Mitski
Mitsuki Miyawaki (born Mitsuki Laycock; September 27, 1990), known professionally as Mitski, is an American singer and songwriter. She self-released 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in Business (2013), while studying studio composition at Purchase College's Conservatory of Music.[4] The albums were originally made as her senior project. Her third studio album, Bury Me at Makeout Creek, was released in 2014 on the label Double Double Whammy.
Mitski
Mitsuki Laycock
September 27, 1990
Mie Prefecture, Japan
New York City, U.S.
- Singer-songwriter
- musician
- Vocals
- guitar
- bass
- piano
2012–present
Mitski signed with Dead Oceans in 2015 and released Puberty 2 (2016), Be the Cowboy (2018), and Laurel Hell (2022), the last of which made the top ten in several countries. In 2022, The Guardian dubbed her the "best young songwriter" in the United States.[5] That same year, she co-wrote "This Is a Life" for the film Everything Everywhere All at Once, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. Her seventh studio album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, was released in 2023. The album's third single, "My Love Mine All Mine", became Mitski's first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.[6][7]
Early life[edit]
Mitski was born Mitsuki[8][9] Laycock[10] on September 27, 1990, in Mie Prefecture, Japan,[11] to an American father and a Japanese mother.[12] Her first language was Japanese.[13] She moved frequently while growing up due to her father's job at the United States Department of State, living in Turkey, China, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo before settling in the United States.[14][15][16] She sang in a choir in high school and was 18 when she wrote her first song on the piano while living in Ankara, Turkey.[17]
Career[edit]
2012–2014: Lush; Retired from Sad, New Career in Business; and Bury Me at Makeout Creek[edit]
After enrolling at Hunter College 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 her piano-based first and second albums, Lush (2012) and Retired from Sad, New Career in Business (2013), as student projects.[18][19] While there, Mitski met Patrick Hyland, who has produced her albums after Lush. In 2013, she collaborated with indie-rock artists Mike Rasimas and Mutsawashe Mangwendeza, providing vocals for the original song Ego and a cover of "Nightcall" by Kavinsky.[20]
After graduating, she served as the vocalist for the short-lived prog-metal band Voice Coils[21] and began work on her third studio album, Bury Me at Makeout Creek, which was released on November 11, 2014, through Double Double Whammy. The album was reissued with four bonus tracks on April 7, 2015, through Don Giovanni Records. The album's raw, impulsive guitar represented a sonic departure from the orchestral and classical piano sounds of her first two albums.[22] It garnered acclaim from numerous publications.[23][24][25][26] However, it failed to become a significant commercial success.[27]
2015–2017: Puberty 2[edit]
On December 22, 2015, Mitski signed with Dead Oceans.[28] She announced her fourth studio album, Puberty 2, on March 1, 2016, and shared the lead single, "Your Best American Girl".[29] She released another single, "Happy", before the release of the album on June 17.[30] Produced by Hyland, the album was recorded over two weeks at Acme Studios in Westchester County, New York.[31] The album received widespread acclaim from music critics.[32] "Your Best American Girl" was named the 13th best song of the 2010s by Rolling Stone.[33] Her song "Francis Forever" was covered by Olivia Olson as the character Marceline the Vampire Queen in a 2016 episode of the Cartoon Network show Adventure Time.[34]
On February 21, 2017, Pixies announced U.S. tour dates with Mitski as a supporting act.[35] On May 1, a compilation album consisting of 100 songs by various artists titled Our First 100 Days was released. It includes Mitski's cover of One Direction's song "Fireproof". The compilation aims to raise funds for organizations that support causes threatened by Donald Trump's proposed policies.[36] Mitski played a cover of the song in 2015, but that version has since been taken down.[37] Mitski also covered Frank Sinatra's 1951 classic "I'm a Fool to Want You" for the 7-Inches For Planned Parenthood compilation album.[38] On October 4, 2017, Lorde announced that Mitski would open for her on some dates on her Melodrama World Tour.[39] On November 1, a short film starring Mitski called Sitting was released.[40]
Musical style[edit]
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".[13] Angie Martoccio of Rolling Stone described her earlier albums as a "wry running commentary on twentysomething angst, raw desire, and often unrequited love". Lucy Dacus, 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."[55]
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."[5]
Personal life[edit]
Mitski describes her 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.[83][84] Mitski has expressed discomfort with calling herself "Japanese American" or "Japanese",[85] and although she has described herself as "Asian American", she would rather "just say she's American".[13]
Since 2020, Mitski has resided in Nashville, Tennessee.[55] She is vegan, likes horror films, and has two pet cats.[55]