This is a very long post, so grab your favorite adult beverage, get comfortable and enjoy!

As a blogger who writes primarily about current music, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know quite a few musicians and bands, at least online. Needless to say, it’s especially gratifying when a more widely-known act acknowledges me by liking or commenting on some of my social media posts, or even going so far as to follow me! One that ranks pretty high is Austin, Texas-based MISSIO, who’ve been one of my favorite acts for more than six years.

The exceptionally talented and absurdly creative duo consists of singer-songwriter, musician and producer Matthew Brue and songwriter/producer and musician David Butler, as well as their silent third partner, producer and frequent collaborator Dwight Baker and their drummer Jaydon Bean. Not only do I love their great songwriting, uniquely original and edgy sound that’s an eclectic mash-up of gritty alternative electronic rock, hip hop and dreamy emo vibes, and Matthew’s distinctive tenor vocals, I also have mad respect for them. Exuding a genuine coolness, yet unafraid to share their anxieties and vulnerabilities in their music and social media posts, they’ve earned a legion of loyal fans they’ve affectionately dubbed the ‘MISSIO Mafia’ (of which I proudly consider myself a member),

Starting with their brilliant debut album Loner in 2017, MISSIO has consistently released an exceptional catalog of music,. They followed with three more studio albums, the magnificent The Darker the Weather // The Better the Man in 2019 (my review of that album has garnered over 3,300 views, making it my most-viewed album review ever), Can You Feel The Sun in 2020, and VILLAIN in September 2022 (which I also reviewed), as well as numerous singles and “Skeleton” EPs, consisting of stripped-down versions of some of their songs. In 2020, they also dropped a gorgeous soundtrack album for their film Love Me Whole. Several of their songs have charted on my Weekly Top 30, four of which – “I See You”, “Underground”, “Can You Feel the Sun” and “Time”– have reached #1. 

In February 2023, they began releasing a series of EPs and singles that would continue over the next 14 months for what would ultimately become their fifth studio album I Am Cinco, a monumental work consisting of 26 songs that dropped May 3rd. The album is divided into five EPs or chapters, each containing between four and six tracks focusing on a different human emotion: I Am Sad, I Am High, I Am Awesome, I Am Angry and I Am Crazy.  

To gain a bit more insight into the album and their creative approach, I had the pleasure and honor of interviewing Matthew and David via Zoom. Idiot that I am, I neglected to hit the ‘record’ button at the beginning of our conversation, so have no record of what we talked about for the first five minutes or so, which was essentially about how they met and began working together as MISSIO. Nevertheless, there’s still plenty of discussion.

EML: One of the things I really love about your music, and I think you do it better than almost any act I know of, is how you draw from so many different genres and styles of music to create your own sound. You have beautiful, heartbreaking songs like “Time” and “I See You”, which you know I love, to raucous, hard-driving songs like “Fuck It”, and everything in between. No two songs of yours ever sound the same, which I think is awesome. What are some of the bands or artists you guys loved growing up or love now, who influence your sound?

David: It’s interesting, because so much of it has to do with a couple of random things that just are who we are. First of all, I don’t think either of us identify as, like, “I’m a guitar player, or I’m a bass player, or I’m anything other than a songwriter”. We still like to rock, and both grew up on very heavy music, and for me a lot more punk rock. We both loved Korn growing up, though I grew up idolizing older stuff like Led Zeppelin, which is the reason I started bands to write songs.

Matthew: To me, it’s a yin and yang, where David brings a lot of the technical side of the older music that I didn’t really listen to. I’ve always been more into the exploratory side of what’s next or what’s coming, and I think the meshing of the two comes together in a really cool way where we bring old school and new school, and create this thing in the middle. Bands like Korn, System of a Down, Missy Elliott, Gorillaz, Cage the Elephant… we listen to so many different things, and I don’t think we’ve ever gone ‘hey, let’s try and write this type of song that sounds like this type of band’.  I think it’s more us not being afraid to fail.

David: Unless you’re pretty sophisticated musically, you probably wouldn’t get that Matthew comes from classical music; he grew up in choirs from an early age, and is an incredibly gifted classical piano player. And so you hear voicings and harmonies in the chord progressions you don’t typically hear in rock music, because there’s a level of sophistication that Matthew has in his ear that’s pretty incredible. And then you combine that with me, who likes to fuck shit up – and he does too – and I think that’s what he likes about me. So I bring this punk rock spirit to the engineering; I hate electronic music that sounds like it was made with a lab coat on. This does not move me as a human, so I’m trying to distort, to move it off the grid, to make it human.

