Menya goes both ways. Which is to say, they blend the best parts of electro-pop and rap to create a sound that is equally arresting and infectious. And sexual. Plus there are three of them in the group, so I guess that makes them a threesome. Which makes their live performances a kind of…threeway. So there you go.

Since hooking up several years ago, producer Good Goose and rapper/singers Coco Dame and Angie Ripe have been hard at work creating EP after EP of music that is essentially a Spank Rock booty call. Fun but earnest, Menya specializes in sweaty club bangers like “Ripe” and “Philly Gurls” but happily switches to introspective ballads like “Lonely, Lonely” when the mood is right. By the time they get to sex anthem “DTF,” you’re not just addicted, you’re in love. And you haven’t even seen them live yet.

Don’t be a prude. Never before has dirty talk been so easy. Or so much fun. Spread the word.

I assume your name Menya refers to a corruption of the popular catchphrase “Men? Ya!” coined in the late 90’s as an affirmation of the socio-political masculine status quo. What made you decide to pick that as a band name? Why do you love men so much?
Angie Ripe: I usually attribute the band name to LSD, but I suppose that’s not really truly true. I actually had nothing to do with picking the name. I love men so much because they love me long time. Not all at the same time, I assure you.
Good Goose: My favorite guess will always be the Guardian‘s, who thought our name was slang for menstruation.

How did your crew come together and what are your specific roles? I get the general idea, but from song to song on your EP I’m not 100% sure who’s sharing singing, chanting, and songwriting duties.
Good Goose: We’re all NYU students and met via classes. Two thirds of us were once in a country-pop band, where I played guitar and sang various songs about trees. Coco Dame was the drummer. Menya formed from the ashes of that. Angie joined in the spring.
Angie Ripe: Good Goose is the programming, mixing, and mastering master, and he’s kind of a machine. He also sings. Coco Dame and I blend our strengths quite a bit. She’s a rapper/singer and I’m also a singer/rapper, but we switch either of those two positions at any given moment. But sometimes we disagree about who should do what and we get into cat fights and take off each others clothes and wrestle in Jello.

I’ve heard people reference 2 Live Crew when discussing Menya, but my first impression brought to mind more of a Ooooooohhh…. On the TLC Tip vibe, mainly because, though Menya is more sexually explicit, the music is still playful. How important is it that you straddle the line between raunchiness and playfulness? Does being women help you bridge the gap artistically?
Angie Ripe: Let me just say, we are all TLC fans, myself being a huge one. My explicit sexuality goes hand in hand with playfulness all the time. Raunchiness, however, is something I would attribute to people who exhaust “playful” and “sexually explicit” to the point of distaste for it and I think anyone who’s into our music knows that the only exhaustion that we experience is after we play a show for them. Or after we’re done fucking. Being a woman doesn’t bridge the gap between playful and raunchy for me so much as it bridges the gap between how women express fucking versus how men express fucking. Men aren’t the only ones that have sex drives so awfully intense that they need to write endless catchy hooks about it.
Coco Dame: It’s important but never a requirement to straddle between raunchiness and playfulness. Both sides are appealing and entertaining to achieve via music, but I believe maintaining tension between these two realms keeps the art more sophisticated and interesting. Being a woman changes the perspective of music…like if I make orgasmic sounds and say “lick my clit.” It’s fun to flip subordination and be the dominant, crass one for a change.

Staying on the topic of TLC, how do you three plan on inexplicably blowing millions of dollars after years of platinum album sales?
Coco Dame: Records, expensive food, sex toys, and several new homes for it all.

Describe the process of creating a Menya song. Also how much of a Menya song is autobiographical?
Angie Ripe: Coco Dame and I will listen to the batch of beats Goose gives us and write down ideas, hooks, whatever comes to mind. Then we get together, show what we’ve been thinking about, and go from there. As far as autobiographical, I’d say 99%. I can’t think of much that isn’t autobiographical save a few phrases here and there.
Good Goose: I’d say a lot of the songs are exaggerations on real thoughts, but rarely are they not somewhat autobiographical. Sometimes we write about other people.
Coco Dame: The biggest part of the songwriting being autobiographical is that certain lyrics are inspired by true life experiences, emotions, and events, but there are areas which are more fantasy. Making the topics relatable as well poignant help direct how much autobiography are in a song.

A question for Coco Dame: Menya is essentially a party pop/rap group but your lyrics can be deceptively agile and thoughtful. And you can freestyle. When and how did you first pick up the mic? What are your musical influences and how do you stay lyrically sharp and clever?
Coco Dame: I have older sisters, so they were ahead of the age curve in terms of which artists I listened to at a very young age. 90’s hip-hop was my safe haven. I began rhyming over instrumental sections from songs I heard on the radio. I got into rapping only when I was by myself because I was too embarrassed to let anyone know what I was doing. I started free styling with friends and at parties, just hanging out over some beers, smoke and you know. I am originally a drummer and I play some bass. I loved the idea of singing, but I never thought I had a nice enough voice. Rapping filled that void. The first time I really picked up a mic in front of a lot of people was for my friend’s EP release party a few years back. The people there were reluctant to give me the mic at first.

I read somewhere that Menya started as a lark after a night out at a concert. It always fascinates me when music projects start off this way only to grow into something more. At what point did the offhanded idea behind Menya become the real deal?
Good Goose: I had made beats in high school but got out of it once I had moved to New York in 2006 to go to NYU for audio engineering. My sophomore year was when I saw M.I.A., Cool Kids and Spank Rock, play live. Seeing the energy they had and the energy of the entire room made me realize how much I really love beat-making and producing. I talked to Coco Dame the next day and we got to work on what became our first EP. Angie joined us later in the spring when we started performing live.
Angie Ripe: I think Menya was a big deal to all of us from the start because we’re young music students and I think we all really believed in the music and the message.

Menya is known for high-energy live shows. But I’m sure it makes a show more fun when the crowd reciprocates that energy. What has been your favorite show to play?
Angie Ripe: It was easily Culture Shock 2009 at Purchase College. The audience was the biggest and most ridiculous we have ever experienced. Just… amazing. That’s all I can say. I fucking love performing live.
Good Goose: I’d second that. Culture Shock was a lot of fun. Too bad we missed Drake. I wanted to talk to him about Degrassi.

Menya’s music is inherently political because it’s sexually inclusive. Do you consider your music to be making a political statement or is it just all in fun?
Coco Dame: It’s like a pretzel dog wrapped in a delicious butter bun.
Angie Ripe: Let’s just say we’re not standing on soapboxes necessarily, but perhaps we’re balancing on a political and sexually-motivated disco ball. Having fun while transmitting a message!
Good Goose: I think a lot of us just come from the world of: “This is our life, this is what our peers in New York are talking about, and this is what we see and hear when we go out.” It seems weird that Coco Dame would not be singing about being a lesbian. That’s who she is. Likewise, I sing a song about not hooking up on the album we’re recording now, since that’s where I am in life right now.

Where do you think Menya moving musically? What’s your next project?
Angie Ripe: We’re making a mixtape-full length that will hit the internet in September. I’d say right now our musical inclination right now is hip-hop/pop with maybe even a little crunk and soul mixed in. I suppose only time will tell what we’ll happen next.
Good Goose: Yea. We’re gonna make a country album next and return to Menya’s roots. Yee-haw!