That explains why Muna’s music always feels propulsive. “If you’re not sweating after the first song, come on,” laughs McPherson.
With an ever-growing fanbase, they’ll play their biggest ever tour this autumn, titled the Gets So Hot Tour after the album’s opening track – although the band previously joked it would be called “The Midwest Princess, Midnight Sun and the Eras Tour as Well”, before abandoning the idea for copyright reasons.
A decade into their career, they’re playing to “crowds we could never have imagined”, while witnessing the genre labelled as “queer pop” expand into the mainstream, with artists like Chappell Roan, Renée Rapp, Lil Nas X and Troye Sivan all achieving crossover success.
“I do feel we were at the cusp of the reclamation of the word ‘queer’,” says Maskin.
“To us, it’s actually a celebratory term, because it’s inclusive, it includes everybody in the LGBTQI+ community.
“It came from academia first, the idea of queer theory,” says McPherson, who admits the band were initially divided on whether to be open about their sexuality.
“We were reticent to come out of the closet in the hipster Pitchfork era of 2010 and 2011. We wanted to be mysterious and be closeted, and Katie was the one who encouraged us not to, and to just be ourselves. And we’ve only become more ourselves.”
Even so, the label can be restrictive. Muna want their music to be universal.
“The subject matter we write about is queer in its essence, and so are our life experiences,” says McPherson.
“The issue that we struggle with is wanting that to also be accepted as just a human experience, as well – especially in these times of great repression.”
If anyone can do it, Muna can. Just don’t let them play for your pets.
