MUNNYCAT consists of producers K808 & Khaledzou. They’ve joined forces to blur the lines between dance, electropop and golden age hip hop. 2 total collaborators – they love each other, they live together, they write and produce together, they even shoot and edit their own music videos together. They’re passionately DIY and their music has been proudly licensed over 300 times by brands like Xbox, Google, Apple, and Crest along with tv shows like Apple TV’s “Dickinson” and MTV’s “The Hills: New Beginnings.” The duo makes energetic and empowering neon-colored west-coast bops, with car-rattling kick drums and grimy percussive layers.
“We worked on this record together while we were locked down all year and it was a strange experience because we’re optimistic people and our music is pretty fun, but we felt like it was literally the end of the world. We lost family members and loved ones, and we were honestly really afraid for the world, but making MUNNYCAT music together gave us a lot of joy and purpose. Unexpectedly, all of that depression and confusion mixed with the joyous energy of being creative and we ended up making a celebratory record with a little anger and a lot of light.”
Tell us about the genesis of MUNNYCAT. How did you get to where you are now?
K808: Well – before we moved to Los Angeles, we were both musicians in Youngstown, OH and we met at a show we both played at. I was in charge of booking a big festival and I booked Khaled’s indie rock band The Zou to play on the bill because I had listened to their music and thought they were awesome. We were friends for a while and then we fell in love.
Khaledzou: We would occasionally co-write or co-produce songs for our individual projects, but we were together for a few years before we started MUNNYCAT. We wanted to start a new band that was inspired by the songs that originally made us fall in love with music. My first musical love was old-school hip hop like Public Enemy and Ice-Cube. And Kate’s was The Spice Girls. We drew from those as our starting point and it just kind of snowballed from there.
How would you describe the highs and lows of being an artist?
Khaledzou: Life is considerable trouble and considerable joy. When it’s bad we’re thankful we are lucky enough to have an outlet like being creative. And when it’s good we are celebrating that we are lucky enough to have an outlet like being creative.
K808: For me, when things are high it’s like watching my dreams come true before my very eyes. I get to make things with the love of my life. Those moments I have that realization are really special. But when it’s low – It’s really low. It’s like I’ll never write another good song again and that can be overwhelming. Khaled helps pull me out of that though.
What’s a musical guilty pleasure of yours?
K808: I’ve been really enjoying a lot of emo / screamo stuff these days. It’s so fun to sing at the top of your lungs while driving around. And I’m always so proud of myself that I still remember all the lyrics.
Khaledzou: I’m a walking encyclopedia of 20th century musical theater.
Favorite activity to blow off some steam?
K808: We enjoy the Marvel Cinematic Universe and all the TV shows. Then we watch all the nerdy YouTube videos about all the Easter eggs and do some tin-foil theory crafting to get pumped for the next ones. I’m into biohacking. I love reading about psychology. I also play the Sims and enjoy participating in meme-stock culture.
Khaledzou: Mainly looking at animal memes. Watching DJs on Twitch. I still play Red Dead. I like watching camera and lens reviews on YouTube for things I’ll never buy. I like picking songs while Kate drives us around the canyon. I just got a new bass so I’ve been playing it everyday just for fun. I’m not that good, but I’m having a good time learning.
Tell us about “so fresh” and how it came about.
K808: It kinda started as a joke because we were saying we wanted to make something so fresh, but we def didn’t feel very fresh. We were both battling some depression and decided to let our inner critic write the song since they had so much to say. We just took some of the negative thoughts we were having and used them as a lyrical jumping off point. It’s really kinda aimed at ourselves. Luckily, we both have a lot of confidence in our music so we basically said we’ll make a song that is so fresh that our inner critic will shut the fuck up. So we just came up with a really simple, dope groove and let it ride.
Khaledzou: For the track we wanted to make it sound like we built it out of a bunch of old samples – like we had gone crate diving and found some super-rare old funk and soul records. But we just played everything and then made our own loops. It’s like writing a few songs and then scrapping them for parts. Super inefficient – but you come up with a lot of great stuff. It’s like a remix of a remix that was never released.
What are some things you do to deal with anxiety and creative blocks?
Khaledzou: Therapy is crucial. Meditation, breathing and grounding exercises, yoga. Kate got this thing called a MUSE that is like a mediation headband that actually reads your brainwaves through sensors on your head. I know – It sounds crazy but it’s real.
K808: We like to get a track to a certain point and then we walk with our dog Henry around the neighborhood and write outside putting notes in our phone. It really helps to get out of our usual environment when creative block or anxiety start to show up.
What inspires your visuals, videos, looks etc?
Khaledzou: Basically whatever we are into that day. We were really digging a lot of early 1970’s music and had just done a deep dive into why all the music was so different in 1971-72. Like, everyone was reacting to all these horrible events at the end of the 60s that left a lot of people disillusioned. So we made a 1970s themed video for ’so fresh’. We had a blast scouring thrift stores.
K808: We get influence from all the art and media we ingest. We just try to be hyper aware of what excites us. If we think it’s cool – we embrace it. We’ve been watching a bunch of westerns lately and have a music video coming out in a few months that is inspired by Red Dead Redemption.
What is the most embarrassing memory and most proud moment of your career so far ?
Khaledzou: I once played a show at an indoor ice rink. We kept breaking strings and our fingers were bleeding. A 10 year old kid would boo at us every time he circled around.
K808: At least you had someone there! I played to several empty rooms.
Khaledzou: “If I’ve told them once – I’ve told them a hundred times… Put MUNNYCAT first and THEN puppet show”
K808: As far as proudest moments.. hmm – it’s a bunch of little things that make me so happy. Like our friend texting us all excited because he heard our song on TV in Japan, or anytime someone sends us a message in another language. It’s just so awesome that our music can travel across the world and mean something to someone so far away. Or playing at Red Rocks! Or when we meet a musician or songwriter we really look up to and they like our stuff. I don’t know – we are always getting excited about things.
What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
K808: “You should buy Bitcoin. It’s really cheap.” I didn’t take the advice.
Khaledzou: Rick Rubin said, “Normal is average, and average doesn’t seem like anything to aspire to.”
Where do you think the music and entertainment industry is headed after this past year?
K808: It’s been heading this way for a while, but I think there are way more opportunities for artists to have success without traditional labels. Like, being a bedroom producer is a more viable career option than it ever has been before. Between TikTok, Twitch, Soundcloud rappers blowing up, and music sync – the viral nature of music allows artists to find their audience and connect with them directly. If you are making your own music, you can make a career for yourself with no compromises.
Khaledzou: I’m excited that mainstream pop music is currently really weird and artistic. For the time being, a lot of the biggest artists in the world are making unique and exciting stuff. Everyone was saying that after the last year being so difficult everyone would want to live with reckless abandon and act like it’s the roaring twenties, but I think the opposite. I feel like all the artists I know were so profoundly effected by it that they are making really thought provoking music and trying to push themselves.
