Thank you to Andy Towle for helping get the word out on Towleroad about what’s been happening with all of this insane homophobia and online abuse.
This shit is wild, and I feel like people have no idea how complicit Reddit is in perpetuating hate and violence against queer and trans people. Make no mistake: THIS IS THEIR BUSINESS MODEL.
When I was a kid and bullies would call me a fag, knock my books out of my hands, or slam my head into the lockers, I always kicked, screamed, and fought back — even if it meant that I was suspended from school or got my ass kicked worse.
It’s been over a decade since I added a songwriter to my life’s soundtrack — the music that plays when I’m by myself; songs that become the vehicle for my own feelings and melodies to emerge — but Mitski‘s entire catalog made the cut last year.
This talented human is unflinching in her willingness to march bravely inward, and unmatched by her peers in her relentless pursuit of truth as a songwriter. In short: Mitski Miyawaki is the real deal.
Logan Lynn: Hi Mitski! Thanks so much for taking the time to chat. I know you are in the midst of a super busy tour right now. How long are you on the road for this round of shows?
Mitski: I can’t really tell anymore. This west coast tour is two weeks long, but I have tours back to back after it, so I won’t be “off the road” until August. I used to think of my life on the road as somehow separate from my life off the road, as if tour was this thing I had to get through in order to get to my “real” life off the road. But now that I’m on the road more than not, I’ve had to shift my thinking away from looking at my life in chunks of time – it’s unhealthy to think of 9 months out of a year as “not the real part.” So now I just focus on what I’m doing each day. Read the rest of this entry »
Jun 29, 2012Comments Off on Logan Lynn Interview on The Pride Review This Week
Was music your first love and who was your first human love?
Music and I have always loved one another. My first human love was a boy in high school. He was an 18 year old senior and I was a 14 year old freshman. I ended up having to move to Tennessee midway through the school year (without saying goodbye) when a Christian counselor I was made to see outed me to my parents and then said if they didn’t remove me from the school he would report the boy. So, I left the next morning. It was devastating. When I returned later that year, we picked up where we had left off, but he moved away for college after that summer and we didn’t see much of each other after that.
What can we learn from our first love?
I learned to keep my fucking mouth shut to Christian counselors.
What can we learn from music?
I’ve explored the deepest parts of myself through songwriting and have said things melodically that I never would have had the courage to speak. For me, it’s the most honest place.
How did you get into the music business and did you experience it as a fair playground?
I got signed originally in 1999 and my first record was released in 2000. Nothing really took for another few years, though. I’m pretty sure this “fair” you speak of doesn’t exist in any business, music or otherwise. I’ve been really lucky at times and down and out at others. It’s a tough business, and I’ve made a few really public fuck-ups over the years.