MUNGMUNG – DMs | mettle

Sydney-based singer-songwriter MUNGMUNG just dropped her sophomore single yesterday, an ode to new-age courtship about sliding into DMs. While she describes DMs as representative of the inner butterflies, the excitement that comes with leaving one’s heart on their sleeve, the song is a smooth-flowing trap beat that is a fair bit more soothing than her fierce and invigorating debut, Missed Calls.

DMs is still catchy as all hell, impressively produced with popping 808s and groovy synths to create an alt-pop track that now lives in my head rent-free.
MUNGMUNG’s vocalisation is also quite skillful, travelling across a wide range to accompany the synths; quite similar to Doja Cat – as she points in a lyric. An inspirational ballad for a modern age, she just wants you to find the confidence within yourself to make the first move. DMs is a track embodying personal liberation as much as the first one is, in an optimistic way. I know I’m to be reviewing DMs but both her tracks are just such bangers, she demonstrates the mastery of a seasoned artist with just two releases. Following are MUNGMUNG’s musings about her career and her passion:

Hey MUNGMUNG! Do tell us a little bit about yourself, where you’re from and how you got started as an artist? Let’s start off with the most important thing… A big PHAT hug and thank you for all the love! I’m an Australian based artist/songwriter dabbling mainly in Hip Hop, R&B and the most guilty pleasure of all, Pop. Growing up, I was always naturally drawn to the creative arts. Throughout my childhood and schooling, I undertook activities such as visual arts, learning musical instruments, vocal lessons, design and so forth. Despite being a super shy kid, I did always harbour strong desires to ‘be a famous singer’, as my sixth grade yearbook quote would say (My current self is interjecting to say that one cannot just ‘become’ famous, haha! Fame is nothing. Just love what you do and work hard). In terms of songwriting, I’ve always had little melodic ideas pop in my head here and there. I used to record them on the family Nokia mobile but didn’t really do anything with them. In eighth grade, I got this random burst of interest in re-writing the lyrics of my favourite Hip Hop songs, turning them into parodies about my daily life. Around this time, I also started writing my first few complete songs, in which my music mentors, Renee and T Tofa saw potential in them so they encouraged me to take songwriting and performing more seriously. With a whole lot of maturing as a person coupled with experimenting, writing albums on albums worth of songs later, I am now more in love with music than ever. I want to sing, perform and write forever. In short, the love and passion was always there, I just didn’t think of it as a career option until later. Missed calls is your debut single, about liberating yourself from the control of someone’s barrage of phone calls. Is this from a personal experience, or something you would like to share? What would you like to say about DMs? It definitely sets the tone of not having someone messing with you! I have stated this via the song, but I will say it louder for the people in the back; You gotta do them like they did you! Period. We were meant to be fabulous, not door mats! ‘Missed Calls’ was indeed inspired by a real-life situation I was experiencing. I was having a long-term, non-official moment with this certain someone and we were phasing out of the Honeymoon period. They started to distance themselves from me and would hit me up several months apart. I then thought to myself “You know what? I’ma spite you. What would you do if I went away? Would you blow up my phone? Would you be checking up on my socials? Will you be the one to beg for me to come back?”. The conclusion was that he’d better! As he should! All the while, I’d be living my best life without him. Without all the drama and worry that he caused me. Take note, y’all! This is the ‘tude to have. ‘DMs’ is more light-hearted, flirty and it carries on the playful tone that ‘Missed Calls’ eminates. It’s a big hype song for anyone simping hard. It definitely tells a modern day love story through the theme of leaving impressions in direct messages. I’m just saying, if you’re down for someone, GO FOR IT! It’s your sign to shoot your shot! The track has a phenomenally production, and we’d love to know about your musical influences! ‘Missed Calls’ was written by yours truly and production credits go to my musical partner in crime, T Tofa. T always knows what’s up. Yes! The instrumentation is the best! I came to T with a skeleton of a song and he beefed it up with a dope riff, sch’mancier chords and of course, the beat layers. I’m so big on chords and the melodic as well as harmonic elements in songs, so it is just a dream to work with someone so musical as well as, on the same creative wavelength as me. As for my sophomore single, ‘DMs’, I collaborated with the multi-talented music mogul, Taka Perry. This particular track has the 90’s type R&B guitar riff at the forefront alongside the signature Taka thiccc beats and bass. Once again, the chords have my heart here. I love and appreciate so many different genres and artists. Inspiration can be found any time and anywhere. That being said, I do have my all-time favourite artists including Tyler, the Creator, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Kanye West, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Victoria Monet, SZA, Kali Uchis, Lady Gaga, Rex Orange County…The list goes on! I love classical music and soundtrack music as well – Absolutely amazing to listen to the arrangements. Having only started as an artist, where do you envision your career will take you? What plans do you have going forward? This is a tough one to answer because one just doesn’t know exactly where their path will lead. I do know this for myself though – I just want to continue singing, writing and connecting with fellow art-lovers for this entire lifetime and the next. I will be dropping new content like they’re hot potatoes so y’all need to keep an eye out. Now that I’ve started, I won’t be stopping! Hopefully, I’ll get to play some more physical or virtual shows in the near future too. One of the best parts of being in music is the performance aspect, being able to share your creations in real-time to an enthusiastic group of like-minded people. Do you have anything you’d like to say to indie artists such as yourself, in a particularly hard atmosphere to be a performer? Be 1567786% in it with your heart and soul, otherwise it’ll be really easy to lose sight of yourself and what matters. I think it’s just as important to have fun with music and enjoy the process in things such as crafting a song or putting together a performance. Lastly, be thankful for the people around you who show constant care and support for you!

Do make sure to check out her release, fresh out of the oven!

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