Since releasing her debut single, Sassaparilla, in 2017, Australian artist Muki has been crowned a ‘pop princess.’ On top of being nominated for ARIA awards, she has also worked with the likes of The Veronicas and Slayyter, as well as supporting 5SOS on their arena tour after dropping her first EP. Inspired by the production of artists such as A.G Cook and SOPHIE, whilst influenced by the sounds of Madonna, Robyn and Whitney Houston, Muki’s sound combines hyper-pop and sad dance bangers all at once. “I am naturally a verbal processor, so it really helps to write things out and explore how I feel,” she says. “What I love about writing for Muki though, is taking my emotions, even if they are a bit sad and channeling it into a huge pop anthem.” For Muki, music has always held a huge place in her life. “I don’t really remember a time when I wasn’t into music, I grew up with a very musical family, my sister produces her own music too. I was writing silly songs when I was six years old, it was always something I was doing.” Her body of work combines stunning visuals with hyperpop sounds to create the ultimate experience of entry into the Mukiverse.
2021 has already been a big year for Muki and her music. So far she has released two singles, a music video and announced her upcoming EP ‘Car Crash Through Your Heart: Part 1,’ the title of which came from a lyric in a previous song of hers called ‘I Know What I Like.’
Sheesh Magazine were lucky enough to chat with Muki about her music inspirations and motivations, upcoming EP and future plans…
What do you hope people can take away from your music?
MUKI: I want people to hear my songs and feel like a badass. With ‘I Make Boys Cry’ I pictured people yelling the chorus across the club with their friends, and yelling it in their cars on their way to a night out. With this record there are definitely songs that you can cry-dance to, so I hope people do a bit of cry-dancing too.
Your upcoming EP is titled ‘Car Crash Through Your Heart: Part 1’ What are the meaning and messages behind the project?
MUKI: This song was about a crush, and I liked these lyrics because when you start to have a crush on someone, it sometimes feels like it hits you so fast and hard like a car crash, and sometimes it makes you feel like you’re a mess and all over the place. It can be an incredibly beautiful and messy thing falling in love and out of love. ‘Car Crash Through Your Heart: Part 1’ specifically explores the breakdown of a relationship, which also can feel like a car crash, completely devastating. It feels like your heart has been broken into a million pieces. It just felt fitting to use a lyric from a previous song of mine as the title, because it could mean something beautiful and disastrous at the same time, it felt like it came full circle for me. Also for my EP titles I have a habit of using lyrics within one of my songs.
What does the music you make mean to you?
MUKI: Writing songs is like therapy to me, sometimes I don’t know how I feel until I have written a song about it. Growing up I was always listening to really strong alternative female artists such as BANKS, Ellie Goulding and Paramore, so I am sure those influences subconsciously weaved their way into my music now.
What have you been up to recently?
MUKI: I’m a Capricorn so I’m obsessed with working. I have been doing a lot of writing and working on this release. Other than that, I’ve been re-exploring my city, because of COVID I obviously haven’t been able to travel and that is quite weird for me because I normally travel quite a bit. Every weekend I try a new place to eat (I fricken love food). Last weekend I went to a pancake place and they were the fattest and fluffiest pancakes I have ever seen! I have also just been on TikTok heaps!
What was the inspiration behind the ‘I Make Boys Cry’ music video?
MUKI: There was this Vogue campaign that came out maybe a year ago for Moschino, and it had a woman glamorously dressed, with men doing high end arty movement around her. I call it ‘glam aerobics’ and that was a huge inspiration for the visuals behind this video!
What inspires your sound?
MUKI: Robyn has been a huge inspiration for me as an artist, I love how she effortlessly makes pop/dance music that is honest, sassy and beautiful all at once. I’m also really inspired by the late, great SOPHIE, who was a part of the early PC music era and also paved the way for Hyperpop— the sound design in her songs just enamores me and makes me want to push the sound design in my own music. For my new EP, I was also referencing Blade Runner (1982), the sound design by Vangelis in that movie is just stunning!
Do you have any advice for aspiring creatives who want to get into music?
MUKI: Don’t rush. Make sure you are 100% happy before you decide to release, because your music will be out in the world forever. Whenever you get knocked back, use it as fuel to your fire, don’t let it take you out! Learn from and collaborate with those around you.
Who would be your dream artist to collab with, can be anyone, alive or not!
MUKI: Well, I would love to collab with Robyn, she is my absolute dream! I think it would be cool to collab with Harry Styles, only because I am obsessed. It was a dream of mine to collaborate with SOPHIE. And, it’s not really a collab but I would love to be able to go on RuPauls Drag Race, so somehow I have to make that happen!
Plans for the future?
MUKI: Tours for SURE! I have a few goals I want to kick with festivals as well— when they come back in full swing of course! I’ve been planning a few collabs around this EP which is really fun. I haven’t really collaborated on my own stuff before so that’s been a new experience! I also have to finish Part 2 of Car Crash Through Your Heart and I’m wanting to expand and explore the sonic pallet even further in that EP. I would also love to move overseas, so hopefully that as well!
Follow Muki on Instagram to stay up to date with her future releases, and stream her music on Spotify and Apple Music now.
