In future decades, how will people look back on music in 2010?
I’m not sure, but music now should be like a sonic massage. You want to really feel it, internally. The police use sound cannons at public protests that explode people’s inside with a single note - human beings have to come up with the opposite of that.
Which artists are you excited about in 2010?
The new Sleigh Bells album epitomises how kids are feeling in America - so much energy, but nothing to do with it. Everyone wants you to be an apathetic consumer over there, so it’s cool to have some weird discomfort going on. I like that Alexis [Krauss, vocalist] used to be a nice girl in a pop band that never made it. She followed every step an American child usually follows - singing in the mirror, wanting to be Britney Spears, etc. - so for her to arrive at this noisy place is interesting. I’ve signed Blaqstarr ,too. He’s from Baltimore, and whenever he goes out a million screaming girls follow him. People are gonna hear his voice and suddenly be reminded of what’s human about us all.
Do musical tribes still exist?
There aren’t tribes any more - how can there be when we all live in computers, on social networks? People listen to and access music differently now, so the tribal thing has to be reformatted.
What place does politics have in music today?
I’m always encouraging people to be more vocal. Google’s more powerful than any government now - people think it’s God. They’re storing all our data and one day they’re gonna turn against us. That’s what my new album’s about - I’m living ****ing proof that politics doesn’t work. Every time I breathe it’s documented on my computer and yet I’m still on some stupid list somewhere that says I’m a terrorist.
Do we still need record labels?
Are they even interested in making money from music anymore? Lady Gaga plugs 15 things in her new video. Dude, she even plugs a burger! That’s probably how they’re making money right now - buying up the burger joint, putting the burger in a music video and making loads of burger money.
What do you think of The X Factor [British equivalent of American Idol]?
Oh God, I’m so bored by it already, people need to get over it. X Factor ****’s irrelevant. I’m more concerned by how someone like Kesha can so blatantly copy Uffie. Everyone’s fine with it. Not a ****ing lawsuit in sight.
How do you think you’d have fared on the show?
I would totally flop. Are you serious?! I’m not a ‘showbiz’ person. I got signed and made an album without playing a show. I scouted four different people to sing ‘Galang’ before I put it out as my own demo.
Do you think those programmes and the internet have destroyed the mythology around popstars?
I don’t know. Again, there’d Lady Gaga - people say we’re similar, that we both mix all these things in the pot and spit them out differently, but she spits it out exactly the same! None of her music’s reflective of how weird she wants to be or thinks she is. She models herself on Grace Jones and Madonna, but the music sounds like 20-year-old Ibiza music, you know? She’s not progressive, but she’s a good mimic. She sounds more like me than I ****ing do! That’s a talent and she’s got a great team behind her, but she’s the industry last’s stab at making itself important - saying, ‘You need our money behind you, the endorsements, the stadiums’ Respect to her, she’s keeping a hundred thousand people in work, but my belief is: Do It Yourself.
What’s more important to you - performing live or making records?
Making records is my art, but if you’re an artist, questioning a lot of things it’s important to have that live space what you do isn’t gonna be twisted and manipulated.
How important are image and visuals to your music? Very. But it’s not like “Haus of Gaga” (laughs). Me blindfolded with naked men feeding me apples and ****.
Where’s today’s true music underground?
In people’s hard drives and their brains, it just hasn’t been outputted yet. It’s really important to be physical, especially now so many of us have become typists and voyeurs. We need a digital moshpit like we’ve never seen, harder than how people were doing it in the punk era. We need that energy, but digitally. It’s coming.
Who’s pushing music forward in 2010? Are people taking enough risks?
Of course they aren’t! We have, what, a million songwriters? And probably three risk-takers. I like this guy DJ Borgore. He’s coming out of the Tel Aviv which has gotta be weird, and in terms of dubstep he makes the hardest ****.
Who or what is the enemy of music right now?
Money is always the enemy of music.
Is it still possible for a musician to ‘sell-out’ in 2010?
Back in 2003 I was in a bedsit, hand-spraying very 12-inch and just wanting to make art. Everybody gets turned into a product push so fast - these weird ****ing ‘hipster’ parties promoting Red Bull or whatever. There’s a difference between saying ‘no’ to everything and ‘yes’ to everything. I’m not ****ing Coldplay because I said ‘no’ to certain things. When I did my ‘selling-out’ show for MTV they made me a hundred grand and I built a school with it in Africa.
Would you ever make a record for a Twilight soundtrack?
They asked me. Luckily Jimmy [Iovine, chairmen of M.I.A.’s US label Interscope] had beef with the Twilight people, so he stepped in and told them to **** off.
What do you hope to be doing in 2010?
I’m going to be an artist. Whatever I think an artist is in 10 years. I’ll be doing that.
Yes MIA, snatch up the promo with your shade. It's a shame it goes against your whole message, I mean how about you ~do it by yourself~ and not resort to using GaGa's name to get some buzz?
I don't give a ****; she's saying any and everything that needs to be said in our consumer-fueled society. Eventually they're gonna lock her up and throw away the key for being a COMPLETE individual, but she will go down as an icon.
Lady GaGa is as individual as people's perceptions of "weird" allow her to be, when she's anything but. All hail MAYA.
I actually agree about what she said about Gaga's music
I love it, but it's just great pop music, it doesn't break boundries. Nothing weird or crazy like she wants/thinks
Everythin she sayin is right --- shes a real fukkin artist without all tha fake contrive gimmicks or tryin 2 hard 2 be diff then what they are like all em otha bytches that she mention...SHE IS what they try 2 be
Yes MIA, snatch up the promo with your shade. It's a shame it goes against your whole message, I mean how about you ~do it by yourself~ and not resort to using GaGa's name to get some buzz?
U missin tha fukkin whole point --- mia said her belief is ppl should do it themself without havin otha ppl behind u tryin 2 market u into sumthin u not just so they can stay in work ---- that aint a real artist its just a big marketin gimmick
U missin tha fukkin whole point --- mia said her belief is ppl should do it themself without havin otha ppl behind u tryin 2 market u into sumthin u not just so they can stay in work ---- that aint a real artist its just a big marketin gimmick
U missin tha fukkin whole point --- mia said her belief is ppl should do it themself without havin otha ppl behind u tryin 2 market u into sumthin u not just so they can stay in work ---- that aint a real artist its just a big marketin gimmick
Gotta give it up for ATRL's Biggest GAGA STAN........ SHE OWNS your mind
if only you had recieved an english grammar "tip" for every time you threw shade Gaga's way..... your posts might be a little easier to decipher
I understand where MIA's coming from and I agree with her on some parts, but a gimmick is something that distinguishes you, so MIAs whole get up of ~being herself~ and doing it ~without a label~ is just as big a gimmick as anything she's against.
POINT IS---> She got a record label but she dont have tha ppl at tha label tellin her what 2 do n tryna market her into sumthin juss so she can sell
Dont have nothin 2 do wit havin a record deal--- miss Alicia keys n erykah badu got a record deal but they still do them--- they dont got marketin ppl tryna change them into becomin a gimmick 2 sell
random
