MŮNI are Mateo Donoghue and Meg Edwards who met at Southampton Solent University while studying Popular Music Performance. The duo were recently featured on BBC Introducing: Merseyside and so we caught up with them to chat about their music and see what they’ve been up to after graduation.
When did you realise you wanted to do music together?
After the great response from the two tracks and interest from labels we thought we should work on doing more.
MŮNI is a very unusual name. Is there a story behind it?
To put it simply it combines Music & University together making MUNI.
Oh cool, that’s clever. When did either one of you start writing music?
Mateo: I’ve been writing music every since I learnt the guitar which is about 14.
Meg: I come from a musical background so have been writing/singing from a very young age.
How have you grown in the years that you’ve been writing?
Meg: Looking back at our first song ‘Work It Out’ I can definitely see a difference in sound and writing techniques. I feel the more we have been working together, the more we have found our sound.
You guys have been making music for quite some time now but you’ve recently moved to two completely different cities – London and Liverpool. Is it hard working together long distance?
Mateo: Yeah it’s a lot harder working from this distance, we don’t meet up as often and it creates a barrier between the creativity.
Meg: It is hard living in Liverpool when Mateo is in London. We were so used to living within a 5 minute walk away from each other, so there are a lot of factors and barriers that we have to work with now
What’s your songwriting and recording process? Mateo, do you create the instrumentals and send them over to Meg for vocals or do you get together sometimes?
Mateo: Normally I write the music, lyrics and melody and then Meg just records her voice on top, however sometimes we collaborate on lyrics/melody.
Meg: Yeah, usually Mateo will create an instrumental and send that to me, and that gives me a chance to try and create a melody/lyrics, which I record into my phone and we listen to it when we get together.
How would you describe your music?
Our music takes a modern take on all things Trap, Grime and R&B and adds soul into the mix.
That’s a brilliant mixture. Where do you get inspiration from?
Mateo: Drake, Skepta, Preditah,
Meg: I get a lot of my inspiration from artists like Tori Kelly, Years & Years and SG Lewis. I feel they have similar phrasing to me.
’Work it Out’ is about a complicated relationship and distance. Then there’s ’Antidote’ that talks about lost love and looking for a way to get back to how things were. Love and relationships are one of the most explored topics in music, why do you think that is and does it resonate with you?
Mateo: I feel that most people can relate to it and obviously these are experiences that we all go through. Personally, I just write about what’s on my mind at the time.
Meg: Every song has some sort of theme, and I feel most of those are about relationships as it is common ground for everyone.
What are your future plans?
Mateo: At the moment we are on a creative hiatus whilst Meg works out what she wants to do. I am very much still writing music.
Meg: We will absolutely create an EP, I’m just struggling at the moment to figure out my path.
Is doing music full-time your goal?
Mateo: Very much so, there isn’t anything else that I feel I’m particularly good at.
Meg: Yeah, of course- who wouldn’t want to do something they love full-time?! It’s just a case of how we get there which i’m certain we will.
What’s your best live show experience?
Mateo: We’ve done a small acoustic set to a few of our close friends in my bedroom at Uni, it was pretty intimate and it was nice to put a spin on our produced tracks.
What do you like to watch for fun?
Mateo: I’m really into watching The Walking Dead and Stranger Things at the moment.
I love those shows, they’re brilliant. What are the best things about working with each other?
Mateo: I think Meg’s ability to understand the emotion of the songs that I write and matching that with the vocal is a real skill.
Meg: Mateo is good at what he does, and that’s why I think we work well together. We can say how we feel in order to create a successful song.
Note: Mateo has another project as well called Kult Eviction. It’s more electronic, garage and grime. Check it out here:
