French-Riviera pop quartet Mausi cover Solange and Destiny’s Child on their new EP.. They also kindly gave us an exclusive remix of their track ‘Body Language‘

 

Siblings Thomas and Daisy Finetto upped sticks and relocated to the North-East from their hometown of Milan, made friends, made a band and now they’re travelling their Italo-British Riviera pop all over the country.

Their sound packs a punch of power-dance infested pop charm with indie hooks and hints of electonica. We had a chat with vocalist Daisy who also kindly gave us an exclusive Years & Years remix of their single ‘Body Language‘ and tells us why the internet is the most important thing to happen to music, ever.

Tell us more about your origins?

Thomas and I are originally from Italy, we grew up by the lakes just north of Milan. We met Ben and Benji at uni in the UK. Thomas and I had always played in bands together growing up and when we ended up in the same city for Uni, it was only a matter of time before we started another music project together. Thomas met Ben in his first year, they started writing music together and performing locally. When I arrived a year later, I just joined in and then when we found Benji, Mausi started.

Has it been a compromise to create the overall sound and aesthetics of the band because of the diversity of it’s members?

There was a lot of trial and error getting to the sound we have now. For a long time we thought we had to fit in to the music scene around us, which at the time was mainly indie bands. It all started to click in to place when we took a trip back to Italy and decided to film our weekend home. When we got back we put it together and wrote a song to go with it; ‘Sol‘. Our first single. As soon as we released that, we saw the reaction it had on blogs and knew we had found what we were good at.

Ever been any in-house bust-ups?

We are all pretty easy going so not really. We all lived in the same house for a year and even spending 24 hours a day together was fine, the most we would disagree about was what to eat for dinner. That was with me telling the boys to eat their 5 a day.

What’s been the best gig you’ve played, to date?

So far we have really enjoyed playing festivals. We loved playing Melt! in Germany, the atmosphere and site was amazing.

Tell us more about the new ‘Autumn/Winter mix-tape? What kind of stuff will be on there?

It is lead by a song called ‘Body Language‘, two covers; ‘Music Sounds Better With You‘ and ‘Losing You/Say My Name‘ and another track called ‘Somewhere‘ that is a bit more downbeat. It also includes a Mausi lookbook with imagery from the video and lyrics.

Tell us more about the concept behind the lead single?

‘Body Language’ is pretty self explanatory – it’s about body language! The physical attraction between two people before they talk to each other. It’s our most electronic song, the plan was no guitars, no bass, just something with loads of power and energy that makes you want to get up and dance.

Who inspires your songwriting and image as a unit?

We like to describe our music as the sound track to a young European girl’s lifestyle; a daughter of a rich diplomat who has a care free summer of jet setting around Europe to go to house parties and hang out on the riviera. We are very interested in fashion and photography and are constantly on the lookout for imagery we love that fits in to the lifestyle. We start every song with an image, buzz words and a playlist. We like to think up scenarios, story lines and characters then write a song to go with it, inspired by a lot of French house music and producers.

How is the full length album shaping up? What can we expect from it?

We have lots of music, we are writing all the time, it’s just about getting the tracks narrowed down and finished. We are taking our time to build up a fan base so that when we drop the album it will have a bigger impact. We have so much more to show people, we just can’t wait to show it to the world!

How do you think the music industry would be minus the internet? Do you think emerging artists rely on it too much?

I think the internet is one of the best things ever to happen to music. The basic undeniable truth is that thanks to the internet, more music is being made and shared than ever before.
All you hear about is record labels losing money and people file sharing but if you love music the internet is a place where you can find so much incredible new inspiring stuff! Seriously, there’s an infinity of amazing new music… you just have to look for it!

 

Words: Shane Hawkins