With a residency at Nightmoves, a history of collaborations with icons like David Byrne and Khruangbin, and a penchant for blending seemingly disparate influences, Muscle Memory has established a unique sonic identity. Their latest single, “Get Lost,” is a testament to this, fusing the melodic sensibilities of Fleetwood Mac with the driving energy of Italo Disco in a way that feels both nostalgic and forward-thinking.
In this interview, we dive into the duo’s creative process, their transition into electronic music, and how their experiences as DJs, live performers, and remixers shape their sound. We also explore their acclaimed INFINITE BEAT (!) party series, their vision for the future, and what fans can expect from Muscle Memory in the years to come.
Muscle Memory blends live performance with electronic music. How did your backgrounds in indie rock and live performances influence your approach to producing dance music?
Both of us played in indie rock bands for years and made music you could dance to but that was meant to be played from a stage, not really at a dance club. Back then, our songwriting was influenced by the music and ethos of post-punk and new wave, which we continue to incorporate in our songs. Now when we make songs, we keep in mind both how it will work when we play it live as well as how it will work on the dance floor when a DJ plays it. We’ll work a new idea in the studio by moving around to it and trust our bodies to let us know if we’re on to something.
Steven had an idea for a new song and played a very simple progression on bass and sang the melody and lyrics. Michael thought it had a vaguely Fleetwood Mac vibe, which we liked, but that’s not really in the world that we’re trying to create, so we thought, What other direction could we take this song from a production standpoint? We had Walking In The Neon (the Italo classic by Peter Richard) ringing in our heads from a DJ set from the night before, and we thought, what if we tried taking it in an Italo Disco direction? Hence the world of the Italo master himself, Moroder. Taking seemingly disparate elements or influences and seeing how they live together is at the heart of how we create.
Before Muscle Memory, we realized we both loved dancing to Patrick Cowley, Gina X, Psychic TV, Bush Tetras, and Wire, among many others. We’d play records at bars all over Brooklyn, spinning synthpop, post-punk, new wave, and other 80s deep cuts drenched in synthesizers. That love for both dance-adjacent music and music that was made for the club finds its way into how we produce our music and DJ at dance clubs.
When we started DJing together, we were curious if we could make our own music that would fit right into one of our sets. We both had a nice collection of analogue drum machines and synths and started recording ideas purely for the pleasure of it. When we sketched the track that became our first release ‘Taste Of A Kiss,’ we quickly realized we were going somewhere new. It was a welcome challenge figuring out how to perform these songs live. At Denniston Hill, a haven for artists in the Catskill Mountains founded by the artist Julie Mehretu, we had time to dive into figuring out how to translate our songs live. That process is always evolving for us.
Your DJ residency at Nightmoves has become a big part of your identity. How does the atmosphere at Nightmoves influence the energy and style of your sets?
We are very lucky to have a DJ residency at Nightmoves. It gives us a place to consistently explore what gets the dance floor lit. Not only does Nightmoves have one of the best-sounding rooms in NYC, it’s an intimate space with palpable energy. Nightmoves is our second home and where we see so many loved ones within our music community. Safe to say we would not be in the same band without spending so much time there.
You’ve performed and toured with some big names like David Byrne and Khruangbin. How have these collaborations impacted your own music and your approach to performance?
Steven says: I worked with David as a dancer and guitarist soon after moving to NYC and toured with him for over a year on ‘Everything That Happens Will Happen Today,’ the last album he made with Brian Eno. I recently choreographed with Khruangbin for their ‘A La Sala’ tour. Collaborating with great artists is always illuminating – everyone does it differently. One of the biggest takeaways from these collaborations is that your audience is more willing to explore new sonic territory than you may realize.
With ‘Get Lost,’ you’re exploring new territories in both production and genre. How do you keep your music fresh while staying true to your roots?
We keep things fresh by taking the work we do seriously while not taking ourselves too seriously. To be honest, we don’t spend a lot of energy trying to stay true to our roots – it’s more like we have our foundation of how we approach songwriting, and we just keep trying to adapt that to songs that include different influences, whether it’s new songs that we’ve been spinning recently in our DJ sets or hearing some cool thing someone did and being like, let’s try to incorporate something like that in a new track. But we both have a historical perspective of music, so everything we make is going to draw from music and influences from various decades.
You’ve also done remixes for other artists. How does remixing differ from your original production process, and what do you enjoy most about reworking someone else’s track?
Remixing our own and other artists’ songs allows us to get more experimental in our production process while simultaneously being laser-focused on making something for the dance floor. When we write a song from scratch, we often approach it from the perspective of a song that we might play live, and we often use standard pop songwriting structures, thinking of parts as verses and choruses, etc. But with remixing for others and making the Club Mixes for our own songs, we’re mainly thinking about how it will work when we DJ it at the club. Reworking someone else’s track always gives us insight into new processes. Reimagining their work is simultaneously scary, sexy, and exciting when we drift into unknown waters.
How did you approach the collaborations with Midnight Magic and Justin Strauss for the remixes of ‘Get Lost’ and your other tracks?
