{"id":52075,"date":"2015-06-19T11:19:08","date_gmt":"2015-06-19T11:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/?p=52075"},"modified":"2016-09-22T14:27:26","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T14:27:26","slug":"profile-ms-mr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2015\/06\/19\/profile-ms-mr\/","title":{"rendered":"Profile: MS MR"},"content":{"rendered":"

MS MR escape the confines of their DIY studio to tell us about their new album How Does It Feel<\/em> and their newfound metalhead fans.
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\"MS<\/a><\/p>\n

Sitting in a Hackney cafe, MS MR aka\u00a0Lizzy Plapinger and Max Hershenow, welcome me to the table and laugh about the venue. They liken it to a “very British crack den” slouched back in the low mismatched dusty armchairs in a dimly lit room. The New York duo and myself get sidetracked a lot<\/em> in the next 40 minutes as they stop to explain all their in jokes, anecdotes about their families and tales of their absent drummer. What we’re actually meeting to discuss is\u00a0How Does It Feel,\u00a0<\/em>their sophomore offering, released next month. After the runaway success of\u00a0Secondhand Rapture<\/em>, their debut that landed them performance slots at Glastonbury and Coachella, expectations are high but Lizzy and Max seem totally unfazed.<\/p>\n

They’re a dream team. Max’s self-awareness and wry sense of humour sends Lizzy into fits of laughter countless times during our time together, making her coral coloured curls and pom pom earrings bounce. It’s almost unnerving how well they know each other, it goes beyond finishing each other’s sentences, they can knit together whole paragraphs and they still beam when relaying their stories. All I can recommend is to go see a MS MR show and be welcomed as the honorary third member of the band (or fourth, after Zach the drummer).<\/p>\n

Recorded in NYC, in a makeshift studio they have an amusingly love-hate relationship with,\u00a0How Does It Feel<\/em>\u00a0removes all the metaphors that Lizzy shrouded herself in on\u00a0Secondhand Rapture<\/em>. More lyrically direct, the pair are giving something to their fans, now that their following is so huge, they have to think about performance options and what the people want to hear from them. Between laughing fits (mostly when we realise Max emphasises all of his statements by pointing at his crotch) MS MR invite me into the world behind\u00a0How Does It Feel<\/em>, excited to relinquish every story they’ve been saving on the first week of their press campaign. Although, I get the feeling they’re this enthusiastic all of the time.<\/p>\n

\"MS<\/a><\/p>\n

From since you began up until now, do you think your priorities have changed now that you know a little more about the industry?<\/b><\/p>\n

Lizzy: Actually interestingly enough, it hasn\u2019t changed at all! I think since we\u2019ve begun we\u2019ve been ambitious and pretty clear about our goals, what we want to do artistically and where we want to take the music. We\u2019ve stayed pretty true to form, even from when we started we didn\u2019t have expectations of what would happen with the band, once the band was established, we knew where we wanted to go.<\/p>\n

Max: There was an initial period of maybe six months where we didn\u2019t know what was going to happen or if anything was going to happen and we didn\u2019t really expect anything to happen so we didn\u2019t let ourselves start thinking about our long term goals. After we established ourselves we\u2019ve been pretty persistent with what we want. I want to headline Glastonbury!<\/p>\n

Well it\u2019s not on next year but the year after maybe!<\/b><\/p>\n

Lizzy: Yes, we\u2019ve got to have something to work towards! Maybe in ten years, I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Max: I\u2019m a firm believer in the six month plan.<\/p>\n

How\u2019s that working for you?<\/b><\/p>\n

Max: I don\u2019t know, everything\u2019s six months ahead.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve done everything I would want to do as a musician, is there anything you\u2019re working towards, something that you really want to do, other than headlining Glastonbury?<\/b><\/p>\n

Lizzy: There\u2019s so many things! I think it\u2019s so important to have goals. When you\u2019re in the music industry it\u2019s hard to know what success is and you have to define that for yourself, it\u2019s nice to have these milestones of things you\u2019re really working towards. We\u2019ve never played SNL, that would be a huge moment for us in our career and as a show we grew up watching. It\u2019d be amazing to play Jools Holland in the UK. Certain venues that we haven\u2019t had the opportunity to play yet that we will be headlining this coming fall, that\u2019s going to be such an amazing feeling. We would love to score a film! I think Max would do an amazing score for a dance programme!<\/p>\n

Max: I think the more we we settle into the music industry, the more we realise it\u2019s a multimedia project. There\u2019s always different things we need to take advantage of. Things like a fashion line! All of these different things that colour in the edges of who we are as people and as artists. Now that we\u2019ve boosted our confidence a little more and built our sound, I think that we have the freedom and flexibility to explore more of those things.<\/p>\n

So you\u2019re not retiring any time soon?<\/b><\/p>\n

Max: Absolutely not!<\/p>\n

Lizzy: No! We\u2019ve said since day one, so much about being an artist is about continuing to create with each new album or song or video that you put out into the world, it creates a more interesting story and lineage for your art and body of work as a whole.<\/p>\n

Max: As soon as you start to think about it as a long term thing, the moments don\u2019t matter, if one song falls flat or you have something you no longer like, once you have a chronology, those moments are no longer distracting they\u2019re just a part of a collage.<\/p>\n

You two are both so interested in what each other has to say! Do you ever get bored of each other? Do you ever need five minutes alone?<\/b><\/p>\n

Lizzy: Yeah! Because we\u2019re human! It\u2019s such an intense relationship, it\u2019s like being siblings but the closest version of it. It\u2019s a lot but there\u2019s so much understanding, support and respect. This morning\u00a0 I was feeling really panicked about the day and I was talking to Max and he said, \u201cWell what can I do to help you?\u201d Sometimes when we spend the whole day together, it\u2019s like, \u201cI love you, but this isn\u2019t about you and I need a little time to myself.\u201d Often it\u2019s about communicating that to each other.<\/p>\n

Max: Also this is our first press week in a long time! So we\u2019re actually excited to talk to people.<\/p>\n

When you met, how did you know you wanted to work together?<\/b><\/p>\n

Max: I think even from that first meeting, we both recognised that we were equally green and pretty naive and not intimidating in any way. We were both curious and interested in what each other could bring to the table, there was a lot of freedom in that, there was a really new age-y kind of magic that happened that first meeting, we both kind of felt it and things developed pretty gradually and little by little we discovered how we worked. After two very intense years together we\u2019ve changed together.<\/p>\n

When you work together do you bring things together separately and how do you know when to compromise?<\/b><\/p>\n

Lizzy: I think for us, it\u2019s about both being in the same room as we\u2019ve felt that\u2019s how we\u2019ve thrived, having another pair of ears around what you\u2019re doing. It\u2019s about being together and giving each other space to see through what you\u2019re doing whether it\u2019s lyrics or production or melody. I don\u2019t think either one of us dictates what the other does.<\/p>\n

Max: We brought in our drummer make to help us write and produce, at the beginning he was a tie-breaker as well for when couldn\u2019t decide anything. It was exciting to have someone there who was as green as we were when we started but he has such an amazing ear and a neurotic attention to detail that I just don\u2019t have.<\/p>\n