Exclusive Interview with M.I.A.

Jackson Reeves Assistant Arts Editor

The Miscellany News: I’ve read that your interest in hip hop and rap began after hearing your neighbors’ radio music in London at age 11. So, what songs that you heard at that early age stuck out to you and became influences on your work?

M.I.A.: One was Public Enemy record, and the other one was by London Posse. London Posse appealed to me in terms of style. Public Enemy was more in terms of the starkness of the sound and just how loud it was and just how crazy it was. But London Posse had a really weird distinct style at the time that no one else had, and a really weird way of rapping and stuff and no one could really hear them and what they were saying and stuff. But musically I thought it was really really fresh. I had never heard something like that before.

MN: So then that’s why you started writing music and singing?

M.I.A.: No, not at all. That was just what I listened to because I identified with that culture…before then everybody was giving me Madonna records and then everyone was like you should listen to this and try and dress like it and I just never looked like Madonna because I was brown. So I decided to dress like Chuck D instead.

MN: Your music is often praised for being political, personal, and appealing to listen to. Rolling Stone review of Kala and characterized it as having “resolute sarcasm, a weariness and defiant determination, [and] a sense of pleasure.” What kind of messages do you hope that listeners will come away with after hearing you perform?

M.I.A.: I don’t really know what to say...I just listened to the last album two days ago and I felt like it was really awkward. And I think that at the time when I was writing the album I just wanted to just to do something that’s like a dying breed, making an album. Not provide part of the music scene or whatever, people don’t really believe in making albums, or don’t really know what that is. I just wanted to put myself into making an album but I wanted to put myself into it like in a life experience because I just lived that record and I felt like blood and sweat went into it and I got hell raised and some weird shit happened and it makes the album sound like that. And it’s not the perfect album and I don’t particularly think there’s anything in it that’s amazing. But, like, cause I think it was the way to get something out. I think it’s a good effort in making something that I felt like needed at the time. Somebody being, I don’t know, putting themselves out there to make something conflicted.

MN: You’ve lived in Sri Lanka, England, and America in a time when citizenship has been fraught, especially in a post-9/11 context in America—what are your thoughts on defining citizenship?

M.I.A.: Well, I normally I don’t have like a defined opinion on that yet. I think at different stages I’m learning different things and I think all of it is useful and that’s how I generally live, you know? So in the beginning when they didn’t let me in I had immigration problems and stuff I wanted to be like, ‘look, what I’m really good at is making something out of nothing, and that’s what I had to do and you know if I had to like make an album in Camp X-Ray or something in Guantanamo Bay, I would have done it and that would have been the challenge. So I felt like oh, now I’m having to do something that I’m actually really good at. I probably wouldn’t have been good at making this album sat in a really amazing studio…and so I think that thing that I’m learning now about my citizenship issue is changing all the time, you know? Now when I go to…I don’t know what’s important to me, I don’t really think that any particular country is that important.

MN:So would you say that you think of yourself more as a global citizen? Does that relate to your song “World Town”?

M.I.A.: Yeah, I mean maybe that’s the future. I don’t think anyone thinks about the nation like that anyway. That’s the whole point of our generation. We create things like virtual cyber world and we can exist and create communities in cyberspace that link us.

MN:I have a question about your music style, particularly in comparison to your graffiti art and visual style. There are a lot of bright colors in your graffiti art. How do you think that compares to your music?

M.I.A.: I think it’s the same. I think its like I found both the color things feeding on each other. Like the more art I do, the better I can think about music. Its just a really good to break out of a rut or break out of a formula that’s like my, you know, that’s what most, what like I hate most, you know? Like a formula or pattern of doing things. And when I make stuff I don’t really care about the outcome …you’re making new pathways…That’s what’s really satisfying. I think that making art helps you do that, to make music.

MN: So you would say your music is kind of like music graffiti?

M.I.A.: That might sound a bit corny, to say that, “music graffiti,” but yes, definitely. Its definitely, I see what you’re saying.

MN: And a final question, which is more fan based: of all your songs, which is your favorite and why? (That you’re going to be performing at the event).

M.I.A.: My favorite song is, you know I really like "Amazon" and I haven't done it for ages, and I might do it. I want to do "Amazon." It’s my favorite song, I don't know why. I think it has a nice vibe...

MN: And then how do you feel about a song like “Paper Planes” in comparison to “Amazon”?

M.I.A.: “Paper Planes” is just, it’s much fancier in the works.

MN: So do you not have as strong of a connection to “Paper Planes” as you do with “Amazon”? Does it not resonate with you as strongly?

M.I.A.: I like all my songs. I love "Bamboo Banga," and I like "Paper Planes," and I like "Galang." All of them mean different different things to me, but I like "Amazon" because no one else gives it any love, so I give it love, because I like the underdog, always. “Paper Planes” is my underdog song and it’s about the underdog and it’s when I felt like an underdog, but it’s become the biggest song.

Additional reporting by Anita Varma, Contributing Editor