I’m so smart. I am good at doing math really quickly in my head.
MITSKII’m so smart. I am good at doing math really quickly in my head.
MITSKII remember I took a music course in junior year of high school, and some girl brought in ‘Teardrops On My Guitar,’ and she was like, ‘Isn’t this song great?’ And everyone was like, ‘Who’s Taylor Swift?’ And now, every time I listen to Taylor Swift, I remember that moment.
MITSKII couldn’t wait to get out of school, but once I did, I didn’t actually know what I wanted to do with myself. I don’t really know how it happened, but I just started writing music and realized that’s what I wanted to do.
MITSKII think it’s very dangerous as an artist to be comfortable.
MITSKII discovered I was an Asian American when I arrived in the U.S. I didn’t identify as that before I came here.
MITSKIWhen I started making music, I was like, ‘This is something I can believe I was meant to do.’
MITSKIWhat’s important to me is that my songs can exist without any material anything. It’s very reflective of my ideology.
MITSKIWhen someone is a musician – trying to make a living off being a public figure – it’s really easy for people to see me as a face on a screen that doesn’t have a personal life.
MITSKII don’t want to be elitist.
MITSKIOn tour, people know that if they ever ask me what I want to eat, I will always say Asian food. I’m becoming a stereotype, but it’s what I want to eat. I want to eat rice.
MITSKIWhen you are a minority, it’s your job to bend, and when you love someone, you really want to make it work.
MITSKII was one of those girls people called ‘intense.’
MITSKIYou can be heartbroken about a relationship but also, from it, realize you are you, and you’re okay with who you are or where you came from.
MITSKII could never enter that dream. That all-American white culture is something that is inherited instead of attained.
MITSKISometimes 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.
MITSKII understand that, because there are so many musicians, you have to make artists into brands, but I sometimes feel like I have to be some kind of non-human icon in order for people to listen to my music.
MITSKI