Mitski quotes

Mitski is a Japanese-American musician and singer-songwriter, acclaimed for her emotional lyrics and genre-blending sound. Her music often explores themes of identity, belonging, and personal struggles. She has become a prominent figure in contemporary indie and alternative music. Here are 10 of her quotes:

By the time it was done my heart was pounding like I just saw the rest of my life. I was fucking doomed.

Mitski

I felt it was shaving away my soul little by little...The music industry is this supersaturated version of consumerism. You are the product being consumed, bought, and sold. Even the people on your team who are your friends, the very foundation of your dynamic is that they get a percentage of your income. Every time I turned something down, it would mean that they would make less money.

Mitski

When people looked at me they couldn't recognize any of the history of me, like, ‘Where is she from? What's her ethnicity? Who is she?' I just didn't make sense to anybody.

Mitski

I write personal stories about relationships, and living in this world and being a human being...but I happen to live in a world which views me as an Asian American. So my experiences are tainted by that, even if I'm not conscious of it. Someone said ‘the personal is political', where it seems like me just being honest about my experiences as a human being and as a person translates as being political about being an Asian American person. I'm not in this to be political or a social activist, it just happens that my being honest is a very political thing.

Mitski

Even when I'm in a scene I don't think of myself as being in the scene. I'm very conscious of myself being an outsider. I think that has to do with my upbringing outside of the US – not just my heritage but that I grew up differently. I moved to a different country every year or every other year...a lot of different places due to my father's occupation.

Mitski

People think I was writing it for a group of people, when actually I was writing about one person. The truth was, I loved this person so much, and us being from different worlds kept getting in the way.

Mitski

I think it's a very feminine album...There can be something incredibly violent about being a woman and having desires as a woman – not so nice, not so soft. And I think that's an interesting experience to draw on...

Mitski

I think there is in my previous albums a very useful romanticization or glorification of a sadness...wherein Be the Cowboy, there's a realization that no one gives a shit that you're sad, and you're still sad. Your sadness is no longer profound, and you're still sad. It's that kind of growing up and realizing that it's not cool anymore to be sad, but you're still sad.

Mitski

I've often found myself in a situation where, narratively speaking, I'm the bad guy,” she says. "We can acknowledge more than just black and white. If you present something that feels true to you, there will be other people who are like, ‘This is true to me too.'

Mitski