Matthew: I’ll be honest, it doesn’t work for everybody, which is the cool thing. Our fans who get it, fucking get it. And that’s what I love, as we have die-hard fans who love what we do. But we will frequently hear, ‘dude, I don’t know what the fuck you guys are doing over there’.

EML: What you were just describing is perfectly encapsulated in your song “Underground”, which I love so much. It’s got such hard driving beats and synths, and yet there are moments of incredible beauty, especially in the way your voice rises and falls. It’s just a fantastic song. That contrast that makes for such an exciting song. Same thing with “New Gold” from Gorillaz, Tame Impala and Bootie Brown. What a great mix of artists; you’ve got the rapping, a beautiful melody…

Matthew: I wish more artists knew this, but you can do anything you want in this day and age, but I think people are afraid of failing. Just try some shit and see what happens.

EML: You’ve touched on how you guys collaborate, but do you generally collaborate on all of your songs, or in some cases one of you come up with a concept or a melody or beat, and go from there?

David: It varies quite a bit. We both will start ideas on our own, then come together and do a show and tell. There will be a group of songs where we’re both, ‘that’s cool, this is the best of this bunch’, then we’ll finish them together. We sort of fall into roles we’re comfortable with; Matthew will take a bunch of the lyric and melody writing that’s left, because he’s the singer and that’s also one of his incredible gifts. I’m doing a lot of the arrangement and piecing of songs together. Matthew being the keyboard player that he is, is seated in front of the midi controller, and I am either controlling the synth or pulling up sounds, and he’s finding things as the sound is changing. There’s also a third process where we start from scratch, with either just us or us and a third person or even fourth person, and those are always wild and fun, because you never know what’s gonna come of it.

Matthew: And actually a fourth. A lot of times, I may pull up the bass and play some part that’s super non-sensical and that works, or sometimes David will hop on the keys and play some part that maybe I wouldn’t play, and that’s cool. Sometimes we’ll both get on the drums and do some weird shit. There’s a really fun element of that too, where you never know who’s gonna play what.

EML: I would guess that not sticking to certain defined roles gives you more artistic freedom to try new stuff.

Matthew: There’s a reason why I chose to be an artist and musician, and it was to get away from the monotony of corporate bullshit. What the fuck are we doing if we’re not having a good time? And part of having a good time is getting weird and exploring and being a fucking artist and getting messy with it.

EML: That’s a great segue into your latest work ‘I Am Cinco’. I think it’s brilliant how you guys have approached it, and decided to release it in chapters or installments. Partly because it’s so monumental, and rather than just wait until releasing a 26-track album, you’re giving your fans snippets every few weeks or months, which whets our appetite and keeps us drawn in for what’s coming next. It’s an interesting concept how you’ve also chosen to focus on different human emotions in each chapter. You’ve guys have always been very open about your interest in emotional well-being, and have shared your own frustrations and issues, and also your artistic honesty and how that plays into your music. What actually inspired you to create this work?

David: Part of art for me, is there’s an inspiration, and in the process something comes out and it’s like ‘whoa’, and I assign some meaning to it. The inspiration for this was, eight to ten songs in, recorded toward this unknown fifth album that we’d done randomly over time, plus 20-30 demos that we had piled up, we wondered ‘what are we going to do with this fifth album?’ There began to be a natural grouping, where it was like, ‘hey, these songs feel like they go together.’ I would say that was the inspiration moment, where we thought, what if we do five EPs, each with its own specific emotional theme and genre? We’re going to showcase one of the things that we love and are proud of with this band, that we’re prolific songwriters. We wanted to do a major fifth album that’s a statement.

Matthew: One of our collective gifts is doing the business side as well, and in this day and age, it’s incredibly important as artists to be involved. We want our music to be heard, and what is the strategy behind this?  If you’re a MISSIO fan, and you really want to be on this journey,  what would you want to see, hear, feel? And to your point Jeff, rather than waiting to drop some giant album, we also realized that attention spans now are so short, and it’s really hard to get someone to sit down for almost two hours and listen to this whole thing. So let’s do an EP, EP, EP, and drop some singles to give it to people in chunks, because we want every song to be heard.

