Mitski Miyawaki (born Mitsuki Laycock; September 27, 1990), known professionally by the mononym Mitski, is a Japanese-born American singer-songwriter. Mitski
self-released
Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pr ...
her first two albums, ''
Lush'' (2012) and ''
Retired from Sad, New Career in Business'' (2013), while studying studio composition at
Purchase College's Conservatory of Music. These albums were created originally as her senior project at Purchase. She released her third studio album, ''
Bury Me at Makeout Creek
''Bury Me at Makeout Creek'' (stylized in all lowercase) is the third studio album by Japanese-American indie rock musician Mitski, released through Double Double Whammy on November 11, 2014. The album was written entirely by Mitski, with product ...
'', in 2014 through
Double Double Whammy
Double Double Whammy is an independent record label founded by Dave Benton and Mike Caridi in October 2011 whilst studying at SUNY Purchase, a liberal arts college in New York state.
History
Double Double Whammy was founded by Dave Benton and M ...
after graduating. She then signed with
Dead Oceans
Dead Oceans is an American independent record label formed in 2007 and based in Bloomington, Indiana, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin. Dead Oceans is part of Secretly Group, which also ...
in 2015 and released her critically acclaimed albums ''
Puberty 2
''Puberty 2'' is the fourth studio album by Japanese-American indie rock singer-songwriter Mitski, released on June 17, 2016, the first release through Dead Oceans. It was produced by longtime collaborator Patrick Hyland. Upon its release, ''Puber ...
'' (2016), ''
Be the Cowboy
''Be the Cowboy'' is the fifth studio album by Japanese-American indie rock musician Mitski, released on August 17, 2018, through Dead Oceans. Produced by longtime collaborator Patrick Hyland, the album widens Mitski's palette with a return to the ...
'' (2018) and ''
Laurel Hell
Laurel may refer to:
Plants
* Lauraceae, the laurel family
* Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel
People
* Laurel (given name), people with the given name
* Laurel (surname), people with the surname
* Laurel (m ...
'' (2022), the last of which entered the top ten in several territories. ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' dubbed her the "best young songwriter" in the United States.
Early life
Mitski Miyawaki was born Mitsuki Laycock on September 27, 1990, in
Mie Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture and Kyoto Prefecture to ...
, Japan to a White American father and a Japanese mother.
Her first language was Japanese.
She moved frequently while growing up due to her father's job at the
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...
, living in Turkey, China, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo before settling in the United States. She sang in a choir in high school and was 18 when she wrote her first song on the piano.
Career
2012–2014: ''Lush''; ''Retired from Sad, New Career in Business''; and ''Bury Me at Makeout Creek''
After enrolling at
Hunter College
Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...
to study film, Mitski decided to pursue music instead and transferred to
SUNY Purchase College's Conservatory of Music, where she studied studio composition. During her time at Purchase, she recorded and
self-released
Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pr ...
her piano-based first and second albums, ''Lush'' (2012) and ''Retired from Sad, New Career in Business'' (2013), as student projects. While there, Mitski met Patrick Hyland, who has produced her albums after ''Lush''. In 2013, she collaborated with indie-rock artist Mike Rasimas, providing vocals for the original song Ego and a cover of "
Nightcall" by
Kavinsky
Vincent Belorgey (born 31 July 1975), known professionally as Kavinsky, is a French musician, producer, DJ, and actor. His production style is reminiscent of the electropop film soundtracks of the 1980s. Kavinsky claims that his music is inspire ...
.
After graduating, she served as the vocalist for the short-lived
prog-metal band Voice Coils and began work on her third studio album, ''
Bury Me at Makeout Creek
''Bury Me at Makeout Creek'' (stylized in all lowercase) is the third studio album by Japanese-American indie rock musician Mitski, released through Double Double Whammy on November 11, 2014. The album was written entirely by Mitski, with product ...
'', which was released on November 11, 2014, through
Double Double Whammy
Double Double Whammy is an independent record label founded by Dave Benton and Mike Caridi in October 2011 whilst studying at SUNY Purchase, a liberal arts college in New York state.
History
Double Double Whammy was founded by Dave Benton and M ...
. The album was reissued with four bonus tracks on April 7, 2015, through
Don Giovanni Records
Don Giovanni Records is an independent record label originally specializing in punk rock from the New Brunswick, New Jersey music scene but eventually working with a variety of artists from different genres.
