Austin – The duo of Lizzy Palpinger and Max Hershnow, better known as MS MR, has been creating music together since 2012 though both are no strangers to the music industry. Palpinger as the founder of Neon Gold Records and Hershnow as a producer. Sharing a love of music and creative energy, they came together when Hershnow wrote Palpinger to see if she knew of any female vocalists looking for a project, she ended up volunteering herself. They are unabashedly pop, though their music opens up the genre to those that might be embarrassed to call themselves a pop fan. Because of their joint knowledge of the music industry, they’ve been cautious with each step they’ve taken as band to ensure their staying power. At this point, they are setting themselves up to have a very long career. Currently on tour with Grouplove, they’ve been expanding their fan base through their energetic shows and infectious tunes like “Think of You.” I sat down with them before their show at Stubbs to discuss their burgeoning pop success.
IK: How has your tour been going so far?
Max Hershenow: It’s been going sensationally well. From 2011 to the end of 2013, we were basically on tour for two years straight. By the end we were burnt out and then we had two months off. Now we’re coming back in to touring and it feels so good. It feels like we’re back in to focus and refreshed. I think everything feels—in terms of our performance—better than it’s ever been. It’s so great to be back with Grouplove because they’re just dear dear friends of ours. It’s such a great match; it’s so fun.
Lizzy Palpinger: The crowds are amazing. I think what’s so fun about where we are now, is that even though we’re opening on this tour, we have so many fans in the audience who know our words. Grouplove fans in general are so infectious and embracing that the shows have been so next level.
IK: The fans are already lining up out there.
LP: It’s really crazy. We both always wanted to play Stubbs; it’s such a legendary venue. We’ve been grinding it out at South By for the past two years at tougher, smaller venues, so this feels like such a prize—a cherry on top to our Austin experience.
MH: Also, we were here a few weeks ago for South By and saw Lady Gaga on that same stage. It was really wild.
IK: You have a very strong visual aesthetic from your fashion sense to your videos to your Tumblr, how does your creative process work for pairing the music and visuals?
MH: We’re definitely musicians first but we started the Tumblr at the same time we started the music and both things really developed together. From the very beginning, we recognized there was a great opportunity for us to explore other avenues with this project, so we were really excited by the visual element of it and the way those two things could play off each other. While the music does come first, it’s important to have the other side as well.
LP: I think it’s a balance between being a musician first and foremost above all else, but embracing being an artist and a pop artist. What we try to do is carve out a very unique space for ourselves in pop so the visuals are seductive and colorful in a way that people have come to know the genre of pop, but there’s something sort of twisted and surreal and grotesque about things that we put out there. I think that’s what turns the concept of pop but that’s something we’ll always try to strive between.
IK: Your videos are all unique and vivid, what was it like creating the videos?
LP: Each one has been a different experience and each director was a different relationship. We really really adore our new video for “Think of You,” which we did with a directing duo called Brother.
MH: Those first two videos, we are immensely proud of but they felt like they were just leading up to the “Think of You” video that for us feels like the most succinct representation of our aesthetic ideas and the way we want to be perceived. It was so fun to shoot it because the day of the video all of our friends were there.
LP: Complete chaos. Pulling people in to the scene like “whose up next? Who wants to go?” I think that’s the difference between the “Hurricane” and “Fantasy” videos and “Think of You.” “Hurricane” and “Fantasy” are more montage stories and setting a tone. During “Think of You,” it was our chance to tell a story and show what our personalities were like and show our world and community in New York. In that way, it’s a little bit more personal.
IK: As you’re growing you fan base and playing bigger venues, are you able to incorporate some of those aspects in to your live shows?
LP: We’re trying, not as much as we’d like.
MH: It’s also hard when you’re opening, you don’t have as much control.
LP: Also that we’re still new to the road and getting used to what you can afford to have on the road with you. I think it’s definitely something we have our thinking caps on about for the future. There’s no lack or shortage of ideas.
MH: There’s a lot of like…big budget ideas.
LP: Like, Madison Square Garden ideas are all planned out, we’re just working on toning it down.
IK: Lizzy, you’ve had a lot of experience on the business side of the music industry with your record label, Neon Gold, how has that influenced the steps you’ve taken as an artist?
LP: I think what’s been nice about MS MR, was that it really existed outside of Neon Gold and was such an escape for both of us to be creative and focus on the music. I think I was able to separate myself from the business side of things when we were doing the writing and recording and working on concepts. Where it came in to play was giving us the ability to take control on our business side of things and the freedom of control that [our label] Columbia allowed us to have is really liberating and pretty amazing. I think most pop acts don’t have the amount of control and flexibility that we have and we’re really proud of that. I think a lot of that did come with having experience from Neon Gold.
MH: If I had tried to be a solo artist without Lizzy’s experience, I would have gotten steam rolled, not because of what Columbia is or what any label is, but because, as an artist coming in to it, you don’t really know that you have the power to make these choices. Especially because Lizzy had so much experience with Neon Gold, developing not only musically but visual identities for bands, she brought that knowledge and importance in to it from the beginning. That was integral in controlling and developing that aspect of the project. By the time we had gotten to Columbia, we basically had a fully fleshed out idea of who we wanted to be.
