MX LONELY on Being a Pro-Level Exorcist on Stage

New York "heavygaze" band MX LONELY are about to release their new EP, PERFECT HOUSE, on Julia’s War Recordings. Some singles have been released to streaming already and showcase the band's natural ferocity. Watching them live supplants that reputation and experience even further. This is a band on the rise and on the edge, their sound is infectious, their lyrics are at once fun, bleak, and politically charged, and the result is that it's impossible not to headbang.

No wonder singer, songwriter and instrumentalist Rae Haas feels like an exorcism is happening on stage. I chat with Rae and the band on these things and more.

Here's our conversation. Enjoy!

Hypebot: Hey MX Lonely, thanks for taking the time to answer some questions. Congrats on the new EP, PERFECT HOUSE. What has changed from your first album to now? Where do these songs go that past songs don’t?

MX: "HONESTLY, thank you for asking! WE GOTTA KEEP ASKING QUESTIONS. Perfect House isssss out this fall. Four years have passed since we all went upstate into an 1800s schoolhouse this guy turned into an Airbnb in Caledonia, NY. We all misremembered the town as “Cadonia” (title of record), which is not a real place."

There is an English play from 1908 called “The King of Cadonia” about a young King who suffers a moral quandary over radical political revolutionaries and thus attempts to take his own life…or at least that's what I misremembered it as. It ran for 333 performances. ‘Cadonia’ went to a haunted house, and ‘All Monsters’ comes from hell. ‘Perfect House’ calls from your bedroom closet."

H: ALL MONSTERS literally came out 6 months ago… haha, why are you going so fast, dudes?

RAE: "Speed saves."

H: I love the genre mashup “heavygaze” that you employ. It accurately describes the feeling of your music; I’m wondering what the main influences are that influenced this particular sound.

RAE: "Deftones, Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins. We be reheating the '90s nachos with different sauces."

H: “March 16th” is the new single, and it's sorta loaded. What does this song mean to you? How did this all come together?

RAE: "Caitlin really spearheaded that. 'March 16th' was a Jake Harms voice note that had been sitting as an instrumental for a bit — titled automatically (badabum) *March 16th*"

I have to hear a song all at once, and I loved the riff and could only hear the counter-melody parts I eventually added. It just needed some love. We didn't even plan to jam on March 16th when Caitlin came in to record guitars and harmonies for Ex Rae' (on 12/14/25). Cait had been up all night with a friend whose little sister attended Brown, and her friend had been one of the victims. There was just this heaviness in the air. Something in how we measure our degrees of tragedy. Everybody knows somebody who knows somebody. With the genocide in Gaza and violent injustices all around, I think it's important to really fucking notice things AND personalize them. 'We’ve been here before; why do we keep coming back for more?'"

Okay, so after ripping a fat 'Ex Rae' solo, Caitlin just spaaaaat out 'March’s' whole melody. Magical truly. Piecing together all of our different elements was like trying to figure out a Rubik's Cube for hours, and then someone comes in and flashes it in 15 seconds. I love songs like lightning. I love weaving from emotions and concepts larger than myself and trying to understand them."

I like to think of this as the start of Cait and I’s (best?) friendship."

"Some engineers love it — they want to take on a sort of sonic challenge of the band’s chaos and that's when it really creeps into Fifth Beatle territory. A good sound person can basically change the entire listening experience... Sound guys are my crushes and true heroes."

H: Let’s talk about live shows. Congrats on the Pitchfork London booking. What changes for you on a big a$$ stage versus a club/DIY venue show?

RAE: "The bigger the stage, the greater the opportunity to challenge the dogma. It’s an honor to get to be a professional exorcist on an increasingly larger scale."

H: Is soundchecking tough? I imagine with the loud drums and amps it’s never easy to get a feedback-free signal from the vox.

RAE: "I use a xvive in-ear monitor with just my vocals instead of a monitor, and it pretty much solves the feedback. What’s the point of having stacks if you can’t just relish in the best spot in the room for volume? Gabe and Jake also do a bunch of feedback stuff through the tube amps that actually won’t work if the amps aren’t cranked — a quiet MX set isn’t sonically possible haha."

Soundcheck feels entirely reflective of your sound engineer’s taste. We are loud as fuuuuck, but also have soft, complicated harmonies, so I am always being pushed in the house, and it really wants to sit kind of in the mix, but I shift from screaming to head voice, so it's helpful to kind of ride the vocals."

Some engineers love it — they want to take on a sort of sonic challenge of the band’s chaos and that's when it really creeps into Fifth Beatle territory. A good sound person can basically change the entire listening experience."

Sound guys are my crushes and true heroes."

H: What’s something memorable that’s happened at one of your concerts?

MX: "Awh dude that's such an insane question. I mean this from the bottom of my heart, something special happens at every MX Lonely show. I talk to a lot of parents of trans kids, and that’s probably the most special thing I could ever get to do."

H: Do you eat big before a gig or after?

RAE: "Both (bigback for a boy)"

"We’re psychotic and don’t take days off on tour. We are either driving or playing a show. I'm so serious."

H: How has the live stage helped to define this band, your sound and/or your approach to songcraft, if at all?

MX: "There is a ferocity and speed that we’ve adapted from playing so many live shows. I like to think of the songcraft as ever-shifting."

H: What’s something you’ve learned by spending time on the road over the years?

RAE: "You have to believe that all the microplastics in your body are like army men that protect you from getting sick. When I sleep, I imagine these Army men marching out of my ears back out to the van to protect it from getting broken into."