We just asked them if they’d be so kind as to do a remix for us and gave them no direction, so they could be free to approach it however they felt. This is how they each described their approach:
Andrew says: “I didn’t play the original for the rest of the band before we started on the remix – I wanted to hear what people would come up with just based on a loop of the hook. Once Carter settled on the bassline we knew the rest would be easy – as Izaak said, ‘I could dance to a loop of the bass and drums forever.’ All it needed was a bit of madness to match the mantra-like vocal – Caito’s long and unravelling hi-hat and feedbacking guitar overdubs – the whole thing came together in a couple of hours. It should always be like that.”
Justin says: “I knew them as DJs – I knew what kind of records we all liked – and I had an idea in my head of what the remix should be the moment I heard their song. I tried not to overthink it – I wanted to keep the integrity of their original and make something that would work really well on the floor.”
What was the inspiration behind the ‘INFINITE BEAT (!)’ party series, and how does it tie into your vision of combining live music with DJ culture?
We think of Muscle Memory equally as a live band synth-pop project as well as a dance club DJ/producer project. We put a lot of work and value into both sides because to us it’s all part of the same thing and comes together to be the whole of what we do. But in reality, they felt separate – either we’re going to play a show at a venue and people are going to come watch us on stage, or we’re going to DJ in a club and people will come and dance and have fun. But we wanted it all to be the same thing, not to have that kind of distinction between the two. And we knew there were other artists straddling those worlds in similar ways.
We visited Heba Kadry’s mastering studio some time ago – she was graciously giving us feedback on some mixes, and she referenced a Justin Strauss remix that got us pretty juiced. As we talked on our way back home from that listening session, the idea of mixing the worlds of live music within a club environment started to take shape and we knew Justin had to be part of it. Public Records, a beloved Brooklyn club, was the perfect venue for the concept as they do these types of hybrid shows all the time. It was the home for our first INFINITE BEAT (!) with Each Other (Justin Strauss, Max Pask) and w0rmh0les. Since then we have thrown multiple parties with live music seamlessly blending in and out of DJ sets – it lovingly collides two communities together.
Having a residency at a venue like Nightmoves gives you a consistent platform for live DJ performances. How do you keep things dynamic and engaging for your audience month after month?
We’re always digging for new 12”s across multiple genres and seeing what works in that room. We also love mixing in a Muscle Memory work-in-progress to see how the dance floor responds to it. Our DJ sets evolve incrementally – as do we.
How has your understanding of electronic production evolved since you first started making music together? What’s something you’ve learned recently that has had a significant impact on your sound?
One thing we do a lot these days is create midi tracks as we develop different parts, like bass parts and synth parts, etc. And then we send those out to different synthesizers and focus on tweaking the oscillators and filters and what have you to find cool sounds. We used to do a lot more playing the synths by hand, which is cool and all, and we still do that some, but sending Midi out to them has helped us cover a lot more ground.
What role does NYC’s indie and electronic scenes play in your music? How does the city’s nightlife culture influence your sound and performances?
Steven says: The indie, electronic, and nightlife scene in NYC is part of our lives, so it definitely seeps into the music we make. We love going to places like Good Room and hearing a DJ like Eli Escobar or Beewack – seeing all our lovely friends and filling our heads with music and ideas. One night at Good Room, as a stream of people weaved past me and Michael, the mushrooms kicked in and I had this thought – I turned to Michael to say “some people are water and some people are canals” and without skipping a beat Michael blurted out “I’m a canal!”. I almost fell over with laughter and had to steady myself on his shoulder, then said “I guess that makes me water.” That brief but revealing exchange of hallucinatory dream logic essentially encapsulates the collaborative nature of Muscle Memory.
How do you think the music industry and fan expectations have changed over the years, and how does Muscle Memory fit into the current landscape of dance and electronic music?
In some ways, the music industry has gotten much more accessible over the years. For instance, people can make high-quality sounding music at a very low cost, so the barrier to entry is very low. You don’t need to pay for an expensive studio. It’s also very easy to put your music out into the world, onto streaming services, etc. You don’t need a label to put it out. And fans have access to more music than ever before, whether on streaming services or YouTube or whatever, and you don’t have to shell out so much cash just to hear a record, like when we were kids. So the variety of music being made is huge, and the appetites of the listeners are both hungry for new sounds and more open to different things. Or so it seems to us. The landscape of dance and electronic music is vast and we get to play in a tiny and lovely sliver of it. That said, everyone is unique, and every artist is unique, and we’re just trying to lean into our own uniqueness and making music and art that comes from our own perspectives and the things we love and that speak to us and hoping that those things resonate with other people as well.
Looking ahead, what can fans expect from Muscle Memory in 2025 and beyond? Do you have any exciting projects or directions you’re looking to explore next?
We have new music videos that are about to come out, followed by more singles, remixes, live shows, and INFINITE BEAT (!) parties. They all work in concert to form the Muscle Memory world that is spinning in devotion to pleasure.