History
Don Giovanni Records was fou ...
. The album's raw, impulsive guitar represented a sonic departure from the orchestral and classical piano sounds of her first two albums.
It garnered acclaim from numerous publications.
2015–2017: ''Puberty 2''
On December 22, 2015, Mitski signed with
Dead Oceans
Dead Oceans is an American independent record label formed in 2007 and based in Bloomington, Indiana, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin. Dead Oceans is part of Secretly Group, which also ...
. She announced her fourth studio album, ''
Puberty 2
''Puberty 2'' is the fourth studio album by Japanese-American indie rock singer-songwriter Mitski, released on June 17, 2016, the first release through Dead Oceans. It was produced by longtime collaborator Patrick Hyland. Upon its release, ''Puber ...
'', on March 1, 2016, and shared the lead single, "
Your Best American Girl
"Your Best American Girl" is a song by Japanese-American singer Mitski, from her fourth studio album, ''Puberty 2'' (2016). The song was released on March 1, 2016, as the lead single from the album. It was written by Mitski and produced by Patric ...
".
She released another single, "
Happy", before the release of the album on June 17.
Produced by Hyland, the album was recorded over two weeks at Acme Studios in
Westchester County, New York
Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population o ...
. The album received widespread acclaim from music critics. "Your Best American Girl" was named the 13th best song of the 2010s by ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
''.
In a 2016 episode of the
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...
show ''
Adventure Time
''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) and ...
'', her song "Francis Forever" was covered by
Olivia Olson
Olivia Rose Olson (born May 21, 1992) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, and writer, largely known for her voice roles as Vanessa Doofenshmirtz in ''Phineas and Ferb'' and Marceline the Vampire Queen in ''Adventure Time''. She also playe ...
as the character
Marceline the Vampire Queen
Marceline the Vampire Queen is a fictional character in the American animated Cartoon Network television series ''Adventure Time'', created by Pendleton Ward. She is voiced by Olivia Olson in most appearances, by Ava Acres as a child, and b ...
.
On February 21, 2017, the
Pixies
A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas aro ...
announced U.S. tour dates with Mitski as a supporting act. On May 1, a
compilation album
A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...
consisting of 100 songs by various artists titled ''Our First 100 Days'' was released. It includes Mitski's cover of
One Direction
One Direction, often shortened to 1D, are an English-Irish pop boy band formed in London in 2010. The group are composed of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and previously Zayn Malik until his departure from the gr ...
's song "
Fireproof
Fireproofing is rendering something (structures, materials, etc.) resistant to fire, or incombustible; or material for use in making anything fire-proof. It is a passive fire protection measure. "Fireproof" or "fireproofing" can be used as a n ...
". The compilation aims to raise funds for organizations that support causes threatened by
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
's proposed policies.
Mitski played a cover of the song in 2015, but that version has since been taken down. Mitski also covered
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
's 1951 classic "
I'm a Fool to Want You
"I'm a Fool to Want You" is a 1951 song composed by Frank Sinatra, Jack Wolf, and Joel Herron. Frank Sinatra co-wrote the lyrics and released the song as a Columbia Records single. The ballad is considered a pop and jazz standard.
Background ...
" for the ''7-Inches For Planned Parenthood'' compilation album.
On October 4, 2017,
Lorde
Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor (born 7 November 1996), known professionally as Lorde ( ), is a New Zealand singer-songwriter. Taking inspiration from aristocracy for her stage name, she is known for her unconventional musical styles and i ...
announced that Mitski would open for her on some dates on her
Melodrama World Tour
The Melodrama World Tour was the second concert tour by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde, undertaken in support of her second studio album, ''Melodrama'' (2017). Lorde headlined several music festivals before commencing the tour, and went on ...
. On November 1, a short film starring Mitski called ''Sitting'' was released.
2018–2019: ''Be the Cowboy''
On April 20, 2018, Mitski teamed up with the
experimental
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...
band
Xiu Xiu
Xiu Xiu ( ) is an American experimental band, formed in 2002 by singer-songwriter Jamie Stewart in San Jose, California. Currently, the line-up consists of Stewart (the only constant member since formation) and Angela Seo. The band's name co ...
on the song "Between the Breaths" for the soundtrack of the sci-fi comedy film ''
How to Talk to Girls at Parties
"How to Talk to Girls at Parties" is a science fiction short story written in 2006 by Neil Gaiman.
