Muenster is a versatile wordsmith, a polished and flashy orator, and a prolific national performer.
This Austin native/Denton transplant is not your typical Texas rapper. The rhymesayer’s résumé boasts more than a decade of experience and dedication to his craft, evidenced by hundreds of live performances, several Warped Tour regional circuits, and a collection of meticulously crafted recordings that seemingly have no low points.
His albums are the listen-on-repeat kind, ones that never give you the urge to skip a track (which is a rarity, especially in the hip-hop community). Muenster seamlessly blends an array of vocal cadences reminiscent of the UK grime scene with a delivery as varied as a late-90s Project Blowed mixtape.
Listeners will find sincere, insightful poetics that aren’t afraid to grapple with provocative social and political topics. His cerebral, timely lyrics result in a more fulfilling experience than your typical club banger, but Muenster’s tracks still bring the bang. He showcases technically complex delivery matched with quick-paced lyricism, which comes off as natural and almost effortless, deploying surgically sharp enunciation and precision that somehow results in an insidiously listenable swagger.
I was first introduced to Muenster when we performed together in the basement of a pizza joint in Denton, Texas. It was 2013. Something clicked and we’ve supported each other since.
If you love Hip Hop or just love great music, you need a copy of Weirdope.There’s no other way to say it. You just need one.
In this interview spotlight, I allow Muenster to introduce himself to you and his sounds as we discuss technology, navigating the digital world as a creative, his new project and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
I’m from Texas. I make fusion hip hop and jazz music.
What’s up guys. I’m Muenster.
Yeah. I’m for sure hella Texan b…. (I’ll let that melting pot of a statement set in a bit)….. I said that because while I’m from Texas, my music and my sound is so much more wide ranging, that to say where I’m from as any indication of my musical imprint would represent me would be a falsehood. I am a byproduct of hours of endless rap tapes and radio mixes, concerts and house shows… I am everything that is Texas music. I am everything that isn’t.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
I was born and raised in 80s Austin, so I was exposed to a huge variety and array of music and concerts, events,art, and performances … I can’t remember a time I wasn’t sitting at a piano or writing down song concepts or planning world wide takeovers .. ha ha. ( this kid like 9-10 year old me here )….
I am Motivated by the sheer existence of music. Creating music is cathartic for me, however it also allows me to create a channel or a platform to give back to what is called the anthropological record. We can go more into that at a later date if we need to, but essentially it’s just my contribution back into the human experience, back in the human existence,back into what all makes us human, back to what all makes us a part of my music.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
Wow, OK this release, Weirdope is different in the sense that I am taking the social norms and the current pulse of what we are structured with by the machine l, or the industry standard if you will. By imploding or dissecting and re-creating a new sound based on social commentary and observation I am following a norm or a standard that we are presented with but turning it on it’s head. Songs like “woke” or “didactic” or “message” heavily explore these themes, yes. But also, basing tracks that are “hits” or “bangers” such as “before we die “, “equinox” “AWHIWWLB “ on utilizing rhyme patterns,stanzas, and harmony’s that are keen to the ear. Especially in this year of 2019.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this over saturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
You just named one or two challenges my guy… ha ha. Over saturation is the single biggest challenge to the Indy Rapper. If you really stop and think about it, the per capita of mc to over all population of a metropolitan area of males between 18-35 has got to be astronomical. If you don’t truly utilize branding, hashtags, and wise investments of a necessary meager budget then I suppose the second challenge is that of the artist ego. The notion that you can write down some words, record them over a rhythm and that somehow MAGICALLY ppl are just gonna find your music, it’s an egregious oversight by the common mc that it’s someone else’s job to find them or that anything for that matter, will happen without grit and tenacity.
What was the last song you listened to?
745
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
I will always always always be a vinyl head. In fact, Weirdope is actually on its way to the lathe as we speak, and it’s one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life. I am working with Sunpress Vinyl out of Florida who has partnered with Tuff Gong international and is currently pressing records on the iconic lathe that pressed everything from Bob Marley and The Wailiers to Lee Scratch Perry and Jimi Cliff ….. I have pre-orders available on my Facebook artist store page as well as Bandcamp which is my artist support page.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
Spotify for streams and international presence/reach. Hands down. No question about it, it is single handedly becoming a barometer for online presence and influence and success is being defined by cures Ted playlists and monthly followers. Now as far as a selling platform that benefits Indy artists it’s Bandcamp all day plair.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
I would say finding me on all.
My socials @Muenstervision is the singlehanded most direct approach.
I would also highly recommendhttps://muenstervision.bandcamp.com/album/weirdope people checking out Bandcamp for exclusive material, releases, and posts about my upcoming events.
Anything else before we sign off?
I really appreciate your time. Most importantly I just want to say that. Everyone’s time. I have created in Weirdope, something that I’ve never touched on before musically. I hope that my fans,new listeners ,new readers (through your own avenue for example), find something unique about it that they can hopefully share their friends. That their friends can find something unique about it and they can share their family, and their family can share with their colleagues and block party’s, or record nights across the country….and hopefully through this interconnected world we all live in I can spread my message in Weirdope in a way that I’ve never been able to before. It’s thanks to sites like yours, listeners like you good people that collectively, through social cohesion create a platform to get the music heard. So I leave with this. It’s never what one person can accomplish when we stop and realize we’re all walking a path together. We/me -Muenster.