David: Music is therapy. I want the world to rediscover the power of music, and not just by listening to MISSIO songs, but music in general. We’ve minimized its role in our lives to just a playlist in the background while you’re doing the dishes. That’s why we broke this up. This is also a medicinal thing that you can say, ‘I can connect in this emotional state and address some emotional shit’, with music as your friend. That’s what I’ve been doing since I was an angsty teenager.

EML: That’s what I think makes people relate to your music so deeply, and why your fans are so loyal and fervent in their love for you guys, because your music really does touch us. I have a question about the whole nature of needing to be so present on social media, and how exhausting and frustrating that must be, as it’s a necessary evil. I’ve heard a lot of artists that I follow complain about how much time they must spend on social media, when they’d rather be creating music. What are your thoughts about this and how do you keep it from driving yourselves crazy?

Matthew: There are two schools of thought about this. One is, it’s the best time to be alive in regards to getting your music heard, because you can share it with anybody in one click of a button. Which is different from the 80s and 90s where you had these gatekeepers who ran a few magazines or MTV, and it was virtually impossible to get your music heard.  But now the overwhelming thing I hear is that there’s too much, so it’s hard to actually poke through. But I’d rather be on this side where you at least have a chance. But also, people need to learn self-discipline, and if you start to notice that social media is having an effect on your mental health, have the discipline to put it down for a second. Your fans will be OK if you don’t post for a week. I’d rather focus on the art and music itself and make sure it’s the best it can be, and post however and whenever we can, and take care of our mental health and have a good time.

David: You need to basically have a plan and be able to live with the results. I find beauty in that. We’re not going to win at this because we’re great influencers. That’s not our gift, our gifts are in music, in songwriting and performance. Social media is an agreement we have to make and have to use. Matthew and I are both willing to be vulnerable and share as much as we can about our personal lives that help to point people back to the music. My goals are never gonna be ‘we got to do our Instagram to this number or nothing’.

Matthew: We even had somebody comment the other day ‘Do you even care about what your fans have to say, comments-wise?’ The harsh reality is ‘no’. We hardly read the comments, and I’m honestly learning to tune some of that shit out. We do what we do, we love what we love, we’re gonna write music because we love it.

David: It inspires me greatly seeing so many people resonating positively with our music. It encourages me as an artist who got into the business for the reason I was on the other side of that. I am still many times the fan in the crowd that gets blown away. Frankly, all the bands I like would be saying the same shit we’re saying. You can’t create from a space of wanting to be a Walmart band, the most generic version that you could sell to the most people with the least amount of jagged edges. That’s just not fun for us.

EML: Your first two albums ‘Loner’ and ‘The Darker the Weather // The Better the Man’ were released through RCA, but then you left. Are you now you’re independently releasing your music?

David: We did the third album on BMG, then released independently, and now recently, we’re on a label named Nettwerk for this album. We’re always learning more about the business, and ultimately, we’ve taken back massive creative control. With RCA we had creative control, but it was hard to accomplish the business goals through their machine. There’s so many layers, nothing happens fast, and we’re DIY, entrepreneurial spirits. We don’t like having guys telling us what to do. So far so good with Nettwerk, and we’re really enjoying working with them.

EML:  That’s pretty much all I had, and don’t want to take too much more of your time. I really appreciate you guys talking with me, and it’s an honor again to interface with you and talk about stuff. I do plan to review the album when it comes out.

Matthew:  Thanks so much man. I know for a fact that you’re one of the people that will sit down front to back and listen to ‘I Am Cinco’, which is awesome. I’m really excited to hear what you have to say; you’re always an elegant writer.

OK, let’s get to I Am Cinco, shall we! Given the album’s enormous number of tracks, I won’t be discussing them all, but will touch on all five distinct EPs that comprise I Am Cinco, highlighting my favorite songs from each one. The EPs are arranged chronologically in the order they were released beginning with I Am Sad, which was released on Valentines Day 2023 and features six tracks exploring various aspects of anxiety, sadness and depression. When they dropped the EP, they remarked on Facebook “If you’re a little extra lonely because Valentine’s Day is a hard day for you, then this E.P. is for you. If you’re struggling, depressed, experiencing loss, or honestly feeling fucking nothing at all, this E.P. is also for you. It’s helped us personally heal by being able to write out some of our own sad feelings & we hope those same feelings resonate with y’all.”

