[1] Matt McJunkins was raised in Palm Springs, California, where he started playing bass guitar at the age of 13.

[2] 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.

[3][4] 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.

[6] In the following years, McJunkins formed The Beta Machine with Jeff Friedl and toured with Thirty Seconds to Mars in 2011.

[8] 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.