M.I.A. on her semi-retirement

“I don’t want to be “the thing” anymore. I don’t want to be my art. When you’re a female, it’s harder to not be seen like that. You become the face of it, and then you become the art, not your art. And I think there’s nothing more revolutionary than to go, “Look, I could have been Gwen Stefani, but I ain’t… fuck you.”

M.I.A. talking to American site XLR8R at last year’s Coachella Festival in an interview they've only just released – giving some insight into why she eventually announced her retirement from being a recording artist at June’s Bonnaroo festival. The cult of celebrity and the expectations people were placing on her, combined with the news that she was pregnant, seem to have caused her to make this major statement.

But since then she’s been busy collaborating and helping loads of other musicians around the world – taking the limelight off herself, but still allowing her to create and inspire, as she explained: “I think if I put my energy into someone else’s good, it won’t just be about me. I’m starting a label [N.E.E.T.]; I can still produce songs. African Boy is here, and Rye Rye is here–I’d love to do shit through them. I just don’t want to be the focus”.

“I make music because I’ve always been making shit. When I was making pictures, I felt like there was something lacking in them; there needed to be sound. So I was trying to work something out, like, how do you make a picture with sound and film and a t-shirt and all these other things? It’s a vibe, and the medium has always been secondary to that. Making pita bread can be just as creative as making a song… I wanna stay enthusiastic about life. As soon as I feel like I’ve been sucked into a format or a formula, I wanna leave. And too many people know me in the music industry, and too many people have already started pinning shit on me. “And next year you can come back to Coachella and do a bigger show, and we’ll get you a better headlining spot.”

Let’s hope she figures out a way to balance being a solo artist without having those pressures – it would be a shame if she gave in entirely. Come on M.I.A., where’s your fight??
 
Source: XLR8R

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