MIIKE SNOW

Interview by Natalie K.
October 7, 2009
http://www.myspace.com/miikesnow

Estrella: Can you please state your name and what you do in the band?
Andrew: My name is Andrew Wyatt, I’m in Miike Snow and I sing, write songs, and we kind of all do everything.

Estrella: How did you guys end up with the name Miike Snow?
Andrew: We kind of balked with picking a name for the band so we picked the name of a guy that we liked. We just liked this guy Miike Snow so we sent Christian an email and we decided to name the band Miike Snow. We are glad we did it has been a really good decision.

Estrella: Your US tour is pretty much done, how was it and did any shows stand out to you?
Andrew: The funny thing is there are all kind of memorable and they all kind of blur together too so it is difficult to deviate one show from another. I think Vancouver was a pretty great show. It is one of those things that in retrospect will be amazing but right now it feels very exhausting. Everybody gets along and one thing I was kind of worried about because we have not done this many consecutive shows before was that I am pleased my voice has actually held up through this whole thing. I know a lot of people who are in a similar position and who had vocal damage. Some of the songs have quite a lot of screaming so I have been pretty pleased.

Estrella: Was this your first US tour?
Andrew: Yeah, well we did play a lot of these places before but we were opening up for other people. We did a small tour with Art Brut in June and we played some of the same places but we were headlining this time so most of the people were there to hear us.
Estrella: Were you surprised at how well received you were, because I know you had a couple of sold out shows like here in Chicago and in LA.
Andrew: Yeah, we had two sold out shows at the Empty Bottle (Chicago) we sold it out twice in one night which was cool. We sold out this place called The Echo in L.A. and then they moved it downstairs to this place called Echoplex which is like 825 capacity and we sold that out too. It feels good, it feels like the booking agents that we are talking too are talking about us coming back and playing bigger places so that is always nice when you can see your gaining more fans as time goes on.

Estrella: I know you are about to tour overseas, when are you going to come back to the states?
Andrew: We are going to do a headlining tour the last half of March leading up to Coachella In April which we have confirmed. The only confirmed show is Coachella so we are going to build a tour around that.

Estrella: Do you know, or do you have any ideas of who you would want to be opening for Miike Snow?
Andrew: No, I think we will lean towards something more avant-garde kind of show. I would love to have this band Silk Flowers open up for us or there is a band called Zombie Zombie that we could have. Something that people who like Miike Snow would like, but also something that would broaden their horizons a little bit without being painful for them.

Estrella: How did you guys end up picking which singles you choose? “Black and Blue” is your latest one right now.
Andrew: That one was really the choice of people of Columbia in the UK, they jumped on that and it is doing well on the radio in the UK. There was a certain amount of money put into promotional devices for “Black and Blue” such as a video and because of that Downtown (Record Label) is utilizing some of those promotional devices and it has become our second single in the states which I am fine with because I really like that song.

Estrella: I saw you guys do remixing for other songs, what kind of entices you to remix another artists song?
Andrew: Well, I think it would have to be someone that we like and feel we can do a good job to contribute something to the remix. I think everyone we have remixed so far which is just 3 things, Peter Bjorn and John, Passion Pit and Vampire Weekend and in all three of those situations we brought something interesting to whatever song we were doing. I think we have to share some kind of spiritual connection between what we are doing and what we choose to remix and I think that is the case for all three of those.

Estrella: I read that you were working on a Kings Of Leon remix song, is that true?
Andrew: We did it already; we are waiting on it to come out.
Estrella: Which song did you do?
Andrew: “Crawl”.

Estrella: I watched a video on YouTube of you and Lykke Li performing Kings of Leon’s “Knocked Up”, which was really awesome; do you think you would ever collaborate with her?
Andrew: Sure, we are friends and we want to do a tour together, like a co-headline tour together because we could probably play bigger places together. It would split the cost of touring and also just have a great time, she is a great person and I don’t see why not if it is a good song, and that song is.

Estrella: What does your Jackalope symbol represent, and who came up with it?
Andrew: That is our logo, that is our symbol and it is more of a prank than anything else. We use it in place of having our faces being there. We let the jackalope take all of our bad press and good press. He is the fall guy of our band.
Estrella: Did you guys design it?
Andrew: Well Christian’s tattoo artist came up with it, she was bummed out because it is a cool looking animal but she didn’t have any idea that there was something called a jackalope. It is a western truck stop phenomenon the jackalope, like Wyoming like people have invented post card companies from Colorado. We just said we wanted something with horns on it for our symbol and she came up with that and we like it.

Estrella: What is something you have always wanted to do but have not done yet?
Andrew: I think the biggest thing is I am going to direct a movie in Cuba next year.
Estrella: Cool! How did you get into that?
Andrew: The whole movie sort of flashed before my eyes once; I got an idea for a film and then this past Christmas in January 2009 I left for Thailand and I just went by myself to a small island. I rented a little cabana on the water and wrote the whole screenplay there.

Estrella: What is a song that you never get sick of hearing?
Andrew: “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” by Frank Sinatra at the Sands Hotel in 1963.
Estrella: That is a good one, and oddly specific.

Estrella: What is one of your favorite lines in one of your songs?
Andrew: That is a hard question; that is an embarrassing question. What if I don’t like any of them?
Estrella: You have to like what you sing every night otherwise you can’t have any fun with what you do.
Andrew: No, I know. I like pretty much all of the lyrics in the song “A Song For No One” like, ‘I think I own a photograph that shows her in the freezing rain with the Italians on the bank, they know how to entertain’.

Estrella: If you could see any band or artist perform any song live what would it be and why?
Andrew: I guess everybody’s choice would be to see The Beatles play “I am the Walrus”. If you could have that opportunity if you could get that it would be pretty amazing; wouldn’t it?
Estrella: Yeah, definitely.

Estrella: Is there an artist out there right now that you are really into that people may not know of yet?
Andrew: Sure there is a guy named Damon McMahon who used to have a band called INOUK and he now has this band called Amen Dunes which is fantastic.

Estrella: Any final comments?
Andrew: Nope just I am glad we finally got to do this.