As gigs are on pause, Home is the new Backstage. Get behind the scenes with MISSIO this week.

As they return with new album Can You Feel The Sun, we chat with Austin, TX powerhouse duo MISSIO about the challenging year that is 2020, the importance of learning to love ourselves and others more, and the healing powers of music. They also share that their goal for 2021 is to appear on the Joe Rogan Podcast.

What advice would you give to your pre-lockdown self?

Buckle Up. Haha. In all honesty though we’d give ourselves proper permission to rest & take a true break. We’re both perfectionists & work-a-holics and have an extremely difficult time stopping. As the world shut down we couldn’t help but feel guilty for not having more things to do, so permission to stop and enjoy/live in the moment would definitely have been a great heads up.

How, if at all, did lockdown impact your music making and producing process?

Luckily, we already had our newest album fully finished before the lockdown began so we were fortunate to have had the time to focus specifically on the visual creatives around the photos & music videos.

What has been the most unexpected/challenging part of lockdown, whether pleasant or unpleasant?

We eluded to this in a previous question, but being forced to stop was really challenging for us both. I personally had been confronted in therapy about the fact that I hadn’t taken much care of myself over the last couple years with how busy our touring schedule had been. It was a challenge to have to be at home with nothing to do all the while my anxiety/depression were maxed out at full throttle. It was necessary to deal w/ those feelings, but very challenging.

How would you sum up your 2020 in one sentence?

A necessary moment in time for both of us to be reminded of the importance of re-evaluating our own ideologies, being grateful, & learning to love ourselves and others more.

If you had a quarantine character, what was it like?

Probably like a character off of ‘Love, Death, & Robots.’ If you haven’t seen that series on Netflix, you need to!

Name 5 things that got you through lockdown.

*Fudge Brownie M&M’s/Cheese It Duo’s
*The Joe Rogan Podcast
*The Tiger King Documentary
*NBA/Houston Rockets
*Marijuana, Haha

What’s the most interesting thing you discovered over lockdown (could be a revelation about yourself, a new TV show, a new hobby)?

We both learned the importance of spending time in nature. Hiking, swimming, sitting at the park, watching sunsets etc. We had been so busy being rushed from one city to the next for several years that it was hard to take the necessary time to stop and be present with nature. It truly heals the soul and the mind.

What lockdown trend do you think we should take into the future, and which ones should we ditch?

We should definitely ditch the trend where all the mass media and news outlets continue to lie about everything.

The trend we would LOVE to see taken into the future is if we had some honest media who didn’t lie to their viewers and actually told the truth. The world would be way better off.

What are your hopes and dreams for 2021?

1. We would love it if everyone supported our brand new album Can You Feel The Sun that just released & shared it w/ 2 of your friends! That always really helps artists out!
2. We would love to have the ability to tour again. We just performed a livestream over the weekend and it made us both really miss the energy experienced at a live show!
3. Being able to appear on the Joe Rogan Podcast would be a giant goal of ours achieved. He’s now based out of Austin, TX which is our home base so we’ll keep routing for this!

What does music mean to you?

Without sounding redundant or somewhat cliché – music is literally everything. Can you imagine a world without any music or rhythm? It would be a horrendous place filled with anger and aggression like we’ve never seen before. Music is such a physical and mental release that genuinely heals people from the inside out. Without music, my life would seem meaningless. I hope that’s not over dramatic, but damn it sure does feel that way at times.