It is about a couple of British 1970s teen-aged boys, Enn and Vic, who go to a party to meet girls, only to find that the girls are very differe ...
'', based on the short story
of the same name.
On May 14, 2018, Mitski opened pre-orders for her fifth studio album, ''
Be the Cowboy
''Be the Cowboy'' is the fifth studio album by Japanese-American indie rock musician Mitski, released on August 17, 2018, through Dead Oceans. Produced by longtime collaborator Patrick Hyland, the album widens Mitski's palette with a return to the ...
,'' and released the lead single, "Geyser", with an accompanying music video.
The second single and its video, "
Nobody
Nobody may refer to:
* Nobody, an indefinite pronoun
Nobody may also refer to:
Fictional characters
* Nobody (''Kingdom Hearts''), a race of beings in the ''Kingdom Hearts'' video game series
*Nobody, a character in the Jim Jarmusch films '' D ...
", was released on June 26, 2018,
and the third and final single to precede the album, "Two Slow Dancers", was released on August 9 alongside a lyric video.
''Be the Cowboy'' was released on August 17, through Dead Oceans. It was critically acclaimed and named the album of the year by ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
'', ''
Vulture
A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...
'' and ''
Consequence of Sound
''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...
''.
On tour in 2019, Mitski began incorporating choreography into her live performances inspired by
Butoh
is a form of Japanese dance theatre that encompasses a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement. Following World War II, butoh arose in 1959 through collaborations between its two key founders ...
, a form of dance theater developed in post-war Japan, in which "performers draw on chaotic internal emotions but depict them with precise, repetitive gestures." The approach reflected her wish to "give audiences something new" on her second headlining tour since ''Be the Cowboy''
's release, as well as a desire "to develop her own, idiosyncratic ways of maintaining a grip on an audience," since she'd learned "that the jumping around onstage, getting everyone pumped up, doesn’t come naturally to me."
Mitski worked with performance artist Monica Mirabile to devise the tour's "highly stylized, sometimes unsettling" movements. Butoh influenced choreography was also used in her music video for "Working for the Knife".
In August 2019, Mitski ended her hiatus from social media to post a statement denying allegations made by a
Tumblr
Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...
user that she had been involved in a child trafficking ring: "I don't know the accuser, and I don't know how or why they have come to associate me with their trauma."
In September 2019 at the final performance of her ''Be the Cowboy Tour'' in Central Park, Mitski announced that it would be her last indefinitely. She later talked about how she planned to quit music completely and "find another life." By early 2020, Mitski had changed her mind and decided to return to music, partly because she owed her label another album and partly for herself. She described making the decision to continue, "What it came down to was, ‘I have to do this even though it hurts me, because I love ... This is who I am. … I’m going to keep getting hurt, and I’m still going to do it, because this is the only thing I can do.’ "
2020–present: ''Laurel Hell''
![Mitski - 51932297073 (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Mitski_-_51932297073_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Mitski shared her new song, "Cop Car", in January 2020, a never-released piece from the soundtrack of ''
The Turning''. She was featured in the song "Susie Save Your Love" from
Allie X
Alexandra Ashley Hughes (born 31 July 1985), known by her stage name Allie X, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and visual artist. She began her career as an indie pop artist in Toronto in the mid-2000s, playing with local bands and writing and ...
's album, ''
Cape God
''Cape God'' is the second studio album by Canadian singer Allie X. It was released on February 21, 2020 by Twin Music and distributed by AWAL. The release followed her extended play '' Super Sunset'' (2018). The album was primarily written by All ...
'', released in February 2020.
On October 29, 2020, it was announced that Mitski will provide the soundtrack to the graphic novel ''This Is Where We Fall''. The
sci-fi Western story written by Chris Miskiewicz and Vincent Kings "unpacks themes of theology, death, and the after-life". Of the project, Mitski said "It was exciting to make a soundtrack for a comic book, It allowed me to work outside of my usual songwriting form and try to approach it like a score, but without any of the cues that come with working alongside a moving image, which ended up being both freeing and challenging. I hope the end result helps to immerse you in the story!" A
country
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...
song called "The Baddy Man" was released as the first preview from the soundtrack on March 5, 2021. Z2 Comics released the album on
cassette
Cassette may refer to:
Technology
* Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback
** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in th ...
with the standard hardcover novel on May 5, 2021. A limited edition deluxe vinyl was also released. At the moment, Z2 has no plans to put the soundtrack on streaming services.
