If you’re a fan of the local indie music scene, you’ve most likely already heard of Makeup Girl. Active in the District for about six years, there’s hardly a type of performance they haven’t done; from playing with well-established musicians like Jeff Draco to supporting up-and-comers like Home Remedies, they’ve made the rounds.

Despite the recognition, Makeup Girl’s lead vocalist, Brody Steck, tells City Paper, “Whenever anybody reaches out to us it’s such a humbling experience—I’m honored just to be on anyone’s radar.”

On Aug. 9, the band celebrated the release of their second album, Escalator, with a show at Songbyrd and with fall comes a handful of upcoming performances including at the Downtown Hyattsville Arts Festival on Sept. 23 and a concert headlined by Cherub Tree at the Pocket on Oct. 7.

Makeup Girl got their start 14 years ago, when Steck and drummer Caleb Schiebel were in fourth grade. They were both learning their instruments and started playing together; they performed at their eighth grade formal and came up with the name Makeup Girl in high school, inspired by a girl they knew who was really into doing other people’s makeup. Still, the band didn’t fully enter D.C.’s indie scene until 2017, when they started performing at venues such as DC9 and Songbyrd’s original Adams Morgan location. Today, although they can barely remember the details of their first shows, they say those performances were always a great time.

“I just remember being fully elated,” says Steck. “We thought we were hot shit back then. It was so much fun that I knew I wanted to keep doing it.”

Throughout the years, the band’s music has evolved as they’ve continued to establish themselves in D.C. When they first started, they were very into grunge, but these days they’ve incorporated other sounds—jazz, R&B, and bossa nova are especially prominent—that they don’t consider any label broad enough to call their own. “Our main thing is the freedom to express ourselves,” Steck explains. “We like to take all our interests and combine them into one. For us to be genuine as a band, that means we need to explore different ways to approach music and be as creative as we can.”

The sound, however, works in D.C., Steck notes: “It’s a special city because it forces different sounds to combine together, like with go-go music … I don’t think we would have our sound if we were anywhere else.”

As musicians, what they’re most proud of is that they are entirely DIY: They write, record, and produce their songs all on their own. Though it’s no easy task, they consider it a significant part of Makeup Girl’s identity. “Being DIY gives us a level of freedom to where we can do whatever we like,” lead guitarist John Leander, who joined the band in 2017, says. “We’re always pretty democratic when we write. And if we really like something, then we have the chance to go all the way with it.”

“Personally, I’m glad we never have to do things we don’t want to,” Schiebel adds. “We’re never forced to do press releases or put out a certain amount of songs or anything like that. It’s better for the art itself if we don’t have any burdens.”

Since they entered the indie scene six years ago, Makeup Girl have put themselves out there and they’ve gained enough of a following to be invited to events such as the 2022 music festival the University of Maryland’s student-run radio station WMUC hosted at Songbyrd and Home Remedies’ show at Union Stage in February. In fact, Makeup Girl hold a special place in the heart of Home Remedies guitarist Zach Basile—Makeup Girl performed at the first concert he ever went to here in D.C.

Earlier this year, Basile told City Paper about seeing the band perform at Comet Ping Pong in 2019. “Makeup Girl is one of those foundational parts of my D.C. experience,” Basile said. “To do performances with them now is huge.”

But the pandemic almost ended Makeup Girl. As COVID caused live music to disappear in 2020, the members of the band spent little time collaborating on any music. They had a May release show planned for their first album, Speaking’s Easy, which was obviously canceled. It was so disheartening Steck considered breaking up the band—he could hardly see a future for it. Makeup Girl took a two-year hiatus.

“We really slowed down,” Steck says. “We tried doing live streams but they were just a lot of work for very little payoff.”

Luckily for D.C. the band snapped out of its funk in 2022 as live performances resumed across the city. And, with the release of their second album, which came out more than three years after Speaking’s Easy, they feel like they’re finally back on solid ground. The band consider Escalator to be their best release yet and a true example of who they are. “The album itself is pretty all over the place,” says Steck. “But that, to me, sounds like Makeup Girl.”

Returning to performing and releasing music again feels right, but there’s one thing that keeps tripping them up about the local music scene: It isn’t unified, the band says. As they see it, D.C. is currently made of multiple, separate musical communities based on genre and seldom do they mix.

“My dream would be just one DIY scene that we can all be part of,” Steck says. “It’ll take a lot of passionate people to make that happen, but I do think it’s beginning to happen.”

Makeup Girl perform at 5 p.m. on Sept. 23 at the Downtown Hyattsville Arts Festival. hyattsvilleartsfestival.com. Free.

They open for Cherub Tree at 8 p.m. on Oct. 7 at the Pocket. thepocketdc.com. $15–$20.