Indie-pop band Muna took the stage Monday night (June 13) on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to perform their latest single “Kind of Girl” from their upcoming self-titled album.
Playing country acoustic chords accompanied with low violin strings in the background, lead vocalist Katie Gavin sings an emotional song about accepting herself and her personality quirks. “I’m the kind of girl who takes things a little too far / Presses a little too hard / That’s why you left a mark,” she sings. “I’m the kind of girl / Who wants everything she can’t get.”
Gavin is aware that she is not everyone’s favorite peach, but it doesn’t mean there won’t be someone out there who will love and accept her for who she is. “I could get up tomorrow / Talk to myself real gentle / Work in the garden / Go out and meet somebody / Who actually likes me for me,” she sings in the chorus. “And this time I’ll lеt them.”
And even Gavin admits she is not perfect: “I’m the kind of girl / Who owns up to all of my faults / Who’s learning to laugh at ’em all / Like I’m not a problem to solve.” Co-members Naomi McPherson and Josette Maskin harmonize vocally alongside her and they flank her on either side, likewise playing guitar.
In an official statement, Gavin describes “Kind of Girl” as their album’s “country moment” and “the heart of the record.” “Even though it is a happy, hopeful song, I shed the most tears of the record in the vocal booth recording this chorus,” she said. “I think there’s something very vulnerable about plainly expressing my desire to be kinder to myself and comfortable receiving love (and my desire to garden even though I kill everything I plant).”
Muna will play three more nights in New York this week at Prospect Park in Brooklyn and at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens opening for indie pop-rock singer Phoebe Bridgers before hitting the road on a massive North American tour this summer and then flying to the United Kingdom in the fall. Tour dates and tickets are available on their website.