I think it’s our responsibility as artists to not only fight for our art but fight for the communities that are the reason we’re able to continue making art, especially since, in Brooklyn’s case, we as artists somehow made it ‘cool’ enough for the bigger money-making industries to start taking over.
MITSKII could never enter that dream. That all-American white culture is something that is inherited instead of attained.
More Mitski Quotes
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On one hand, I think it’s very important to talk about race and talk about gender, because if it’s not talked about, then we won’t progress.
MITSKI -
Whenever someone says they like something about my music.
MITSKI -
With solo shows, you have complete control over the set list. If you feel like you want to do something different or do a new song, you can just work it in. You can talk to the audience or not talk to the audience. There’s nothing that’s set.
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 -
There’s this myth that women are supposed to compete with each other or something, or we’re supposed to hate each other, and that’s totally not productive.
MITSKI -
Maybe this is a made-up belief to preserve myself, but I do believe that everyone has a purpose, and my purpose is to put out music that means something.
MITSKI -
What 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.
MITSKI -
On 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.
MITSKI -
My personality’s very obsessive-compulsive. I tend to fixate a lot.
MITSKI -
I 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.
MITSKI -
All the time. I feel like I’m not taken seriously.
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 -
When you are a minority, it’s your job to bend, and when you love someone, you really want to make it work.
MITSKI -
Things seem to take so much longer for me to do. I have to say things 10 times instead of once. I have to knock on 10 different doors instead of two. For everything.
MITSKI -
I’ve stopped wanting a home, I think, because I’ve been on tour all my life, basically.
MITSKI