IK: Have you found it challenging to continue to manage your record label from the road as an artist?
LP: It’s different; it’s changed. I think I’ve learned that I’m definitely good in a duo. I’m lucky to have Max in MS MR but I’m lucky to have Derek, who I run Neon Gold with. He’s really manning the show while I’m on the road. It’s not impossible for me to stay on top of e-mail or get on a conference call from the road. I think my role within the company has changed a little bit, it’s becoming more about A&R and being an ambassador for the brand and not doing the minutia of going in to the office everyday, instead I’m going to sound check with the band. I’m really lucky to have partners in my life who support me in all my different interests, the same way that Max has different interests. Max is a producer along with this [project]; we’re both multi-dimensional people. It’s important to, sort of, keep all those balls in the air.
MH: There’s so much back and forth with all these different ideas. It all feeds off of each other in a healthy.
IK: You made a conscious decision to slowly release your music but you’ve gained a following pretty quickly, what has that whole ride been like?
MH: I think we’re still processing it and what it means and how its going to continue to effect what we do but it’s been incredible to watch the crowds grow at every show and watch people know the words. The development of that has been something we didn’t anticipate liking as much as we do. Enjoying performing is a different beast than what we started out as.
LP: We started anonymously and that was a very conscious decision because we wanted people to come to the music first before anything else. We were very in control of the situation, when the music was getting as much attention as it did, it made us feel very validated in ourselves and in our decision. I think we put our face to the project very organically, there weren’t photos of us on the Internet but from the first show we played, our faces were out there. The transition between being anonymous and putting our face to the project happen very slowly and I think what continues to be so special about performing is there’s become a very honest and organic interaction between us and our fans for the first time.
IK: I’ve read that you’ve been robbed three times on the road.
LP: It’s fucking ridiculous. It’s not just us, it’s happened to a lot of bands. It’s really inappropriate and just shocking to be honest.
MH: Fortunately we’ve learned our lesson now and everything was insured this last time. But it’s almost sort of embarrassing because it’s happened so many times. There’s nothing you can do, you’re just a target.
LP: For one, I think those fifteen passenger vans are very easy to break in to, but that’s what you can afford to travel in. When you’re a band on the road, you have your entire life in the car like your computer and probably your best clothes, it’s awful. Hopefully it will never happen again.
MH: Even talking about it in an interview feels dangerous, like we’re promoting it.
LP: But it is an issue, maybe we can get the problem out there so it doesn’t happen again.
IK: How do you bounce back when something like this happens when you’re on tour?
LP: You have to. It literally happened a day before our tour started. We had twenty-four hours to get all our instruments together, get the clothes that were stolen from us.
MH: We were badly off because our computers were stolen and we had to rebuild all of the musical stuff we’d been working on. It was really shitty for our amazing team, and especially our tour manager but our whole crew is really phenomenal. The fact that they got everything together in twenty-four hours was incredible. We couldn’t have done that without them at all.
LP: The worst thing that was taken was our computers so [we lost] all of my lyrics, so many of our demos. Had we had more time to think about it, we could have sunk in to a very deep depression over it and I think because we had to refocus and jump on tour, it was a great distraction. Now we’re handling it with grace. In that way, I’m that much more appreciative to be back on the road doing what we’re doing. We have our power, your creative genius inside of you, but it’s hard. We’re handling it!
IK: It’s clear that you’re very strategic in presenting MS MR as a pop act that’s going to be around for a while and have staying power, now that you have an album out and you’re getting recognition, what are the next steps for your career?
MH: We’re in a really privileged and exciting position right now. We’ve spent the last two years touring the world and laying the groundwork. We hope to be really next level on the next record and also long term. We really admire bands like Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsytem who have really taken the time to build up their careers and making a long-term success. They’ve cemented their role as true artists. That’s the trajectory we see this project taking. We’ll see what happens with the next record and see what music we continue to write and continue to evolve, and sort of keep the ethos of experimentation alive. That was at the root of the first record, if we can keep that core idea there, hopefully it can continue to do everything it’s done.
LP: It comes down to the music. We’ll never put out anything we don’t love first. I think that’s why the first record is doing well—because we love the music so much. I feel confident in our understanding of the music we’re making. We’ll always be rooted in pop, that’s our greatest love. We’ll always be really proud to claim ourselves to be pop.
IK: Have you been working on new music?
MH: We have. We spent the first few months of this year writing new music.
LP: We also recorded last night in the Shreveport, Louisiana Hilton.
MH: That was really fun.
IK: Are you changing and maturing your sound for the next record or continuing to develop the sound you have?
MH: Again, the ethos of experimentation is there. We try not to be pre determined about anything we’re writing because then it comes off as false—
LP: Or pre-conceived or constructed.
MH: Or you’ll end up being disappointed because it didn’t come out the way you constructed so we have a lot of musical touchstones that we’re constantly passing back and forth. We’re open to any new ideas but at the root of it, it’s still pop and we’re not going to shy away from that.
LP: We’ve grown a lot too. Max is a better producer than he was two years ago; I’m a much better singer. Having those tools is definitely going to elevate and change the scope of the music. It feels exciting to be embracing those aspects of it.
Photo By Tyler Kohlhoff
Ilyse Kaplan
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