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Interview – MS MR

Lizzy Plapinger and Max Hershenow, the two parts of New York alternative pop duo MS MR, begin our interview by combining forces to open a beer for me without the aid of a bottle opener, efforts which are much appreciated. They’re here in Oxford on a European tour to promote their debut album, Secondhand Rapture, a work of artistic genius and musical beauty. With comparisons to superstars like Florence & the Machine and Lana Del Rey flying around, great things appear to be in store for these so-called noir pop artists. I have the honour of welcoming the pair to our city for the first time ever, and Lizzy admits she “expected Oxford to be pretty posh”, though Max notes that they “went to a university quite similar to this in that it’s old and castley”. He is referring to Vassar College, where they met in 2007, a university recently named the most selective liberal arts college in the US.

Their artistic education has shone through all of their music endeavours up to this point, with the duo showing impressive creativity over the release of their album, particularly with regard to technology. The band gathered a lot of hype on Tumblr, and are well-known for their progressive approach to social media, though Lizzy says “I don’t think we’re doing anything revolutionary that any other person hasn’t done or couldn’t do.” One thing that’s especially notable about MS MR’s development and creative ideal is the impressive use of visuals so consistent within the band’s work. Alongside the album, they released a set of visual accompaniments called Secondhand Captures. These include weird and wonderful cartoons, artfully-shot films packed full of metaphor and surrealist sets of abstract images. Lizzy explains the motivation behind this unusual approach to music videos, saying that “sometimes, the music becomes the background to the image but you want the music to drive the image.”

“I think a lot about the context that I listen to music in”, says Max, explaining his desire “to control that environment and to place the music in the context that we wanted to place it in”. He mentions that music these days is mostly consumed via computer screen, and via internet, and both Lizzy and Max agree that music in general is moving towards a more online medium. Lizzy seems excited by this, enthusing about how “the two worlds have never been so seamlessly and importantly alike now, given the context that we consume music in”.

They keep coming back to that word, “context”, and it’s clear that they have both given great thought to the overall conception of their music and themselves as artists. Maybe this is because of the unusual way in which their music came to light. As Lizzy explains, before the band was formed she owned (and still owns) a music label, and had never made any music before, while this is Max’s first musical project as well. “There’s something unique about hearing the first few songs a band have created. Most musicians are making music when they’re 12 or 13. They get their first batch of material out, they learn from their mistakes, they reinvent their sound and take a couple of years to settle into it.”

It’s so refreshing to find in MS MR a band with such an honest, intelligent and well-informed conception of themselves, as well as a hit-filled debut album and the potential to make brilliant music for years to come. What’s more, Lizzy tells me that “everyone’s invited along for the entire ride with us. People have seen where we’ve started and they’ll see where we end. I think it’s going to be an incredible journey.”

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