By: Emily Li
An American indie pop band, Muna, is back and better than ever. After losing their sponsorship in 2019, the members of Muna call themselves “impenetrable.” They have recently come out with a new Tik Tok hit.
Muna is composed of three members: Katie Gavin, Naomi McPherson, and Josette Maskin. The band was dropped off its major label, RCA (Radio Corporation Of America), in the early days of the pandemic due to budgetary concerns, sparking rumors that the band may have “disbanded.” However, they quickly shut down these rumors by saying, “[o]bviously, everything is going really well.”
In 2020 Muna did not produce any music from 2020-2021. However, they were determined to get back to work. A friend of a friend knew Katie Gavin and lent them a studio in her basement, where the band practiced every day. Two years later, their song, “Silk Chiffon,” was released and became a viral hit overnight.
Muna’s music is individual and portrays their emotions freely. “Silk Chiffon,” published in 2022, first hit international fame on Tik Tok. It features Phoebe Bridgers, an American indie rock songwriter. The video has scenes of soundtracking cookie dough tutorials, hangovers, and poems to crushes. Muna’s self-titled songs show fuzzy songs about drifting through gay bars and rollerblading through the night. It shows queer beauty at its finest with all of its members being queer and McPherson as non-binary. “You try to retain the magic,” Katie Maskin says.
The band’s great bond, intimacy, and trust takes work. Muna is still together after almost a decade (the band started in 2013). When asked how, Gavin says, “because we're in this band, and we have these relationships with each other that are so important – when you're making art together, you have to have healthy relationships with each other where you can be honest and you can be vulnerable, it just requires a certain amount of emotional maturity.” The trio has also gone to what they call “band therapy.”
For Muna, sending a self-titled album means starting over again, sometimes for the better. “We are capable of being happy, and we want to show that with the music,” Gavin finishes.
Links: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656024679071x507739489390732740/Muna%E2%80%99s%20Fresh%20Start%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/muna-album-release-profile-2022