The first track, “I’m Sad and I Can’t Speak“, encapsulates this overall theme of how when you’re in the throes of depression, you feel nothing but emptiness and desolation, emotions I’ve experienced myself, unfortunately. The song is melancholy, yet strangely beautiful, with unsettling woozy synths accompanied by some lovely piano keys. Matthew’s vocals sound especially vulnerable and fragile as he somberly laments “I’m sad and I can’t speak. I’m scared and I can’t think. When I can’t speak I write out the things that mean a lot to me. At times I feel nothing.”

Though I love all six tracks on I Am Sad, I think my favorite is “Read Your Mind“, another hauntingly beautiful, downtempo song that’s also incredibly melodic. Here, the lyrics are directed toward another person who’s hurting: “I don’t need to read your mind now, I can see the pain in your eyes.” The surreal video, which has a pretty spooky vibe, was directed by Matthew and filmed in his house and edited by the band’s frequent photographer Ima Leupp of Seamless Loop Productions. They used six cakes in the production of the video, which they smashed into their faces to symbolize the foolish or irrational behavior people sometimes engage in to draw attention to their pain. The guys were cleaning cake residue out of their beards, hair and ears for days.

The saddest song of this group is “What Can You Say“, which was inspired by the suicides of both a friend of David’s and a friend of Dwight’s, who left a wife and two children behind. Matthew was overwhelmed with sadness that someone could feel so despondent and hopeless, they would take their own life and leave loved ones behind, expressed in these heart-wrenching lyrics: “What can you say to a man willing to throw his life away? What can you say when you can’t always come to save the day?” The acoustic guitars and piano are particularly beautiful, and Matthew’s vocals are steeped in sadness.

Well, I wasn’t going to talk about every track, but damn, they’re all so good I can’t help myself. “Ring Ting” is a cool trip hop song calling out those who become slaves to material possessions and money in an attempt to fulfill their definitions of success, losing their humanity in the process. The sixth track of this series, “Monsters (Inside of Us)“, is positively gorgeous, with a soaring orchestral soundscape forming a dramatic backdrop for Matthew’s plaintive vocals as he sings “You’re not a monster. I’m not a monster. But we have monsters inside of us.”

Opening the second chapter of EPs, a collection of six feel-good songs grouped under the appropriately-titled I Am High, is the delightfully celebratory “Good Vibrations“, which I reviewed last summer. With its powerful synth bass groove, heavy, pulsating beats and colorful spacey synths, it’s is one of my favorites of the entire album. Though Matthew had some initial misgivings about releasing “Good Vibrations”, given that it shares the same title as the iconic Beach Boys song, he thought that with all the bullshit and negativity bombarding us, we could use a little more love and positivity. The song spent several months on my Top 30 chart, peaking at #3. For the wonderful music video, they gathered a few skater friends together and shot the video at a skate park in San Marcos, Texas. The video features Matthew and David, along with skaters Kat Frances, Mason Lapena and Abel Rodriguez.

MISSIO let their freak flag fly high and proud on “Big Stacks“, a collaboration with British rapper Jelani Blackman. The song is a celebration of the joys of stoner culture, as well as an assessment of the challenges of living the good life and getting high: “Big stacks and big racks. If you got that shit you better light it up. It’s 4:20 and we ‘bout to take a puff. Wait, I think I’m out of options. I gotta’ solve this. Guess I gotta work hard, try to get these options.” With it’s heavy trip hop beats and rapping vocals, the song sounds about as different as could be from the songs on I Am Sad. The guys had a lot of fun making the trippy and hilarious video, and consider it their favorite of all the ones they’ve made.

Other standouts in this chapter are the mellow love song “Easy“, the Latin-flavored hip-hop romp “Thang Thang“, featuring L.A.-based artist DEADFOOT, and the lovely and mesmerizing “I’m Coming Home“.

The third chapter of songs, grouped under I Am Awesome, explore self-affirmation and healing from past traumas and abuse. Case in point is “Not My Fault“, an anthemic pop-rock song calling out someone who’s belittled and disrespected you: “I don’t like how you took my heart, and you burned it down on a funeral pyre. Where the ashes rise from the darkest days, this is not my fault. No it’s not my fault it’s you.” On the exuberant “Heart Made of Dynamite“, Matthew sings of breaking free from another’s control and negativity, and not keep your feelings bottled up inside: “I’m like a body with a heart made of dynamite. Won’t be long until it explodes.” And on the delightfully upbeat “Making Me Nervous“, he tells his love interest of the spellbinding effects she has on him.