On October 4, 2021, Mitski announced on her social media that she would be releasing a new single, "
Working for the Knife", the next day as the lead single to her upcoming sixth studio album. The song would later be named the 7th best song of 2021 by ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
''. Soon after the song's release, Mitski announced her 2022 European and North American tour. She followed it up with "The Only Heartbreaker" on November 9, 2021. The same day, Mitski announced her sixth studio album, ''
Laurel Hell
Laurel may refer to:
Plants
* Lauraceae, the laurel family
* Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel
People
* Laurel (given name), people with the given name
* Laurel (surname), people with the surname
* Laurel (m ...
'', would be released just before her European and North American tour, on February 4, 2022, called
Laurel Hell Tour
Laurel Hell Tour (also called as 2022 Tour) is a concert tour by Japanese-American singer-songwriter Mitski, in support of her sixth studio album ''Laurel Hell'' (2022). The tour began on February 17, 2022, in Asheville, North Carolina, United S ...
. On December 7, 2021, "Heat Lightning" was released as the third single from the album. On January 12, 2022, "Love Me More" followed as the fourth single from ''Laurel Hell''. In March 2022, "The Only Heartbreaker" peaked at number-one on the ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
''
Adult Alternative Airplay
Adult Alternative Airplay (also known as Triple A or Triple A Airplay, and formerly Adult Alternative Songs and Triple A Songs) is a record chart currently published by '' Billboard'' that ranks the most popular songs on adult album alternative ra ...
chart. On March 4, 2022, Mitski was announced as one of the performers for the
Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...
, scheduled for June 22–26, 2022.
On April 19, 2022, Mitski's cover of "Glide", from the soundtrack of ''
All About Lily Chou Chou,'' was released on streaming services. The song was previously available as a
bonus track
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...
on physical versions of ''Laurel Hell'' and was used in the 2022 film
After Yang
''After Yang'' is a 2021 American science fiction drama film adaptation written, directed, and edited by Kogonada. It stars Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Justin H. Min, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja, and Haley Lu Richardson. The plot follows a ...
. Mitski appears on the song "This Is A Life" from the soundtrack for the 2022 film ''
Everything Everywhere All at Once
''Everything Everywhere All at Once'' is a 2022 American absurdist comedy-drama film written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as "Daniels"), who produced it with Anthony and Joe Russo. The plot centers on a ...
''. The song also features
David Byrne
David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...
, and
Son Lux
Son Lux is an American experimental band. Originally the solo project and moniker of founding member Ryan Lott, the band's first three albums, '' At War with Walls & Mazes'', ''We Are Rising'' and ''Lanterns'', shaped the band's unique sound th ...
.
Musical style
Mitski's lyrics often explore her anxieties and have been coined by some as 'sad indie girl music,' a category many women who write emotional lyrics are put into. E. Alex Jung described her as "an artist whose music feels like being ushered into a private opera house of melodrama" with lyrics full of "roiling fury, destructive impulses, humiliation, longing, heartache, and hunger".
Angie Martoccio of ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' described her earlier albums as a "wry running commentary on twentysomething angst, raw desire, and often unrequited love".
Lucy Dacus
Lucy Elizabeth Dacus (born May 2, 1995) is an American singer-songwriter and producer. Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Dacus attracted attention with her debut album '' No Burden'' (2016), which led to a deal with Matador Records. Her secon ...
, a singer-songwriter who has at times opened for Mitski, described her music as "really visceral ... She’s connected to a part in herself that wants to scream. Maybe you don’t live in a space where you can scream, or maybe you don’t have the words for what has happened to you. Mitski provides a space for that."
Similarly, Mitski has described her music as a place where people "can put all of their feelings, their ugliness, that doesn’t have a place in their own lives."
Public image
In a 2016 interview with ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', Mitski expressed the tension of being a private person and her discomfort with the attention that comes with being in the public eye, therefore preferring to keep her personal life private.
Since her breakthrough in 2014, she has often been described as private by the press.
As an Asian American woman, Mitski has felt pressure to represent her community.
