The Berlin band MiA. has been on stage together for 18 years, and their sixth album “Biste Mode” has just been released. In an interview, singer Mieze Katz, drummer Gunnar Spies and bassist Robert Schütze talk about what is special about the new album, what they think of casting shows and where they would like to go on vacation again.
Your new single is called “Lauffeuer” and you shot the video for it in, of all places, a swimming pool. How does that fit together?
Gunnar: The idea actually didn't come from us, but from our director Sofia Bavas. Their immediate reaction to the song was: “Wildfire? Let’s go into the water!” We found this suggestion so unusual that we just had to try it out.
Mieze, in an interview you said that the new album was inspired by your concert experiences. Can you explain this in more detail?
Mieze: At a concert, many different people come together and agree on their favorite music for a while. When we and our audience are angry, happy or in love, a very special atmosphere arises and since we have already been on tour with some of the songs, this atmosphere is now massively present in the new record. I already have a stage set, a costume or a lighting mood in my head for every single song. The album is not just music, it is a small universe.
The album was actually supposed to come out last year, but now it took longer. What was it about?
Robert: With our previous albums we have always met the deadlines, but this time we realized during the course of production that the album wouldn't turn out the way we would like by the original deadline. We finally decided to work on it a little longer and from that moment on we had another real burst of musical energy: three of the most important songs, including the single “Lauffeuer”, were created during this post-production period. It was also the first time we had the opportunity to go on tour with already finished songs and to incorporate these live experiences into the album.
MiA. It's been around for 18 years now, and Mieze and Andy even know each other from school. Over the years, aren't there times when you get on each other's nerves?
Mieze: No, on the contrary, I really enjoy spending time with the boys! Basically, a band is like a relationship and in that there is sometimes stress, discussions and tension. But while other relationships argue about who does more housework, our discussions are about which bridge is hotter. And ultimately everyone has the same goal, which is to make a great song, and that's why it's really a luxury argument.
Robert: The basis of MiA. is friendship. The longer we know each other, the better it gets.
Gunnar: Friendship is an important keyword: MiA. is not a band that just performs together and rides on the tour bus, but we actually do something together outside of the band's everyday life. For example, we recently spent our free Saturday afternoon together and that is by no means the super exception that only happens once every ten years.
Mieze, you were on the jury for “Deutschland sucht den Superstar” and the KiKA program “Dein Song”. Do you believe in the concept of a casting show?
Mieze: For some, casting shows are exactly the right format, for others not at all. “DSDS” and “Your Song” are of course very different: “DSDS” is looking for an entertainer and singer and “Your Song” is about composers. Personally, I always find conversations with composers, regardless of age, very inspiring and would be happy if music television would go more in this direction again and tell how music is actually created.
Now casting shows are not for everyone. What advice do you have for young people who want to make music their career but don't want to take part in a show like this?
Mieze: Networking with other musicians, putting music online, writing to labels that produce music that you like yourself - there are many options and everyone has to find their own individual path. Our motto back then was quite simple: play, play, play! To play live we needed songs and that's probably why we write.
Concerts, tours, festivals – as a band you travel a lot. Do you like to travel?
Robert: Definitely! We were able to travel together as a band to countries that none of us had ever been to before and I really hope that there will be a project like this again. But traveling also plays a big role for us in our private lives: before our last album “Tacheles” we took a musical break for a year, back then we all ended up in very different corners of the world. Of course there are people who aren't particularly interested in traveling, but for the three of us it was an extreme broadening of our horizons.
Which countries impressed you the most?
Robert: I'm a big Canary Islands fan. Every island is different, it's warm there and you can ride a motorbike really well, which suits me a lot.
Mieze: On our new album there is the song “Einmal mehr”, which was written in Croatia and shows that you can capture a country not only with pictures, but also with words. Listening to this song is always like a short vacation for me.
Gunnar: For me it's Tulum, a place on the Mexican Caribbean coast that I used to visit often. I would really like to go there again, just to see if everything is still the same as it used to be. Of course, that's kind of nonsense, you can't freeze a place like that. So actually I want to go there to see how much I've changed.
MiA. and traveling - you can find out which vacation went wrong in the video!
The Berlin band MiA. has been on stage together for 18 years, and their sixth album “Biste Mode” has just been released. In an interview, singer Mieze Katz, drummer Gunnar Spies and bassist Robert Schütze talk about what is special about the new album, what they think of casting shows and where they would like to go on vacation again.