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The song Kind of Girlhas a certain power over Muna.
Those accents are channeled straight from the source, jokes Naomi McPherson, one of the trios guitarists.
Thats pure, crystallized energy.
Youre not in control.
It holds an even stronger power over Munas self-perception.
When in the process of making the album did this song come into play?
Shes teaching me how to play the part for Kind of Girl.
Katie Gavin:I think I had written it the night before.
So it was about a year ago.
I famously wrote it in the bath.
It was a song that I wrote chronologically, which isnt too common for me.
I was just thinking about the way that I talk about myself.
This song is reflecting on that voice and what Ive learned about myself through those stories.
Its these twists and turns that happen between the verse, pre-chorus, and chorus.
KG:Oh my God, yeah.
You wrote this a little over a year ago.
How was the album shaping up at this point?
NM:I think everything still felt pretty nascent.
Then Kind of Girl came into the picture, and we all gravitated towards it so strongly.
It just felt like such a tender and special moment that we activated pretty quickly to work on it.
It felt really done really fast, because we were all passionate about it.
I think we had had some conversations like, yearning for a few sensitive moments on the album.
All the songs that we had were pretty big energy songs and very confident, self-assured songs.
That one came at what will retrospectively feel like a pretty pivotal point for us.
We wanted a kind of Swiftian, middle-of-the-album, heart-wrenching track.
That kind of track-five moment.
It is track five on the album!
NM:It is, and thats on purpose, for sure.
KG:[Laughs.]
Naomi and Josette, what did you think when Katie came to you with the song?
JM:We started working on it the next day.
I think it reflects how good this song was.
You dont get those moments all the time, but this was one.
And I was really into the Laura Marling album,Songs for Our Daughter.
Its such a brilliant album.
Why did it make sense for this song to bring in these country influences?
I just remember Naomi saying something like, We shouldnt change it that much from what it is.
It just was already in the song.
We recorded so many guitars on this song.
It really was built in this pretty epic way.
Geo [Botelho] was super helpful with regards to giving a nice outside opinion.
We went in to record the vocals; Katie just performed them beautifully.
It was a community effort, for sure.
And then just spending time.
I think we picked the ones that felt the most appropriate for the song.
And we used that in our studio, which is honestly our house.
Its a super old house.
So we micd the amp close and we micd it far, and we just recorded that amp.
JM:I would say it was also out of necessity.
[All laugh.]
Thats the story of this band, ultimately.
Were very indebted to our community of creatives that help us along the way.
I want to be sure to touch on the music video as well, which is very fun.
Where did that idea come from?
NM:That was a Katie pitch.
We also knew that we didnt want it to be drag as a shtick.
There is something beautiful about seeing these more masc representations singing these more vulnerable lyrics.
So we did it as many times as we could in a row, for an hour.
And that one did end up being the take.
I know that Jo still misses her mustache.
What has it been like taking this song on the road and getting to play it for crowds?
JM:This song is just wonderful to play.
Its a song that lives in a live world, so it really has been a delight.
Like, as you play a song live, it goes into your body.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
