Introducing: MUNNYCAT

On their new single honest, Los Angeles duo MUNNYCAT take hyperpop and give it a fresh and organic quality that’s often missing in the genre. We spoke to band members K808 and Khaledzou about the song – and of course the equally awesome accompanying video.

First up, could you tell us a bit about MUNNYCAT? The name is very meme-friendly!

K808: Ha! It is very meme-friendly. We like that you can write it in emojis.  ?? Khaled had the name in his phone notes for a long time (for maybe a song title or album title), and when we started the band – it just felt right. Like, good vibes.

Khaledzou: Well, we are an art-pop duo living in Los Angeles. Originally from Youngstown, Ohio where we met and fell in love. We consider ourselves fiercely independent and are genuinely trying to live our best lives.  We have a studio in our apartment where we make music, music videos, art, and work together all day with our 2 cats and 1 dog.  It’s pretty awesome.

What motivates you and inspires your music and aesthetics?

K808: Ventura Blvd in Los Angeles. It’s so vibrant and googie. And everyone who is there WANTS to be there. But at the same time, going to Italy was a really big influence on the new music.  We really came back inspired by all the really intense and masterful renaissance art – just seeing all of the art there that was paid for by some Medici patron, but the art lives on way beyond whatever king or pope was footing the bill. We came back so inspired.

Khaledzou: 1970’s cinema, golden-age hip hop, nerd culture, westerns, tiki bars, video games, girl power, indie rock and old drum machines.  Sonically, we usually lean towards noise-pop and maximalism: kinda going with a hat-on-a-hat, kitchen-sink approach. This album we tried to challenge ourselves and restrain ourselves to be cleaner, poppier, and more refined but sometimes we fell back into our natural state of chaos.

Who or what would you say has had the most influence on your sound? I pick up elements of hyperpop, but with the focus on the pop end of the genre.

K808: That’s a really smart way of putting it. We’ve been definitely into hyperpop and love alt-pop (Charli XCX, Rosalia, and of course, I’m always influenced by the Spice Girls.)  Our stuff kinda naturally leaned towards hyperpop before we even knew what it was, because of our ADHD and the tendency for both of us to get bored with things quickly.

Khaledzou: We can’t escape the old-school influence of producers like Hank and Keith Shocklee and Chuck D from The Bomb Squad, Rick Rubin, The Dust Brothers, and Dan the Automator Nakamura but we’ve been very inspired by newer cats like BLVK JVCK, Flume, Inflo, and 9th Wonder.

Do you have specific roles when it comes to writing songs for MUNNYCAT? You’re both producers in your own right.

K808: Not really. We both are just always trying to impress each other. We pass the mouse back and forth and try to make the other person giggle.

Khaledzou: Yeah. We write lyrics, and melodies together. We both sit in the producer chair and play instruments so it kinda depends on what happens organically. Kate is an encyclopedia of pop music and I usually know the more obscure stuff, but it’s funny because we both really respect each other so we try to write stuff that’s gunna get the other person hype. So, sometimes I’m throwing out melodic pop stuff to get her excited and she is writing the weirder, vague stuff to impress me. It’s a very strange back and forth.

What song is guaranteed to get you up and dancing, or singing along?

K808: Bubble Pop Electric by Gwen Stefani – that shit makes me lose my mind when I hear it in the wild.

Khaledzou: Dancing – Apache by the Incredible Bongo Band. Singing – anything by Stevie Wonder.

And if you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?

K808: Ludacris – we would make a dream team. I just know it.

Khaledzou: Hmmm… Joni Mitchell or Jpeg Mafia.

 Who else on the L.A. music scene should we be checking out right now?

Final Child, Makena, Indika Sam, Ruby Sparks, Chelsea Collins, Nico Collins, Sophie Rose, Azra, LG Team Genius, Brooke Daye, Cody Crump, DJ Lani Love, Blü Eyes, lfreaq, Rainne, Honest Family Outlaws.

Was there a specific theme behind the lyrics of honest?

K808: We’ve been saying it’s ultimately about the ‘exhausting nature of the male gaze’. There are so many expectations put on women to be perfect but there is this impossible balance you are expected to strike. You have to be pretty and sexy and nice – but you better not recognize or celebrate that because then you should feel bad about it.  Finding that balance is a full-time job for women and frankly, it’s exhausting – and impossible. So just love yourself and celebrate it.

The video is great, rare to see one with a storyline right now. Was it fun to film?

Khaledzou: It was amazing. We really like it when we get to do storyline videos because for us it’s another chance to tell another story. Maybe help take the song somewhere else so it’s a different experience than just listening to it. We had been playing the western video game Red Dead Redemption 2 nonstop and we decided to base the whole music video on the character Sadie Adler from that game, who should totally have her own spin-off”

K808: I used to watch westerns with my grandma and she loved old Hollywood. I felt like I was making a dream come true for us both. Not to mention the fact that it was so much fun making this video with a bunch of our talented friends but on something way bigger than anything we’d ever worked on before. We worked with the legendary Western Costume Co. who created a lot of the costumes for RDR2 that were scanned into the game.  They also have done pretty much every movie you’ve ever seen from Gone with the Wind and West Side Story to Black Panther and Westworld. And of course… the miniature ponies. I mean. Come on.”

What’s up next for MUNNYCAT after the release of honest in terms of new music, videos…?

Khaledzou: We have our first full-length record called age of the scorpio that we mastered at Abbey Road in London, and we will be releasing a new single and video from that very soon. We can’t wait to show everyone what is coming next.

You can find out more about MUNNYCAT and the upcoming age of the scorpio album by checking out the duo’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages. You can also listen to honest and more music from MUNNNYCAT on Spotify, Apple Music, and Soundcloud.