Matt McJunkins was raised in
Palm Springs, California, where he started playing
bass guitar at the age of 13. After high school, McJunkins moved to
Los Angeles to pursue a music career. He attended the
Musicians Institute and honed in on his craft while writing music and playing in several rock bands. In 2008,
Billy Howerdel from
A Perfect Circle asked McJunkins to join his side project
Ashes Divide, with Jeff Friedl,
Andy Gerold and Adam Monroe completing the line-up. The band toured extensively in support of their debut album ''
Keep Telling Myself It's Alright'' (2008), opening concerts for
Seether,
Stone Temple Pilots, and
Filter, and also performed at the
Projekt Revolution festival. McJunkins later toured with
Puscifer, sharing bass guitar with
Rani Sharone. In September 2010,
A Perfect Circle announced that they would reform and McJunkins was asked to join on bass alongside co-founders
Billy Howerdel and
Maynard James Keenan with Jeff Friedl and
James Iha. In the following years, McJunkins formed The Beta Machine with Jeff Friedl and toured with
Thirty Seconds to Mars in 2011. In January 2020, he announced he was touring with singer
Poppy in support of her album
I Disagree. McJunkins was on stage with Eagles of Death Metal during the
November 2015 Paris attacks, and escaped the
Bataclan with the rest of the band. He managed to make it out of the venue. ==Discography==