Mi Ami
Interview Karley Sciortino
Photography Ben Rayner
Percussive, interstellar spaz band Mi Ami are many things. Easily defined isn’t one of them. Armed with the animalistic urgency of a noise band, the rhythm of disco, and the infinite psychedelics of spaced-out pilgrimage through a cosmic abyss, Mi Ami have made individuality their mantra.Mi Ami was formed in late 2006 by singer/guitarist Daniel Martin-McCormick, and bassist Jacob Long (both former members of the now-defunct Black Eyes). One year later the duo joined forces with drummer Damon Palermo, and the holy trinity was born. Their debut album, Watersports (Quarterstick, 2009), was released on February 17. The deeply personal and political album was self-produced by the trio, and recorded and mixed in just five days. Rather impressive.
We meet up with Mi Ami on the second date of their European tour. Sluggish from a combination of jet lag and being hungover from last night’s gig, Daniel, Damon, and Jacob sheepishly pose for photos in the rain. “English weather, eh?” smiles Daniel. Seemingly, the San Francisco natives aren’t used to such shitty weather conditions. After getting sufficiently wet, the band stops in a North London pizzeria for some lunch. Though painfully shy, the three are very eloquent, and talk passionately about the art that they make. You’d never guess that in just a few short hours the three will be experiencing spastic rebirth to their radical noise, in front of a crowd of 500 awe-struck faces.
What’s truly amazing about Mi Ami is their ability to connect with their audience. Their energy onstage is completely intoxicating. Hearing the intimacy and thoughtfulness of their record, you almost expect the trio’s live performance to be distant – all three staring down at their instruments, lost in their own musical wasteland. But their soft-spoken nature completely vanishes as soon as they step foot onstage. Daniel practically fucks the microphone stand as he sings, his shrieking vocals sounding frighteningly like a 15-year-old girl having an orgasm on peyote. It’s difficult to take your eyes off drummer Damon. Positioned in the middle of the stage, topless and sweaty, you almost forget he only has two arms. It’s the closest thing to a religious experience you’ll find on a Monday night in North London.
It’s not the most melodic of music, and verges on challenging at times. But it’s progressive, and strange, and enlightened, and wildly sexual, and most importantly, completely worth the ride.
You’re in the middle of a three-month tour. Do you enjoy being on the road?
Daniel: We like being on tour because we love playing live. When you’re playing live every night you start to experience the songs differently. It’s a really intense way of getting inside the music, and to experience it more subtly. It’s not so blown out. The more you play the more you can cut the fat and just get to the essence of the songs, rather than doing loads of superfluous shit.
How does your live set differ than your sound on record?
Daniel: I don’t care about creating a studio experience live. I just want fucking feeling and heavy sound and space and dynamic. It’s stuff that you can’t write, you just have to feel it when you play.
Do you consider Watersports a political album?
Daniel: They’re not protest songs or anything. I guess you could say it’s the intersection of personal experience and social experience. We wanted to reflect the current American paranoia and frustration. I don’t think music needs to be political to be valid, but living in such scary times – the war, the recession and all the other crazy shit that’s going down – we wanted to create something that represented that without beating people over the head with it. I get a lot of pleasure in singing lyrics that mean something to me. A couple of songs are about being conflicted with my own sexual experiences, and feeling strange and insecure in my own body. It’s kind of embarrassing to talk about, but I think it’s a good sign if you are embarrassed. If I’m not being naked then I’m just wasting everybody’s time.
How important do you think it is for bands to comment on their environment and the society that surrounds them?
Daniel: In my opinion, the only thing that’s important for bands to do is to be honest. Whether you want to write about politics or your girlfriend or you want to write joke songs, if you believe in it, then that’s cool. I don’t think there should be imposed criteria within art. That just means more rules.
Your album was recorded and mixed in five days. Did it feel rushed?
Jacob: No. I guess we could have taken longer. Part of it was the economics of it. But really it was a conscious aesthetic decision to just get in there and play, and not worry too much about perfection. It’s way too easy to go in the studio and get very nitpicky, or to be too concerned with doing everything correctly. But I mean, when do you ever play a song all the way though perfectly? There will always be fuck-ups. It’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Daniel: We don’t give a shit about studio magic. That stuff is overrated. The fundamental thing was to create something real. We communicate well enough with each other to just go for it.
Are the songs you are playing on this tour newer than those on the record?
Jacob: Some of the songs we’re playing on this tour are newer. When a record comes out most of those songs are really old to you as a band, but to your fans and people who are listening to it, it’s new. It’s weird. As a band we constantly want to move forward, but by doing that you end up feeling like you’re leaving your old songs behind. But that’s what feels natural, always wanting to do things that are new.
Daniel: We have to play the songs that are the most compelling to us. And whatever we sacrifice in terms of delivering a package that perhaps the audience feels isn’t cohesively aligned with the record – it’s better to play songs that we’re fully engaged with than to feel like we’re obliged to play older material. I think if people are willing to be open to new material, the experience will be more fulfilling for us and in turn more fulfilling for them.
How involved are you with your artwork?
Daniel: We’re pretty involved in all the artwork. For me personally it’s very important to feel represented by everything we put out there and for everything to point back to the original essence of the band. I think if you have a sense of aesthetic and a sense of who you are as a band, then it just follows that you care about things like artwork and music videos.
Can you explain the photo on the cover of your album?
Daniel: I’m not sure exactly what it is. I know it’s of an old gay guy from the early ’80s wearing a pair of wings at some sort of carnival. I just thought it had a really nice confluence of emotions to it. There’s a certain feeling of loss in the photo, sort of a feeling of leaving youth. It’s quite sad. But there’s also a weird vibrant sexuality to it. So there are all these contradictions, and it just pointed to an emotional space that made sense with the content of the record without being a manifesto.
How do you feel about being associated with the recent resurgence of world music?
Daniel: The concept of world music is essentially bullshit. Music is made all over the world and it’s neither ethnic nor crossover. It’s just the music that people are making there. If you like music then you should listen to music from everywhere. Why only listen to music made in New York or L.A. or London? If it’s good it’s good. It doesn’t matter. Our song “African Rhythms” isn’t based on African drum patterns. And in retrospect it might have been a mistake to name it that, but whatever. There’s some African music that we could say is influential to us, but it’s just part of a larger interest in music. It’s weird because so many people ask us about it that I almost feel an urge to deny it. But it’s not that we’re not into African music. It’s just part of all the music we listen to, along with reggae, dub, techno, punk, hardcore and so on. If you can’t answer what kind of band you are, I think that’s a good sign.
What are your plans for the future?
Damon: I used to spend a lot of time planning, but lately I’m just going with the flow. It seems almost counterproductive to plan ahead. Things just seem to happen. The only thing we plan is the logistics. We’re going to release a record when we have a record’s worth of material. There’s no need to rush things.
Daniel: I’m becoming more and more interested in the idea of playing melodically. For me experimenting with music is playing melodies. Other than that, I wish I could say we had a mission, but we don’t. I have strong opinions, but I don’t believe in manifestos. I can talk like a maniac, but some things have to be left unsaid, so we have room to grow.
