12/04/2015 tunes4loons 0 Comments

We would like to introduce T4L's first interview of 2015 by apologizing to Micky Blue. She probably forgot she even did this we recorded it so long ago (30 days. #notsry we just woke up from our Thanksgiving food comas). But we promise the wait is worth it! Homegirl was the shit. She gave us amazing club recommendations and wise advice on fuckboys. Plus she left us with this gem of a sound byte: "Have a lot of casual sex... but use protection" (thnx mom).

T4L: How did you come up with your stage name?
MB: It was actually my dad's nickname growing up. I just kind of adopted it in kind of a non-intentionally feminist way; I just feel like, all these guys take the prefix "Jr." and inherit the family name, and I wanted to do that.

T4L: To throw it way back, can you describe when you figured out wanting to be a musician?
MB: I was always singing. (Also when a waiter comes by, would love to order some wine).

At this point in the interview, we discussed our mutual love of red wine, and the drawbacks that come with drinking it (looking like series regulars on True Blood is not a good look for going out). Then we stopped derailing our convo and got back to the topic at hand...

T4L: So you have always been musical.
MB: I didn't talk until I was 4 years old. I had a lot of what society calls learning disabilities, but I was excelling at patterns and music. Other things, like speaking properly, developed at a slower pace.

T4L: I feel like that's a common thing with musicians, having learning disabilities but being drawn to art. Do you think that's a common thing with other artists you hang out and interact with?
MB: Oh yeah, lots of creative people I know had ADD or dyslexia.

Then we got up and got alcohol, because it was Wednesday. Our awkward interaction with the waitress who claimed she wasn't one was fully captured on audio.

T4L: How long did it take you to write your EP, Wild Things?
MB: We (MB & producer friend Joren) wrote everything really quickly, we wrote all of it and did the production over a 6 week span last summer (2014). I went for 2 weeks to Amsterdam and lived with him. We recorded for 10 hours a day for 2 weeks straight. It was crazy! And I got so sick right before I went. I had laryngitis.

T4L: So you're just like, snorting Emergen-C. Hoping and praying.
MB: I was taking everything I could. The doctors would not give me steroids. I was like, please give me the drugs! For this one time, can I have a mild steroid so I can do my job. And then the night before I left, I got food poisoning. Thank god I got traveler's insurance. I am so glad, because I could not get on the plane. I couldn't even get out bed.
T4L: We never get shit like that -- now we're going to.

Then we found out she had Lyme's Disease!! From a tick bite to the face. Micky cannot catch a break.

T4L: Ok so, place you would die if you got to play?
MB: Japan! So many places. I just want to be able to travel, and meet all these amazing people all over the world. I really want to do that.

T4L: What's your favorite show you've seen this year?
MB: I saw Fleetwood Mac, and I died. I saw them in Florida. Best show I've ever seen. They are all at least 60, and they killed it. All their songs were still so amazing and felt relevant. My sister and I were freaking out the whole time.

T4L: Favorite Fleetwood Mac song?
MB: oh I kind of like that one **sings bars of "Go Your Own Way"**

We freak out and discuss how 2 glasses of wine more and we're going treat her like a human jukebox.

Then we find out Micky has attended DJ school, and her crowning achievement was: Go Your Own Way mashed up with B. Spears Till the World Ends. We DEMAND you release this Micky!!

T4L: Omg we can totally see that.
MB: They totally go together. I don't know, I was probably the only one jamming to it in my class, but I was like, this is the bomb.

T4L: Music idols?
MB: Stevie Nicks. I got into her in college.

T4L: When you were a kid, what were you into musically?
MB: I loved the Spice Girls. But I was so young—you know I loved the music, but I really didn't get into pop music until the end of high school. I grew up on Joni Mitchell, from my mom's era. With my dad it was only mo-town, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald. A lot of jazz. I had a jazz band for a while actually. And an alternative rock band, you know, trying to be Paramore. Went through that phase. I've kind of done it all. Finally finding myself now—it just kind of took awhile.

We then talked about our mutual love of TV shows...for a looooong time. We discussed British reality television and how it's better than American reality. And then had a lengthy debate surrounding the death, or lack thereof, of Jon Snow. Homegirl's TV-knowledge is #onfleek—aka vast but also extremely comparable to our own).

T4L: *22 minutes later* Ok, so, while we're on the topic. Favorite TV show?
MB: Oh my god I watch way too much TV. It's so hard because I'm working from home all the time, I could have the TV on while I'm blasting out emails. HBO Shows: love Girls, Game of Thrones. I totally dyed my hair to look like Khaleesi. (For the record, her hair was Khaleesi blonde). Every time I get it re-dyed, it's straight up silver. ... I was her for Halloween 2 years ago. My friends were my dragons. We made our own costumes. We went a little insane:

At this point, we went off track for 15 minutes talking about coconut oil. Since none of you are John Freida I will not include this information.

