A quick chat with MUKI

I can see you've been doing a lot of co-writes recently with artists such as Briggs and Jessica Mauboy - who would your ideal collab or co-write be with?
I don’t think I have just one ideal person to collab with but I am absolutely OBSESSED with Robyn, I think she is an amazing artist and she has paved a way for alt pop since the mid 2000s so I think my ultimate collab would be with her! But I would also love to collab with Shygirl or CouCou Chloe.

Where does the name MUKI come from?
Muki was the nickname my family gave me, it was a progression from Maddie Moo, and Moo Moo.

What do you think the main differences are between yourself and MUKI?
I think there is so much about me that is in the Muki persona, and I have tried to always be as honest and authentic within my art and the Muki project, but the main difference is that things are a little more exaggerated. For instance the sass is dialled up 2000%. An example is, I might feel hurt by someone or something and feel very small or be very emotional, but when I go to write about it, it turns into this massive fuck you anthem… and I’m like… oh woah… where did that come from.

If MUKI had a superpower what do you think it would be?
This is SUCH a good question! I would like to think that Muki’s super power would be to do something random like shoot out chilli’s from her hands like Spider-Man. But also I can’t handle my chilli, so maybe it would be able to read people’s minds like Edward Cullen, or for efficiency (I’m a Capricorn) it would be teleportation.

We've seen a lot of change and growth in your project over the past few years, do you think that MUKI has now reached her final form?
Mmm I don’t think Muki will ever settle in a final form, I think as I grow as a person it will come out naturally within the sound of Muki, and it probably is the reason why the sound has evolved already (I’d like to think anyways). I always think about how artists like Madonna and Kylie always evolved their sound and even though I could never compare myself to those living icons, I agree that being an artist you are influenced by what is around you, and it would be hard for me to stay within a certain boundary as an artist. I always am trying to push the project further, and figure out where to go next.

How do you want people to feel when listening to Level Mind Fuck?
I guess ultimately I want people to engage with the song in the most authentic and honest way for themselves. I have been hesitant to share too much about what the song means to me, because I love it when I hear a song, and I can insert my own situation into the lyrics in the song. I think LMF has an element of vulnerability, that people wouldn’t have heard before in my music, and I think some people will resonate with that while it still has the element of badass that I like to project in my sound too and I hope people resonate with that as well. It’s meant to be a bit of a mind fuck and a roller coaster of emotions.

You mentioned Ridley Scott's Blade Runner influenced the sound and visuals for Level Mind Fuck - what else influenced the track? I can hear a little Charlie XCX in there maybe?
A lot of the references for my music are visual and with LMF in particular, the overarching reference was the big chase scene at the end of Blade Runner. More specifically I loved the sound FX that they used and I referenced those rather than the actual soundtrack. We recreated the textural stuff in the movie at the very beginning of LMF by using my lip noise, so it’s super ASMR vibes. I also referenced old 80s songs for super specific things. I was obsessed with Holiday by Madonna at the time so I was referencing that for the drums and the percussion, like the cowbell, in the second half of the song I referenced Love Is In The Air by - John Paul Young for the bass sound in the second half too. My influences are super random and not what people would expect at all!

You've recently signed to Tribe Management in the UK - Is this where you see yourself in the future?
I love London, and it’s always been my dream to one day base myself there, even if it’s just for a few years.

What can we expect for the rest of your upcoming body of work?
I’m SUPER excited about this new body of work, I feel it is still sassy and gives you future pop vibes, but the sound has definitely matured and so has the content. This body of work centres around one particular theme and is much more of a concept record! I’m super excited to release it.

Why did you choose to release 1-minute videos for this EP rather than full length?
It’s a little bit of a secret why I have chosen this format, but it will all make sense in due time ;) from a very practical perspective I think that everyone has gotten used to bite sized content but there is also a more secretive and fun reason why I have done this..!