Lizzie and Max are a NYC based musical duo currently sweeping the scene with the music they make under the name of MS MR. Having released just one EP and single thus far, the two have swiftly moved from strength to strength, achieving widespread attention from all those who hear the sounds they create. The all-round nice-guys exude a passion and love for their art and with whispers of an album set for release later this year, we’re sure excited to see what happens next. 

Having recently made their first visit to Aus with Laneway Festival this year, we spent a morning with MS MR that left us beaming over prospects of what’s to come for two of the coolest cat’s we’ve had the pleasure of meeting in a long time. Read on. 

Being based in New York would be pretty special -- do you think that affects the music you make?

L: Definitely. In a really huge way, I mean, we don’t think our record could have existed in any other time period or in any other place. Its such a reference to us being there now.

M: Even literally, like we recorded it in a spare-bedroom/closet in my apartment which is right on the street, so there’s moments when you’ll hear a car driving by --

L: Or the crack addicts next door! 

M: Yeah, stuff like that.. But you’ll have to listen very closely to hear it.

L: I feel like there’s a lot of that in Bones, we recorded it in the summer --

M: Yeah and I don’t even have air conditioning in my apartment so we’d have to leave the windows open.

L: It was SO hot and it meant that we couldn’t block out any of the sounds. I sort of like it though.

M: Me too. 

L: Then when its cold in there you’ve also got problems. Its either really fucking freezing or way too hot. 

How has this first trip down under treated you so far?

M: It’s funny, because when we were leaving for this trip Lizzie said, ‘I’m expecting a lot from this trip, but I’m expecting that its going to exceed my expectations,’ and it’s even exceeded the expectations we expected to exceed!

L: It different to see numbers of people on the internet listening to your music or watching a video than to be able to actually watch the real people and put bodies to those numbers is totally different. We always knew we wanted to come here, we always knew it was going to be important to us and of course we hoped that we’d be given that opportunity, but now I think just being here has made it clearer to us than ever before that this is somewhere that we want to give a lot of love and attention too. I mean, we’d love to come back as much as people will have us! 

M: At least four times a year. Our manager and I have been talking about when the record-cycle is over, where we’re going to rent a house in Australia, you know just spend a month or two here.

You’re pretty loved over here -- how does it feel to be playing your music to people so eager to hear it?

M: I mean, its hard not to get choked up! 

L: It actually gets to the point where I don’t want to sing it anymore -- I just want to listen to people singing it back to me! In those moments people singing are much more exciting than anything else about the performance, I just can’t believe it. 

M: I think we’re almost too new of a band for us to just hold out the mic and just let the crowd go.

L: I know! And its so hard, I’m trying to be this moody and broody musician up there but I literally cannot keep the smile off my face because it keeps being just the most AMAZING moment of my life when its happening.

Can you tell us much about the upcoming album?

L: It’s coming in May! 

M: Yes, its all finished -- we’re very ready to put it out there. I think the EP was a good introduction to the band. It sort of set a foundation for the MS MR sound. As we were writing the album we never really thought about it as one cohesive body of work, it wasn’t until after it was written a tonne of songs that we went back and were able to see unifying factors within it. I think the album branches out a little bit more -- there’s a full on dance song, a sort of country-inspired song, there’s a darker moody ballad, maybe even a power ballad too! Fantasy, our latest single, is almost an introduction to another side of MS MR that will be on the record. 

You’re video clip for Fantasy is a little bit bizarre.. Is there a story that goes with it?

L: Thank-you, we want it to be bizzare for sure! I think we’re always trying to establish the fact that we’re a pop act, we want to go about making pop music and being pop artists, but in a very different or alternative way. I think a lot of the artists that we love in the pop world have always sort of found themselves really pushing the boundaries or what is or isn’t acceptable, so we’re always going to work to that.

M: We wanted to build off ideas that we started in the Hurricane video, you know to present some visual ideas to people and let them make their own conclusions. I never want to be too specific about them, not dictating what others should be thinking about it. 

L: To just really stay true to this identity that we love in a couple of different formats. I think that the music is bizarre and surreal, so we want that to come across in the visuals. 

“I’ll know I’ve made it when...”

L: When I’m headlining Glastonbury! 

M: I really do want my own studio. Built just how I’d like it, with a nice grand piano. So just when I’m making music forever. Dammit!