She has expressed discomfort at the idea of people looking to her for guidance and seeing her as a leader of change in an industry dominated by white men.
Mitski is not active on social media, and the accounts under her name are run by a manager. She left social media in 2019, around the same time she quit music, because she felt it was unhealthy for her self-image.
However, she has gained massive popularity on social media. As of February 2022, her music has been featured in over 2.5 million videos on TikTok.
Former President of the United States
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
included "The Only Heartbreaker" in his list of top songs of 2021, a list he tweets out every year.
Views on the music industry
On September 9, 2019, at a show in Central Park, Mitski announced it would be her last show indefinitely, causing her fanbase to express their distress on social media. The reaction online to this announcement prompted her to tell her fans she was not going to quit music; however, at the time, she truly intended to quit music for good. She has stated her main reason for quitting was that she had a difficult time grappling with newfound indie stardom when her 2018 album ''Be the Cowboy'' hit the mainstream.
She said the music industry felt like a "super-saturated version of consumerism",
and that in the industry "you have to be a product that’s being bought and sold and consumed". She regrets using her actual name to release music because it no longer felt like it belonged to her, and she felt like "a foreigner" to herself.
She feared that by continuing to make music, eventually she would begin to create music she did not care about. In 2019, Mitski wrote a new single, "Working for the Knife", where she describes her "reluctance to return to the stage".
In February 2022, Mitski released a new record ''Laurel Hell'', returning to the music industry.
Views on her fanbase
Mitski has stated in interviews that she has an uneasy relationship with her fans because she finds their relationship to her and her music overwhelming.
She found the "worshipful commentary" about herself online damaging to her self-image.
Her fanbase has been described as both "extremely online", "cultish",
and as rivaling "Taylor Swift and BTS in intensity, if not size."
In an interview in 2022 she described the audience at one of her shows as "unrelenting. Everyone needed a piece of me ... I was so overwhelmed by hands grabbing at me that I was crying."
In February 2022, Mitski tweeted out a statement asking fans to stop using their phones to record her shows, as "... it makes me feel as though we are not here together ... When I’m on stage and look to you but you are gazing into a screen, it makes me feel as though those of us on stage are being taken from and consumed as content, instead of getting to share a moment with you.”
Personal life
Mitski reflects her eclectic cross-cultural identity as "half Japanese, half American but not fully either", a feeling that is often reflected in her music, which occasionally discusses issues of belonging.
Mitski has described herself as Asian American, but does not necessarily think of herself that way, as "she would just say she’s American".
Since 2020, Mitski has resided in
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...
.
She is
vegan
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. Di ...
, likes horror films, and has two pet cats.
Discography
* ''
Lush'' (2012)
* ''
Retired from Sad, New Career in Business'' (2013)
* ''
Bury Me at Makeout Creek
''Bury Me at Makeout Creek'' (stylized in all lowercase) is the third studio album by Japanese-American indie rock musician Mitski, released through Double Double Whammy on November 11, 2014. The album was written entirely by Mitski, with product ...
'' (2014)
* ''
Puberty 2
''Puberty 2'' is the fourth studio album by Japanese-American indie rock singer-songwriter Mitski, released on June 17, 2016, the first release through Dead Oceans. It was produced by longtime collaborator Patrick Hyland. Upon its release, ''Puber ...
'' (2016)
* ''
Be the Cowboy
''Be the Cowboy'' is the fifth studio album by Japanese-American indie rock musician Mitski, released on August 17, 2018, through Dead Oceans. Produced by longtime collaborator Patrick Hyland, the album widens Mitski's palette with a return to the ...
'' (2018)
* ''
Laurel Hell
Laurel may refer to:
Plants
* Lauraceae, the laurel family
* Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel
People
* Laurel (given name), people with the given name
* Laurel (surname), people with the surname
* Laurel (m ...
'' (2022)
Awards and nominations
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
{{Authority control
1990 births
Living people
American indie rock musicians
American folk musicians
American punk rock musicians
Art pop musicians
American women musicians of Japanese descent
Musicians from New York City
State University of New York at Purchase alumni
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singers
American women songwriters
Dead Oceans artists
Don Giovanni Records artists
Hunter College alumni
Japanese emigrants to the United States
American expatriates in Turkey
American expatriates in China
American expatriates in Malaysia
American expatriates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Asian American music
Women punk rock singers