T4L: If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one musician, who would it be? Not even who you admire the most, just who you think would be fun to hang out with, and whose music you would wanna be serenaded by for the rest of your life.
MB: I'm just going to pull a John Mayer. He'd be perfect on a desert island. He's going to look really sexy on a beach. He's just gonna play guitar and sing and it will sound perfect.

T4L: You're going to be like "omg we're stranded here" and he's going to be like "It's fine babe, I'm here to play Why Georgia forever"
MB: So yeah, John Mayer.

We then ordered more drinks. The audio again implies it was awkward and the waitress was not feeling us. God forbid we ask you for wine at a wine bar.

T4L: Is your writing process more solitary or is it collaborative?
MB: It's so different every time. For my own stuff, I usually come up with a title or concept that I love, and I brew over that a lot. Sometimes I'll start an idea and bring it to a producer, working off voice notes on my phone. Sometimes I'll write by myself, but I don't know any artist that writes by themselves start to finish and has it be a number #1 hit. I really prefer collaborating.

T4L: Would you say it's lyrics first, and then melody?
MB: It's so intertwined. For me it's always together.

T4L: If you got the opportunity to write music for other people, is it more important to you to be a performer or a writer?
MB: I think both. I mean, I've been performing my whole life. I was always singing, I was performing and I would like to always be performing in some capacity. But I also want to write for other people as well. I wrote this song called "Ho" with my friends, and it's kind of like a Meghan Trainor sounding thing. Would that ever be a style of music that speaks to me? No, but it's really fun and it's another outlet. It's less of a "this is my story that I need to tell you" and is more like "what kind of feeling do I want to convey? What do I want to make people feel?" And it's really fun to write that way. Like, I love the sassy voice in that song, "Ho." I mean, that's not like my personality to be like "Oh she's a hoooooO!" but it's fun to put yourself in that character and be someone else for a song. It's not the story I want to tell for me, but I know some people ROCK that.

At this point we reached the 2 hour mark and concluded to never again conduct an interview in a wine bar with loud pretentious jazz music. Never have I ever felt so connected to Crazy Carrie from Homeland.

T4L: Speaking of crazy, "Champagne Reign" sounds like you've seen your fair share of wild days.
MB: (laughs) Yeah, and it was also just kind of an overall vibe I was going for: a song about those girls who don't believe in themselves enough. I'd go out so many nights and see this one dude who owns the VIP table, paying for everything. And then there's just these girls who are fawning all over him to get free drinks but also just to be seen at the hottest clubs in New York. So "Champagne Reign" is kind of about me witnessing all these girls and feeling sorry for them. But also, for me, it's a lot about the girls in the music industry. Like the champagne reigns over them and rules their world. And they let the men hold the champagne bottle. They don't care what it takes to get to the top. Like, I may never get to the top, but at least I'm pouring my own damn champagne.

T4L: Hell yaaaaas. Ok, favorite venue to play in NYC?
MB: I'm really loving Pianos, they've been really good to me.

T4L: In terms of performing, do you ever get stage fright?
MB: Oh, totally. Every single show. I think it's something about people paying to come see you. I just never want to disappoint people and I want people to feel something. I'm always like, "If I'm not the best I can possibly be tonight, the audience isn't going to feel something and they're going to feel like the show was a waste of time". And I hate going to shows where I feel like I've wasted my time.

T4L: So it's partially a connection thing?
MB: Yeah, exactly. Like when I'm sad and I listen to sad music, it's not that I want to feel sadder, it's like music therapy. It's more that when you're sad, you're brain wants to hear those sad tones, those major and minor chords. It triggers certain brain activity and it almost makes you feel better. Connecting those feelings and emotions to what you're listening to, afterwards, feels very therapeutic.

I just really want people to feel something. Even if they totally hate my music, hate my face, hate everything that I'm about, at least they felt something. I'd rather have them feel that I'm not for them and have them find what is. I mean, I don't want to hear about their hate, but I want them to feel their feelings and do their own thing.


T4L: Taylor or Adele?
MB: Adele

T4L: Beatles or Stones?
MB: Beatles

T4L: Biggie or Tupac?
MB: Tupac

T4L: Prince William or Prince Harry?
MB: I would say William

T4L: Friends or Seinfeld?
MB: Oh god, you're killing me. Seinfeld. But I love them both.

T4L: "Hello" or "Sorry"?
(sidenote: this question seemed a lot more relevant in the beginning of November).
MB: Definitely "Hello".

T4L: Kittens or Puppies?
MB: Puppies!!

T4L: Tequila or Whiskey?
Micky: Neither

T4L: What's your drink of choice?
Micky: Dark & Stormy

P.S Everyone listen to Micky's new song "Firebird," included below, and her EP Wild Things, out now. What are u waiting for go!!!