EQUATE Premiere: MISSIO

Live from their studio in Austin, Texas, MISSIO (formed of duo Matthew Brue & David Butler) record a live, acoustic version of their title track, ‘Can You Feel The Sun’, from their latest album, ‘Can You Feel The Sun’, exclusively for EQUATE. The third studio project from the duo, this album comes 18-months after their sophomore record, The Darker the Weather // The Better the Man, which released in April 2019, and comes with a whole new feel as explained, “…our creative process varies year by year, however, this album has felt the most natural to us thus far”. With their chilled demeanour, and the wholly relaxing aura of their performance, laced with the electronic and synth infusions presented to us by Brue & Butler, you’d hardly think MISSIO has hit over a billion total streams of their tracks to date, and can boast about their over 2M+ monthly listeners on Spotify. But the guys take it all in their stride – for them, music is an innate compulsion, and a medium of vulnerability for these self-confessed perfectionists, who both discovered their love for music in contrasting environments, yet found that it was this path that would inevitably be their therapy. We caught up with the duo ahead of the release of their 10-track album to see what inspires them, and what’s to come.

Read the feature below…

Words by Danielle Temeng

EQ: How would you describe yourselves as individuals, and as artists?

M: The quality I appreciate about us both the most is that we are pretty ‘anti-norm’ & always have been. We tend to live our lives moving ‘against the grain’ if you will and we try to approach our ideas & our art differently than everyone else. I notice it in our music, in our personal fashion aesthetics, & even ideologically. We like being different & we tend to attract people of the same nature. I believe we’re few and far between which is why I think our fans are so loyal - we’ve been able to finally find each other!

EQ: …and where did you both discover your love for music, and also what was the story of your meeting?

M: We both found music in our own ways & in our own time. I felt a bit forced into music growing up by my parents who required that I play the piano & sing in choirs as a part of self-discipline. It was that opposition that ultimately led me to be a musician in the long run. David, in the absence of music in a non-musical household growing up, felt almost compelled to learn how to play the guitar after reading ‘Hammer of the Gods’ by Led Zeppelin. He has been in a band ever since. We eventually would end up meeting each other through a mutual friend while we both were in other bands. David was hired to engineer my previous bands E.P. & he ended up producing the entire thing. That relationship slowly morphed into what is now MISSIO!

EQ: Your new single, ‘Can You Feel The Sun’ is a hauntingly beautiful track infused with your love for electronic elements. What was your creative process behind this, and your whole upcoming project, also named ‘Can You Feel The Sun’?

M: Our creative process varies year by year, however, this album has felt the most natural to us thus far. We had just returned from touring the world for the first time & experiencing 17 new countries in a period of a few short months. It’s surreal & inspiring when a person only knows one way of living their life until they branch out and see that other people have their own ways of living and viewing the world. It inspired us beyond belief & ‘Can You Feel The Sun’ was the first song/melody that was written after our travels. We ended up writing the entirety of the record in about 21 days coming in with a handful of pre-recorded demos.

Some days we would even come into the studio with almost identical melodies/lyric ideas which is almost unheard of. We all were so inspired, but also dealing w/ a lot of personal/mental changes so the lyrical content morphed into our internal questions about why we’re here, what is life, what is the universe, what is the role of religion? etc. It’s a very philosophical/existential record that we’re hoping allows people to question the hard things about living in a safe space.

EQ: With offering music which often feels very raw and personal, do you both ever create pieces you feel like you can’t release? Or is music a cathartic outlet for you?

M: This is a really great question! I’d say 8 out of 10 songs we do end up being held back for a variety of reasons but we try to be as vulnerable as humanly possible which allows us the comfortability of not needing to hide something we want to say. That being said, we hold songs back if we don’t feel they stand up to the rest of our catalogue. We’re the definition of perfectionists & every song that gets released needs to stand out on its own. But in short, yes - music is a therapy for us both!

EQ: And who would you say are some of your musical influences?

M: We have a variety of influences that cover the spectrum of genres. Anything from Missy Elliott, Mike Jones, & Three Six Mafia to Die Antwoord, James Blake, Son Lux, & Radiohead. We’ll even go as far as to say the Sneaker Pimps & The Flaming Lips!

EQ: With a new project coming out so soon, I don’t want to jump the gun, but what kind of music can we expect to hear from you in the near future after this? Any equate exclusives you can let us in on?

M: You can always expect us to create music that is our version of ‘left of centre’ and outside of the box. We’re always trying to push boundaries of what’s current, but also what is to come. We always strive to create songs that when they’re stripped down can stand on their own as just, well-written songs, independently of what the production is. One of the greatest feelings as an artist is the unknowingness of what that next song will be… it’s a thrill that I never want to lose & better than any drug high I’ve experienced.

Watch the EQUATE Exclusive performance of ‘Can You Feel The Sun’, from their album ‘Can You Feel The Sun’ below…

YouTube/EQUATE Magazine

Stream ‘Can You Feel The Sun’ HERE

From MISSIO’s album ‘Can You Feel The Sun’, OUT NOW

Follow MISSIO on Socials:

Instagram: @missiomusic