Interview: MURS Talks ‘Have a Nice Life’ with Us

Murs recently met up with us to talk about his Strange Music debut Have a Nice Life. The 14-track compilation serves as a collection of personal anecdotes, observations, and forward thinking that make for a great album. Check out our conversation about it below.

Anyone who follows MURS knows that is his family is important. So it’s no surprise that they are one of the first things mentioned on the title track “Have A Nice Life.” When asked what his Father’s Day plays were he had this to say:

“I just want to home that’s all, I’ve been away from my wife and child for about 2 months now, I don’t know how much my wife misses me but I miss being home with my family. I don’t know how much they miss me they seem to do ok without me, they have a lot of fun. But I definitely miss being home with them.”

“Have A Nice Life,” and all the tracks that follow it possess upbeat instrumentals. When asked about the production choices he had this to say:

“As someone who’s been performing live for 16 years its always good to have music that will make people move, whether they’re 60 or 6 months people love to move.” And when asked if the upbeat production had anything to with the album title Have A Nice Life, he claimed not to be that much of a mastermind.

His track “Mi Corazon” finds MURS rapping complete verses in Spanish, here’s how MURS says that came together:

“I’ve been love with Chicanas, Mexican girls, Cholas most of my growing up in LA cause my family owns a dry cleaners in South Central where I worked. And they would come in and drop of their clothes, and I was enamored with them. But during the time I grew up it wasn’t cool to have black and brown relationships like that, so I just admire them from afar.” Murs said.

“And also being from LA I feel it’s very necessary for us to respect Chicano culture… I try to put Spanish in all my songs but this time I wanted to go to full on. I was able to write it all by myself with my checking with friends for conjugations. It’s overdue I think there should way more Spanligsh in hip-hop because from Southside Chicago to the West Coast, in the Bronx where you have Puerto Rican influences is really heavy in the essence and the beginnings of hip-hop and I feel like it’s underrepresented.” he continued.

“Okey Dog” is a track that is inspired one of longtime friends, here’s a little bit of what he had to say about the visual that accompanied the track:

“I’d rather let another artist interpret my art, I’m not a visual artist, so I allow the visual artist to interpret my lyrics…I just tried to help his vision come to life…the only thing that I had to be careful about was how the character [Okey Dog] was portrayed because it’s a real person, and I had to call and get clearance to make the song, he’s not someone I want to piss off.”

His track “The Worst” tells the story of a man that falls into infidelity.

When describing how that came together he talks about constructing the hook, refers to the commitment that comes along with being married for 5 years, and mentions that “side chicks are usually glamorized and glorified.”

In this case “The Worst” serves as a cautionary tale of side chicks and MURS reminds us that, “A side chick is one of the most powerful people in your life once if you open that door.”

Other things that we’ve learned from MURS during this interview are:

All of the tracks on Have a Nice Life have an underline message, even “Pussy and Pizza”
Tracks like “Woke Up Dead,” “PTSD,” and “No More Control” all bring up issues that need to be heard
He’s teaching his 2 and a half year old how to skate (doing so over FaceTime can be challenging)
There will be “no more collaborative projects or festivals” he is just focused on being a better artist and making more music
The Special Effects tour is a great opportunity to perform in front of a large group of dedicated and new fans alike, and learn from Tech N9Ne’s live performance every night.

Ultimately Have a Nice Life and Murs reminds us that it is possible to have a nice life, but it isn’t always going to be easy.