Remember those old children’s stories about finding a boogeyman under your bed? What if we told you that, even as an adult, that that boogeyman is still there? Bristol producer Mun Sing’s forthcoming ‘Frolic’ EP sees him embody a boogeyman-esque, blue-faced scarecrow; a surreal demented fairytale that has now entered adulthood, and they’re ready to punish your gluttony.
While Mun Sing’s debut album – released in 2023 on Planet Mu – focused on themes of grief, addiction and spirituality, the artist’s latest work explores the concepts of indulgence, and its consequences. The Scarecrow reminds us that everything comes at a price, and punishes those that have too much fun. He is the embodied voice of guilt after you choose one more drink, or one more episode. Meandering through hyper-pop and maximalist melodies, the release’s sonic identity is influenced by large-scale pop concerts and expansive story-telling; the dialogue of joy, escapism and guilt coming as a natural next step to the artist, having navigated grief and loss for so many years.
Having been recently invited by Björk to DJ and play live in Reykjavík and New York, and with a brand new live show inspired by pantomime, CLASH sat down with the scarecrow to talk stigma, adults playing dress-up and the sinister edge of growing up.
—
—
Did you look to classic children’s horror tales for inspiration? What kind of stuff were you looking at?
It’s based on various themes that we all go through, and is informed by various childhood traumas. I feel like we’ve grown out of having this symbol to represent guilt and shame. We tend to internalise that now, as adults. As a kid it was easier to process it in the form of a boogeyman or some sort of entity that represents a moral dilemma, now we take that on ourselves, which can be a lot. By putting that into a character, it makes it easier to process.
The ‘Frolic’ EP explores the dialogue of joy, escapism and indulgence following the grief inspiration for Inflatable Gravestone. I think the ideas of indulgence and consequence are quite prevalent in the musical world, where did you pull this concept from?
Yeah, I have struggled with that. My last release was focused on themes of grief and addiction, and there’s a lot of guilt that’s associated with those things. For me, it’s maybe a continuation of that. That wasn’t the intention but that’s probably where it’s come from.
I don’t have to look around too much to see that that’s a theme for a lot of people. Indulgence. I don’t think it’s always bad to be indulgent, but it can be quite hard to escape the realities of that. As a kid, these characters are created to make people feel like there’s a limit, or to keep you on track. You don’t really have much consequences as a kid. Nothing bad can really happen from having too much of something as a child, the worst that’s going to happen is you have too much sugar or something, but as an adult it becomes a little more sinister. You haven’t got a parent or a person to keep you in check, it’s totally on you.
You can be judged as an adult for being indulgent and it might not always be within your control, in terms of addiction or physical health problems. As adults we’re used to seeing someone struggle and we associate it with indulgence or not being healthy. There’s a bit of a stigma around that.
You’re debuting a live show inspired by large-scale storytelling and pantomime, where you embody this scarecrow character. What can we expect from that and also, how do you go about getting into character for this type of show? Is playing a theatrical character something you have previous experience with?
I don’t have any experience but I always wanted to be an actor. The joke has become a reality, perhaps this is my way of actually doing that. There’s something about pantomimes. They’re a little creepy, a bit weird. It’s adults playing dress-up. There’s a different level to it than a play, a cheekiness to it, but it’s still a bit sinister and you always learn a lesson at the end. It’s a weird relationship, where we’re taking in lessons we learned as children but being performed to by adults.
In terms of the actual show, it starts as me embodying the scarecrow character, but by the end I’m kind of shedding it. It starts with me trying to be really intrusive but in the end I’m quite vulnerable. The character is being undone throughout the performance, and the character is left feeling a bit sad and sorry for themselves, which is usually what happens after a period of indulgence. When we say ‘one more drink’ despite having work in the morning, we feel like we’re owning the decision but when it’s over have we really owned that decision? That’s the trajectory of the show. It’s an exchange of vulnerability. If you can be really vulnerable to an audience there’s a hope that you’ll get some of that back.
Björk invited you to come and play in NYC alongside Sega Bodega, Shygirl and more. How did it feel to get the call-up from an artist so revered in the alternative pop world?
I woke up one day and my phone was blowing up with people telling me Björk was playing my music in a DJ set, and I was like shut up! She played three of my tunes. That was already a big life moment. Her manager said she wanted to hit me up personally and I got this from her that said ‘Mun Sing hahaha Björk here!’ That was a bit of a trip because she’s a proper hero of mine.
I DJ’d with her in Reykjavík and played live in New York which was a massive privilege. I feel very lucky. When I got there it felt like my chance to sit at the cool table – don’t fuck it up!
Will we be seeing more of the blue scarecrow in future or is this a one-off character?
I want it to have its own form for this project but the very nature of the character is that it’s always going to be a part of everyone. Who knows if the scarecrow will appear again. I want to really formalize it in this project and then see where it might go.
—
—
Words: Andrew Moore