My favorite track of this group is “Say Goodbye to the Old Me“, thanks to it’s wonderful melody, dramatic instrumentation and uplifting vibes. The lyrics speak to letting go of negative energy and stress that keep holding you back, and embracing a healthier, more positive outlook: “Say goodbye to the old me. The future is too bright. Just say goodbye, this time I’m gonna’ get it right.” The beautiful video, featuring dancers Kornelia Klys, Julia Trelka, and Agata Weirzcholowska, was filmed in Gdansk, Poland.

Next up are the I Am Angry songs, of which there are five. And as their titles would suggest, these are some of the heaviest, most aggressive songs on the album. “Fuck It” is a perfect song for when you just want to break some shit and sound off on an asshole who’s stepped on your very last nerve. MISSIO definitely tap into their darker side on this one, with a barrage of tortured industrial synths and pummeling trap beats, overlain with wailing sirens and grinding bass. Matthew sounds downright menacing as he snarls “You’re a fuckin’ problem, did you know? I don’t think you do. I think I can solve it, did you know? You don’t get to choose.” The video, filmed in black and white, is pretty dark too, and YouTube is making us do a bit of extra work to watch it.

The best track of this bunch, to my ears at least, is “Aztec Death Whistle“. The song hits hard in all my dark side feels, both sonically and lyrically, as I love that savage chugging beat, those gnarly instrumentals and Matthew’s dangerously seductive vocals as he rails about the reasons why his soul is so dark: “Cast out by sixteen when I was just looking for home. I felt fucked & abandoned. Gave up by twenty and thought God had saved my dark soul. Stop fuckin’ with my head.” Bordering on metal, the song has a bit of a Nine Inch Nails vibe, but sounds distinctly MISSIO.

“This World Is Better When It’s Sick” is a fine example of how MISSIO expertly mixes up different styles and sound textures in a song. The track is brutally aggressive and spooky for much of its three and a half minute run time, except for beautiful piano interlude lasting 20 seconds in the bridge that makes for a dramatic aural constrast. The fifth track “Go Fuck Yourself” is the ultimate kiss-off song to someone who’s treated you badly and spread lies about you. Against a harsh backdrop of grinding industrial synths and ominous vibes, Matthew’s vocals are dripping with venom as he practically spits the lyrics “You’re talking shit. Can’t let it go. You gotta’ know I can hear your filth. Can you hear your filth? Go fuck yourself. I’ll be fine.”

The fifth and final chapter is I Am Crazy, featuring four tracks touching on various aspects of mental health, more specifically, trying to keep one’s sanity amidst all the surrounding craziness. The punkish “Fall into a Blackhole” is a denunciation of someone who’s been gaslighting you, wishing they’d disappear by falling into a blackhole, while “Pulled Down Low” seems to describe a dysfunctional and toxic relationship: “You might be crazy, I know you are. That look you’re given’ me is sure bizarre. You stab with knives, I stab with my words. You’re so damn beautiful it fucking hurts.”

“The Higher You Climb” sort of continues on the theme introduced earlier by “Ring Ting”, namely that achieving the success and acclaim you crave may come with serious downsides you hadn’t anticipated: “They say on top is where you find the freedom that you’re looking for. The higher you climb the farther you fall. They say, you got what it takes but you gotta throw your friends away. They say, if you want to be rich then you gotta learn to play the game.” The aggressive stomping beat and blaring synths make for an exhilarating listen, and the video’s great as well.

Closing out the album is “Time“, my favorite track on I Am Cinco. With its achingly beautiful arrangement and Matthew’s powerful, heartfelt vocals, “Time” now ranks among my very favorite MISSIO songs, and currently sits at the top of my Weekly Top 30 chart. The simple but profound lyrics touch on anxieties the guys have experienced over some of the issues facing our current world and society. They explain: “We spend our lives chasing things in our futures that don’t even exist in reality yet. We all want to think and believe that everything we desire will eventually come to fruition, but sometimes it never does. Time goes wherever you are, now, in each moment. Live like it’s your last because you’re not guaranteed a tomorrow. No one is.” It’s a perfect and fitting end to a monumental, flawlessly crafted and supremely impactful tour de force.

Here’s the album on Spotify:

In June, MISSIO will embark on a nine-city European tour:

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Find their music on  Spotify / Soundcloud / Apple Music / YouTube / Amazon