Foto-© Dean Bradshaw
Mit Dancing On The Wall liefern MUNA ihr bislang selbstbewusstestes und zugleich emotional offenstes Album ab. Das Album verbindet nostalgischen Synth-Pop mit euphorischen Clubmomenten, ohne dabei den Blick auf die Realität zu verlieren. Zwischen Herzschmerz, Fantasie, politischen Spannungen und Selbstreflexion entsteht ein Sound, der gleichzeitig verletzlich und befreiend wirkt.
Im Gespräch erzählen Naomi, Katie und Josette von kreativer Weiterentwicklung, obsessiver Liebe, queeren Erfahrungen und davon, warum Fantasy manchmal ein notwendiger Zufluchtsort ist — solange man den Bezug zur echten Welt nicht verliert.
How do you feel your sound has evolved since your last release?
Naomi: I think we’re relatively self-referential at this point and most evolution happens as time goes on and we get further away from our earlier work. We start getting nostalgic for it. I think we’ve really honed in on what feels like a MUNA sound. Katie did her solo record which was very folk — almost bluegrass and country-influenced — and we’ve had aspects of those sounds in our music before but I think we took her doing that as an opportunity to have a conversation internally about what actually is a MUNA record and what defines our sound. We kind of came back to the idea we started the band around in the first place which was making synth-pop music so that is where we landed.
Have you discovered anything new about yourselves during the process of making this album?
Katie: We’ve said this a lot during the press cycle and I don’t want to repeat myself to the point of it being boring but I do think the biggest discovery for me and probably for them as well was the extent to which we can now collaborate without losing our senses of self or personal taste. Part of that is just getting older and learning how to hold onto what feels right for you while you’re in a room with other people who have other opinions and to feel confident enough to know you’re safe to try something that maybe doesn’t feel right at first and just trust each other. I feel like this has been our most collaborative record so far and even just the fact that we can do that I think we all continue to skill up as musicians and that is part of what keeps this process interesting and new. You have to kind of insist on attempting new daring acts in the studio otherwise it becomes more of a trade than an art.
I remember when I discovered you it felt like a full process of self-discovery. It was like this whole colourful world existing outside of chart music and it really helped me find so many new things about myself.
Katie: When you say that I think about the relationships on this album. I think this started with the last album too but I used to just really blame myself for everything that went wrong in relationships. It was always like I took all the blame and shame. As I have gotten older there is a lot on this album that is kind of like that’s not my problem. You’re messy and you need to handle that and I also don’t feel bad about putting you on blast for it. I just don’t carry guilt in the same way I did in my twenties.
The opening track creates a very specific world. How would you describe the overall aesthetic of the album?
Naomi: When we were working on It Gets So Hot it had a hypnotic effect on us. It felt very channelled like it came out of nowhere and became what it was in a freeform way. There is a line in the song that we’ve described as a partial thesis of the album: it gets so hot so I might as well daydream. That idea is about your surroundings whether that is environmental heat or emotional intensity where you kind of eject into fantasy. The album sits in that tension between being in the real world and escaping into fantasy. It is not asking you to leave reality completely but dealing with the conditions that push you there.
And will there be a horse around the venue?
Josette: I think there should be a horse just because it’s funny. But the horse is not dancing on the wall. The horse belongs to MUNA if that makes sense.
Was there a defining moment in the studio?
Josette: We had a generally really positive experience but it is always hard making a record because you are dealing with ego, your inner child and everyone else’s inner child so it is very complex. But there were euphoric moments like recording the background vocals for Mary Jane where it was just the three of us in the room going “woo-hoo” over and over. I don’t know if you can hear it in the track but it made the song better. Also for the first time we had a real studio we could go back to whenever we wanted which allowed us to explore things in a way we hadn’t before.
Mary Jane is my favourite track.
Josette: I’m excited for you to hear it live. It’s powerful.
Naomi: I hope people discover it and it becomes that secret cool track.
Dancing on the Wall is about being stuck in an unhealthy loop. What helps someone break out of it?
Katie: I don’t think you necessarily break through the wall. What’s sad about it is if you turn away from the wall there is usually a whole room full of people who love you. That’s kind of the gag. You’ve just been looking at the wrong thing. For me I have to fill my life with other things — real relationships, hobbies, creative work — things that anchor me. I used to fantasize about relationships that were never going to be what I wanted them to be. Now I try to redirect that energy into things I can actually make real like stage ideas, lights and visuals. But there is no secret. It is still hard.
Big Stick feels very raw. What does it represent?
Naomi: We’re living in really upsetting times and a lot of people are dealing with that every day. As Americans we are very aware of what our country is doing globally and internally. Big Stick is about acknowledging that reality and not ignoring it.
Katie: Having that space in the live show has become really emotionally intense in a good way. Life is already hard — relationships, love — and then you add the political reality of violence and powerlessness. MUNA can be escapism but we also want people to have a space where they can actually process things instead of numbing out. I’m really proud we have that song in the set.
The bridge in Eastside Girls feels like memories collapsing into each other.
Naomi: You are actually the only person who’s asked about that bridge. It feels like a stream of consciousness — memories, hopes, jokes, memes, dreams all together. Almost like an incantation. Katie wrote it and we all loved it immediately because it felt so emotionally specific. The beginning especially feels autobiographical — LA, Berlin, haircut, safety pin — like fragments of identity and experience colliding.
There is abstraction too but it is still grounded in real experience.
Josette: It’s basically the queer experience in a 40-second bridge. Even if you have never been to Berlin it still feels familiar.
