Steven Meketa is an American noise and power electronics artist whose work spans several decades across hardcore, power violence, experimental sound, and extreme noise performance. Raised in a family where music was present by passion rather than profession, Meketa's relationship with sound began early, shaped less by formal training than by instinct, obsession, and physical engagement. Though he never learned a conventional instrument, he developed a forceful vocal presence and an exploratory approach to sound that would later define his artistic identity.

His musical awakening came in adolescence, sparked by punk and hardcore-most notably the Misfits-followed by deeper immersion through record liner notes and underground networks. Exposure to Throbbing Gristle proved pivotal, planting the seeds for a lifelong engagement with experimental sound. Long before he understood experimental music as a genre, Meketa was already dismantling records, physically manipulating media, and exploring sound through destruction and reassembly.

Growing up in Ohio, Meketa gravitated toward hardcore bands as an outlet during the long winters, eventually founding Apartment 213, a power violence project defined by raw intensity and confrontational vocals. Alongside this, his experimental impulses persisted privately through tape manipulation and home recording. In the early 1990s, conversations with his close friend Dwid Hellion-who was already active in noise music-encouraged Meketa to pursue noise more directly. This coincided with the rise of acts such as Man Is the Bastard and the discovery of Japanese noise, giving both context and momentum to his evolving practice.

Between 1993 and 1994, Meketa launched Lockweld, a formative noise project that brought him into contact with key figures in the international noise underground, including GX of The Haters, with whom he developed a lasting friendship. Over the years, Meketa has performed, toured, and collaborated widely within the global noise community, forming connections with artists such as Pete Sotos and Steven Stapleton, while remaining characteristically modest about his role within the scene.

Meketa's life and creative output have been profoundly shaped by serious physical and mental health struggles. Years of illness culminated in a near-fatal medical crisis that required the removal of most of his colon and extended hospitalization. These experiences marked a turning point, deepening his Christian faith and reframing his relationship to art. After relocating from Cleveland, Ohio to California, Meketa temporarily stepped away from music before returning with renewed purpose.

That return took form as Meketa Power Electronics (MPE), a project-and explicitly a band-through which Meketa channels his life experiences, faith, and survival into confrontational noise performance. Blending power electronics with spoken word, extreme vocals, and live physicality, MPE functions as both testimony and provocation, bringing spiritual themes into spaces traditionally resistant to them. Live performance remains central to his work, with Meketa favoring direct engagement with audiences and immersive, emotionally charged sets.

Alongside MPE, Meketa continues to perform with The Haters, revisits Apartment 213, and remains active in extreme music festivals and collaborations. For him, noise is not abstraction but lived experience-an outward expression of suffering, gratitude, belief, and endurance-driven by the conviction that sound can carry meaning even at its most abrasive.