Sometimes things just happen. This thinking is usually applied to incidents such as winning a free chocolate bar, or your alarm clock dying the day of a very important appointment. But sometimes it can be applied to more startling things, like the musical duo that is MS MR.

Max Hershenow and Lizzy Plapinger both attended Vassar College, a liberal arts school located in New York, but they weren’t exactly close. Only upon graduation did they decide to pursue their vague connection, and they clicked.

MS MR is set to perform at this year’s Sonic Boom in Edmonton, part of an impressive line up that includes, among many others, Cage the Elephant, July Talk, and The Arctic Monkeys. However, the nature of their sound guarantees that MS MR will stand apart. With Hershenow’s chilling melodies and Plapinger’s haunting voice – reminiscent of a jazz lounge singer, their combined creativity has produced songs that have hit the mainstream running, and doesn’t look to slow down anytime soon. Their song "Bones" was featured during the third season of HBO’s Game of Thrones, and "Hurricane" has been receiving regular airplay.

Hershenow and Plapinger have a rare chemistry, which is obvious when they speak or are seen together. Something along the lines of two best friends who have only just met, and are trying to catch each other up. When asked about whether their meeting, and subsequent music, was chance or inevitable, things quickly got confusing.

"I don’t know!" Plapinger exclaimed. "It’s a good question."

"Hindsight is always 20/20, right?" Hershenow posited. "When you look back, everything feels very natural and organic. These were the steps that were meant to be taken. But I don’t know; there are so many chance things. If I hadn’t been looking at my email at the right time, or we’d had one less conversation in school or something, you know, it might not have worked out. There is an element of complete chance, but also it’s so unlikely it also seems inevitable, in a way."

"It is hard to believe that it would have turned out the other way but you’re totally right," Plapinger mused. "What if I had not read your email? What if I wasn’t brave enough to send you something I’d been working on? We’ll never know. But we are so glad it has worked out this way."

The sound of their last album, Secondhand Rapture, has a strange echoing quality to it; both lulling and energizing.

"We wanted to lay the foundation for our long-term projects," Hershenow said.

Swamped with touring, Plapinger and Hershenow were unable to craft a follow-up – until now. The duo’s tour schedule has wound down, lending them the time to be creative. A new record is in the works.

Though they are musicians first and foremost, MS MR is a visual entity as well. The music videos that accompany their songs have a strange glint to them; weird and unexpected things happen in the space of three minutes. The pastel-coloured American Gothic vibe was something they were experimenting with.

"We like the idea of oxymorons – bringing two seemingly different ideas and putting them next to each other," Plapinger said, "So we liked the idea of this sort of Gothic macabre and almost morbid world, with sort of this candy-coloured sheen."

Despite the striking, visual nature of these videos, when creating the music the duo try not to get mired down with anything beyond the pure sound they are making.

"The music comes first, but we definitely are very visually inspired," Plapinger said. "We love the challenge of being able to take control and build an entire MS MR world and environment that people can listen to and experience the music through. I think we’ll never let go of that. We’re getting even more ambitious with our vision in carrying the music over to a visual aesthetic."

"But for right now, we really are sort of concentrating on the music, and not thinking so much about the visuals yet," Hershenow added. "Although we have many plans in the works."

Despite the moody and macabre nature of their work, Hershenow and Plapinger are both positive, cheerful people. The music is more an expression of themselves than meets the eye.

"I think we’re well-balanced people on the outside, but we both have a heightened sense of drama," Hershenow said. "I think we both have this over the top-ness – this big-ness."

According to Plapinger, she and Hershenow are sensitive and emotional people; the music allows them to unleash that, to give those feelings a place and help them make sense.

"I think we are both well-rounded, upbeat, cheery people. It’s easy for us to go to that place and be polite and have fun, and we’re not all doom and gloom. But, again, because we made the record in such a private, personal space, I think it allowed us to tap into these feelings and emotions that maybe we don’t allow ourselves to wear on our sleeves in front of people we are talking to every day. So in that way the music becomes this really, really honest piece of us that maybe is a little bit more secret. And that is one of the reasons I think it is special."