MUNA Will Make It Okay

KG: It’s generally something that hits a little too close to home. MUNA is for people who are happy to go there with us.

NM: It exists within a more focused prism than pure experimentalism. What connects everything is the vulnerability and authenticity of the lyric, and the thoughtfulness of the music. I think there’s a melancholy, pensiveness to a lot of it, despite some of it being dance-y. If it’s a MUNA song, it’s going to sound like a MUNA song. I don’t know what makes it that, but that’s the way it is.

JM: I famously hate jamming. I hate a jam even if it’s good. There’s no end, no beginning—it’s pure chaos for however long you let it go on. The closest we will ever get is the “five-minute game,” where we’ll each come up with a part and we only have five minutes to do it. That’s how we got the song “Runner’s High.”

KG: Yeah, we work during the daytime. The nighttime—changing your state of consciousness in some way to write—that’s not something that we do. The lyric and melody process is probably a bit more mysterious. With this last record, there seemed to be a pattern that was almost a physical game. I needed to go out and find the song, either on the LA River Path, in my bathtub—I guess that’s not going out—or in my car driving around the city. A lot of the time it was when I was doing some activity, or in some space, where it would come to me. But we’re definitely nine-to-fivers when we’re working on producing a track.

JM: I spent a long time looking for really nice wind chimes, those are my favorite. I’ll sit in my backyard by the chimes, they’re nice and low and they reverberate in my skull.

NM: I’m from San Diego and it’s a little bit windy down there. At times you’ll get the best breeze ever, like nine months out of the year. You can hear it better when you have headphones in, blowing against your face and ears.

KG: What first came to mind is the sounds of other living creatures around me. I had a dog who passed away really recently, a little guy who was always paddling around. The sound of him walking over here and seeing what’s up was really comforting and grounding. Also, a friend of mine left me a voice note last night, and she was cooking dinner for her child. I was like, “I’m having the best time listening to you talking while you’re making food for your loved one. This is really doing it for me.”

NM: Like family ASMR?

JM: That’s the saddest fucking thing ever, but that is it.

KG: Has anyone started an industry of sounds that are like, your mom is making you dinner? [Laughs]

JM: That’s heaven!

NM: “Stayaway.” Ten out of 10.

JM: In terms of getting over it, it’s like, get over it. It’s a problem if you don’t.

KG: If it’s a toxic, addictive type of relationship, then “Stayaway” is your move. But “Anything But Me” is so good if you want to feel excited about your new life and proud of yourself for doing what’s right for you. I like a happy breakup song.

JM: I’m agreeing with Naomi.

KG: There are a lot of songs that are bad for getting over a breakup.

JM: “Silk Chiffon!” It’s euphoria.

KG: It would maybe be good to have more than one love song.

NM: Now that you mention it…

JM: We need to get working, I think. Actually, I take that back. I would like to stop working.

JM: I said to my partner this morning, “I’m really excited for the album to come out.” But, it wasn’t just for the album coming out, it was for all the stuff that we have to do before the album comes out. That is my honest truth.

NM: It’ll oscillate from like, “Let’s make choices, it’s time to go to work,” to feeling so directionless or confused that you have to stop for the day. A lot of time we need to break: go outside, come back in, drink a little coffee, drink a little La Croix, have a little bit of an experience. Ideally, you push through bad feelings until you feel like you’re getting somewhere with something, and then you stop. That was someone’s advice once: When you feel like you start getting somewhere, stop. Don’t try to execute the idea in that moment, because if you let it be, then come back to it, you might be able to do it in a better way.

KG: Some people have that skill more than others. I’m super impatient. We all have our own personalities. Naomi and I have a funny pattern, I think it’s because we’re exes, or I don’t know, our soul connection. You know when cats go like, [air-punches]? We do that, and then we move on from it in a way siblings would. I see Josette as the Vibe Captain, and Naomi and Jo probably make more of the calls in terms of what needs to happen and when. I’m pretty cat-like in the studio. I’m generally slumped on a chair…

NM: Curled up with a little toy mouse.

KG: My phone.

JM: I don’t know if I’m a vibe. My vibe usually is complaining.

KG: You know what your boundaries are. That’s the other thing: There were so many dogs in the studio when we were making this album.

NM: Arguably too many.

NM: There is when it’s a small space and people’s—not to name names—breath stink. [Air-quotes] “People’s.” [Laughs]

KG: My dog was farting on Naomi for the entire making of this record. Like, loved to fart on Naomi.

NM: I made him feel safe.

KG: The clock ticking past midnight on the due date.

NM: I think that’s such a common thing for musicians: You have to be done.

JM: We would have worked forever.

NM: And to the detriment of the music, probably.

JM: Our guitar tech was telling me that he thought the time constraint and the ability for us to not overthink what we were doing is probably why the record sounds the way that it does. It allowed us to not comb over as much as one would like. Sometimes the comb-over actually makes you bald.

NM: Jo’s a catchphrase machine.

KG: Reality TV star in the making.

JM: I really do need to figure out a way to capitalize myself.

KG: When they decide to make another L Word, that’s our way in.

JM: “Loose Garment” is kind of the heart of the record, it’s so sweet you wanna protect it. There’s something about it that feels fragile.

NM: You want to hold it like it’s delicate, like a little egg of a song. That’s a good getting-over-a-breakup song, too.

JM: Aesthetically, Trainspotting is always part of the oeuvre, and a lot of Tarantino is part of that world as well.

NM: If we’re doing a night shoot, the director Wong Kar-wai is such a great reference. We’re criminally undereducated about film. We still need to make our way through the classics.

NM: In terms of fashion, I’m so attracted to certain micro communities that were around in the UK in the late ‘90s. I love the baggy movement in Manchester and mid-’90s rave shit, where it wasn’t too cyber and still pretty grungy. I like a footballer aesthetic. I love a tracksuit, and not even for me personally. I enjoy looking at it. A lot of British subcultures I return to for inspiration because I feel like that effortless cool of like, “I don’t give a fuck, but I look sick.”

JM: During the pandemic I started to listen to George Harrison and go on walks, try to ground myself in reality. There’s something about him—even though I’m not really a big Beatles fan—I connect to sonically. I don’t know if I believe in God or anything, but it makes me feel the holy spirit, whatever that is.

NM: I love history podcasts, so I’ll listen to a six-hour podcast episode about ancient Persia or something like that, and it soothes me so deeply. As long as I’m learning, I feel pretty good. We all love cooking and cooking shows. Any show where people are making things.

JM: I love to bake sourdough. Any kind of culinary thing that takes all day.

NM: I’ve fallen off Top Chef, but that’s a tour thing that we’ll do. We’ll watch MasterChef Junior until two in the morning sometimes. Love the kids. God, they’re so good.

KG: I would love to know that people were engaging with this with somebody they love, gabbing about it together and sharing their thoughts and reactions as it’s going. Our last record, I would have said, “Be on your own, feel all the feelings,” but this one is really meant to be shared.

KG: We wouldn’t be able to make this type of music if we weren’t in a band. We have each other to believe in certain songs if any of us are ever doubting it. That allows us to be able to make really vulnerable music, because it’s already been bolstered by the three of us being like, “It’s OK. This song is fucking good. We should put it out.”

JM: We’re all sensies. It’s a valid experience, having big emotions is something the three of us all relate to in different ways. Some in chambers, some in big rooms. It means making music for ourselves.