“MST” takes place during the half-year after the passing of the author’s friend and former bandmate, drawing focus to the ways in which he struggled to reckon with and rationalize her death, and the toll it took on his everyday life and relationships. As with many songs from the ...And the Sky LP, “MST” fixates on the small moments: scrolling through old photos in hopes of a different ending, waking up to the sound of wings, briefly certain of her return. The lyrics are framed as a sort of one-sided conversation with his friend, culminating in the declaration of some vain hope that by sinking deeper into the loss, he could retain form of contact with her. By the end of the song, this plea has been swallowed by distortion.
The instrumentals to “MST,” a choir of intertwined acoustic and electric guitars surrounding a simple, loping drum beat, draw heavily from Nate’s background in the indie-folk genre. The vocals, expanding outwards from a single voice to a layered chorus, re-contextualize his longstanding love of r&b and neo-soul into a more singer-songwriter aesthetic: the result is a song that simultaneously tips its cap to Big Thief and D’Angelo, SZA and Iron & Wine.
As with all other songs on …And the Sky, “MST” was composed, produced, and performed entirely by Nate Mondschein. It was tracked by Nate @ Echo Base Production and Andrew Oedel @ Ghost Hit Recording, Mixed by Andrew Oedel, and Mastered by Brian Lucey @ Magic Garden Mastering
Backlit by a looping Mellotron hook, “MCO” follows a past relationship through a series of snapshot moments, in the process unpacking how the artist’s need to feel love in a cinematic sort of way drove him towards grand romantic gestures (which more often than not left one or both parties hanging when they could not be sustained). It's a song about recognizing your patterns and owning/accounting for the ways in which those tendencies have impacted the people in your life. MCO is the lead single off the debut album under the Best Mann moniker, ...And the Sky (out in full 10/25/19). As with the rest of the album, it was entirely composed, produced, and performed by Nate Mondschein, with recording done between Nate’s studio Echo Base Production & Ghost Hit Recording with Andrew Oedel.