and Ann Demeulemeester as inspirations.
The duo’s proficiency in various creative mediums allows them to express themselves fluidly across genres. “I consider myself a multimedia artist,” Collins said. He compared the process of forming an outfit to creating a song. “You are really refining something and trying to figure out what makes it appealing to the senses,” he said.
Finding alternative creative outlets has pushed the duo’s work in new directions. “All of these facets of expression really tie into each other and amplify each other,” Collins said.
Collins and MacFarland are committed to portraying themselves authentically through different mediums. “The band’s aesthetic has been built around what we really like currently,” MacFarland said. “I feel like we’ve done a good job of making the band into something that really represents who we are as people.”
When the two first started paying attention to fashion in early high school, it quickly became a means of confidence and self-discovery. “I was always pretty insecure about a lot of ways that people perceived who I was, and I felt like clothes were the easiest way for me to express myself,” MacFarland said.
Discovering new designers and their unique creative languages was monumental for Collins. He resonated with the aesthetic tendencies of Slimane, who is notorious for sleek, tall silhouettes.
“I’ve been really skinny my whole life. I was super insecure about it, and I was putting on baggy stuff to cover it up,” he said. “But then I saw some of Slimane’s runway looks. I saw people wearing his clothes, and I was like, ‘Oh wow, you can really accentuate your body.’”
As residents of a smaller city with distinctive style conventions largely inspired by outdoor and athletic wear, the two have become accustomed to the attention drawn by their style. “I’m used to the stares. I don’t mind it,” Collins said.
Musicians are often centers of attention when it comes to fashion, but the two have not felt any pressure to change the way that they dress because of their long-standing interest in clothes. “We were already dressing like this. It’s not like, ‘Oh, we’re in a band; we have to look good,’” Collins said.
The duo emphasized the importance of finding a personal style that feels genuine. “I think that whatever you feel most comfortable walking out into the world in is what you should wear,” MacFarland said.
MacFarland acknowledged the cultural impact of the internet, specifically on fashion, and how social media puts significant pressure on the way people dress. “There are all of these cores and aesthetics that people feel like they need to be fitting into right now,” MacFarland said. “I think eventually that’s gonna dissipate, and it’s gonna lean more into individualism and dressing how you want.”
The two disapprove of how social media favors certain “aesthetics” in fashion, particularly because it overshadows significant ethical issues.
“We gag at the term ‘indie sleaze,’” Collins said, suggesting that it appropriates substance abuse issues. MacFarland expressed his disapproval of how the fashion world has visually exploited homelessness in recent years. “Making sure that you’re really conscious of your positionality when you’re buying clothes is huge,” he said.
After Slimane, Collins said his second favorite designer is Demeulemeester, in part because she rejects stereotypical gender roles. “I just love the androgynous presentation. I don’t really think about gender that much,” he said.
The band’s subversion of restrictive norms is central to their creative ethos. Despite drawing from niche genres of fashion and music, New Agency is a rejection of genre, proposing fluid personal expression as liberation.
“New Agency” is a double entendre that implies newfound expressive freedom. “It’s agency as in modeling agency, FBI agency, but also agency, like your own free will and your sovereignty,” Collins said.
When asked if New Agency was a punk band, the two hesitated.
“There are all these labels being thrown around like hyperpop, electroclash. I don’t really know what to call it,” Collins said. He noted that the songs they are working on for their upcoming album should be thought of more as “sound collages.”
Collins and MacFarland emphasized the importance of using their platform in ethical ways. “Our first show was a charity show, and the second one we’re doing is a charity show,” Collins said. “We do want to make a positive impact overall.” All of the ticket revenue from their first show was donated to the Occupied Palestinian Territory Fund, and the profit from the second show was donated to incoming Gazan students on scholarships.
New Agency is currently producing an album and plans to play more charity shows in the meantime. “Come to the shows. They support a really good cause,” MacFarland said.
