When the L.A.-based alternative-pop trio MUNA released their debut album, About U, in 2017, their positioning was as a queer, leftist band of punks. Focus in the press gravitated toward seeking answers: MUNA, tell us how fucked-up the world is! MUNA, what are the solutions? MUNA, please can you help?

MUNA still believe in music’s capacity for social change, but they've had time to consider the task put upon them, to wonder if they’re fit for it. There's also now a refreshing lightness about them. Which is why today, a Saturday in early June, singer Katie Gavin, producer/synth player/guitarist Naomi McPherson, and guitarist Josette Maskin are here at World On Wheels taking a roller-skating class.

Gavin, 26, is MUNA’s Yoda, a spiritual leader who challenges and unlocks her partners’ potential. This activity is her idea. It’s somewhat fitting that Maskin, McPherson, and I are stepping into her shoes, given that’s the way the band functions. When Gavin isn’t writing songs and rescuing pop, she’s roller-skating along the Los Angeles River. Maskin and McPherson don’t roller-skate regularly, but they've done it before. I've never roller-skated; 80 percent of the students in our class are children. I put skates on and fall into the rink while still on the carpet. Gavin laughs, offering to take my hand. Debuting on skates as an adult is like learning to walk again. Gravity feels like a scam. If you push too fast, it arrives with a thud.

At one point I get stuck out in the open by myself, like a buoy in the Pacific Ocean. Our teacher sees me beckoning the band over. “Nah-uh!” he shouts. “You don't make your friends come to you!” MUNA find themselves watching from the sidelines. Waiting for others to overcome obstacles is familiar to them. They’ve fallen on their asses a lot these past few years, always in front of one another, always there to pick one another up each time. It’s been, they say, the most painful and rewarding part of being a band. And it’s why their new album, Saves the World, might just save the three of them, too.