“You don’t have to look this way”: the artists who inspired Mitski to go against the mainstream
No one understands the fleeting magic of creating an album more than Mitski. Her world is her own, but the most interesting part of the process comes after a release when her art is out there for anyone to enjoy. As she once put it: “It doesn’t matter [what people think]. When you listen to an album, it’s yours. It’s no longer the artist’s, so you can do what you want with it.”
Mitski isn’t as new to the landscape as it might seem, but her consistent efforts have established her as one of the most endearing artists of the modern generation. Crooning through most of her hits with a soft melancholy vocal, Mitski single-handedly reinstated the power of female-specific experiences in indie rock, inspiring countless others to follow in her footsteps.
Despite its newfound Tiktokification, ‘My Love Is All Mine all Mine’ is a good catch-all for Mitski’s evolving talent, encompassing all aspects of her vision with haunting vocals, heartfelt lyrics, and ambient arrangements, proving that subtlety often says a lot more than extravagance. “Moon, tell me if I could
Send up my heart to you?” She sings in the song, “So when I die, which I must do / Could it shine down here with you?”
Though not all of her songs embody the same delicateness, there’s always an atmosphere of intimacy within everything she does, underscored by an intriguing uniqueness that’s not always easy to put your finger on. In the early days, Mitski looked up to innovators like St Vincent, caught in the glimmer of the prospect of following her path just as she did and just as David Bowie and countless others did before her.
Her desire to follow her heart and break the mould led her to discover other game-changers like Björk, M.I.A., and even Jeff Buckley’s heartfelt declarations, which provided guidance during a time when she wasn’t all that sold on her own artistic capabilities. All she knew was that she didn’t want to become a carbon copy of anyone else, which pushed her to refuse opportunities and songs others wrote to pursue her own writing, whatever that might be.
In the face of uncertainty, Björk, M.I.A., and Buckley were merely a handful of names that inspired her to chase individuality, knowing that whatever it was she had to offer would eventually fall into the hands of the right people. In her view, these were the musicians who were living proof that “you can do what you want – it doesn’t have to be this pop formula, and you don’t have to have this voice or look this way.”
Of course, one of Mistki’s most prominent influences, Ringo Sheena, also showed her the way as a solo artist who knew how to utilise “attention to detail” to create seamless textures, proving the value in closing yourself off to the demands of external forces and focussing solely on the musical avenues she wanted to explore on her own.
The warm, comforting tones of Buckley can be heard throughout many of her records, but her adoration of Björk potentially stands out as one of her more significant favourites, particularly as Mitski’s music rarely crosses over into such overt experimentalism but draws from certain aspects of the singer’s artistry to keep her own sound fresh and unpredictable.
Moreover, Mitski’s influences are expansive, but it indicates an artist with a fully formed vision of music that still sounds and feels entirely her own. Often, it’s easy to hear the voices of others in a musician’s music, but Mitski’s influences are subtle, proving that even those whose artistry has become an ingrained part of her craft often take a backseat, peering at the surface in more organic ways.
