A year later, Mitski is out promoting her new album Puberty 2. It arrives though the “major” indie Dead Oceans -- a sizable jump from her D.I.Y. past -- and has so far garnered virtually unanimous critical acclaim. As a public figure, she’s becoming far more public than ever, but she appears to have a far better handle on it than your average artist entering the spotlight. She dove deep into this on the latest episode of the Alt In Our Stars podcast.
Mitski opened up about her Myers-Briggs personality type, her aversion to celebrity meet-and-greets (“Just think of yourself as a normal person being told to stand somewhere and hug a thousand strangers”), and how she’s seen the media react to her mixed-race identity.
“I am half-Japanese… If we don’t talk about it we won’t move forward; we won’t enter a landscape where everyone is represented. But at the same time, when that’s all people latch onto… I end up not being seen as an artist. My music ends up not being important in these narratives.”
Past Episodes: Shamir | Into It. Over It. | Courtney Barnett | Car Seat Headrest | Scott Stapp | Peter Bjorn and John | Modern Baseball | CHVRCHES | The Strumbellas
Mitski’s got jokes too: Was there a Puberty 1 album? “No, that was a private experience.”
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