I’m Japanese, and I’m also white American, and neither camp wants me in their camp.
MITSKIWhat I have a problem with is when it becomes another form of tokenization, of shrinking me into a symbol instead of a multilayered, female Asian artist.
More Mitski Quotes
-
-
Whenever someone says they like something about my music.
MITSKI -
I was one of those girls people called ‘intense.’
MITSKI -
I don’t care about making anything new. I make music to express an emotion, and if the emotion is nostalgic, so be it.
MITSKI -
You can never learn enough about music.
MITSKI -
Often I’ve had problems automatically bending to a lover’s will, becoming what I know they want me to be. Immediately, I learn all the music they love, listen to it, study it, instead of being like, ‘This is what I love!’
MITSKI -
Pop artists work really hard, and they might not work for the same things that indie artists do, but they’re still musicians, and they’re still making art.
MITSKI -
I have a very conveniently photographic memory of emotions – it’s overwhelming, because things don’t fade for me.
MITSKI -
It’s very tempting, when somebody says they like this about you, to want to do that over and over.
MITSKI -
I’m punk, but I love gold.
MITSKI -
Music was the one thing that was just mine, and no one could take it from me. I created it, dictated it, and it made me not able to let go of it.
MITSKI -
I discovered I was an Asian American when I arrived in the U.S. I didn’t identify as that before I came here.
MITSKI -
Then you start to realise, ‘Oh, I’m bending a lot,’ and they’re just standing there existing, and I’m bending around them. But you can’t blame them: they don’t realise it; that’s just how they already existed. It’s hard.
MITSKI -
Whenever I’ve tried to ingratiate myself to an existing community, I tend to give too much, to become whatever it is they want me to be. It’s something I do automatically – I’ve learnt to immediately adapt.
MITSKI -
I can’t read in a car, because I’ll get sick. It’s almost instant.
MITSKI -
Sometimes when I perform, and it’s obvious the audience is just there to party, or if I feel a wall between me and the audience, I get existential about it.
MITSKI