 Photos: MNDR’s Tastemakers Session |
You can tell just by listening that to MNDR, music and fashion are fully intertwined. Amanda Warner, MNDR’s master, put on her black gloves and took to Mophonics Studio in Manhattan recently to for Billboard’s Tastemakers video series. “Music, when you’re making it, becomes a style,” she said, prefacing MNDR’s session. Watch as MNDR performs three songs from 2012 debut album “Feed Me Diamonds”; the title track, “Faster Horses,” and “In Love With The Enemy.”
MNDR, which began as Warner’s brainchild and came to fruition with producer/beatmaker Peter Wade’s collaboration, has been a rising EDM/dance-pop force since first single “C.L.U.B.” almost four years ago. But MNDR’s moment truly began in 2010 as Mark Ronson & The Business Intl tapped Warner to provide her feminine-yet-razor-edged vocals to their multi-lingual single “Bang Bang Bang.” After releasing ep “E.P.E.” the same year, MNDR took two years to craft a full-length. This year’s “Feed Me Diamonds,” is a synth-forward blend of beats, keys, and Warner’s unmistakable voice.
Warner and Wade’s sense of the music as style and vice versa comes to the fore in the video for the album’s title track, “Feed Me Diamonds,” which they created with MNDR visual effects master Jamie Carreiro. The clip “came about through one of my favorite bands and artists in New York City, Psychobuildings,” said Warner. “He came up to me and said, ‘I want to shoot a video of a drag queen going through the process of their artistry in transforming.’ Warner handled the key casting herself. “I hunted down David, who is [the drag artist] Raven, on the internet.”
But, as is clear in its three-song Tastemakers performance, MNDR has also been focusing on live performance. “I’m going to make this experience of a solo show and a live mix DJ — but live as well — as awesome as possible,” Warner explained. “And just be in a creative circle where people aren’t looking for ‘what’s my angle?’ or ‘what’s the benefit for me?’ or ‘what’s the cost?’. It’s just creativity only.” With the debut album out, “it’s time to have a proper band and grow with the project.”
MNDR did a musical guest slot on “Late Show with David Letterman” in mid-December, but fans will have another chance to check out MNDR’s live show aspect as Warner and co. ring in 2013 with a New Year’s Eve show at Las Vegas’ Body English.