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Mykki Blanco is a transgender rapper, activist, performance artist, poet and journalist. As if that isn’t enough, he has recently set up his own record label Dogfood Music Group, that focuses on working with artists of colour that would perhaps be ignored by the mainstream music industry. At 29, Blanco has a clear a notion of where he’s going despite, by his own admission, making mistakes in the past.
Glass caught up with him on the phone to talk about his life, record label and new album release C-ORE.
Your name Mykki Blanco is described as a performance art character, but how important is this name for you?
Well, Mykki Blanco is really just a stage name. A lot of people and a lot of writers and a lot of interviewers continuously pose this question to me as if Mykki Blanco is my alter ego, and I think I can understand that because I do dress up when I perform.
The dressing up was not initially a part of Mykki Blanco – the dressing up had to do with the fact that I was cross-dressing and that I lived a transgender lifestyle from much of 2010 and much of 2011 into 2012 when Mykki Blanco began, so I began cross-dressing before Mykki Blanco was a musical stage name. Mykki Blanco is just my stage name just like any other artist goes by a stage name like Nicki Minaj and Notorious BIG. Mykki Blanco is not a different personality – it’s just me, Michael Quattlebaum.
Do you think the industry supports multi-gender artists the same way they do others?
I don’t think there are any multi-gendered musicians and performing artists in the mainstream right now. I know they’re out there, and I know they exist but I don’t know if any are being tracked right now in the industry. I do think there soon will be a multi-gendered transgendered artist, and I think it will be interesting to see how the industry treats them. I’m actually giving a lecture about this.
I think that the industry will be much more supportive to a male-to-female transgendered artist because a woman is more marketable. A woman can be glamorous and the music industry knows how to handle women. I don’t think the music industry knows – and definitely discriminates against masculine women or women who transition into being men.
When you aren’t performing what are you doing?
I work. I started a record label Dogfood music this year. So I’m doing a lot of things I’ve never done before like managing three new artists, taking care of PR and press. I’m doing a lot of back end industry things that myself as an artist never did. When I am not performing it’s kind of like I’m creating the next thing. I’m shooting a music video in Greece for the new Mykki Blanco album that’s forthcoming. I actually am shooting a movie – a mixture of a documentary fiction about my life that follows me for 10 months.
Besides that I read. I’m a big reader and I like to stay politically and socially conscious of what’s going on in the world. I am a nature lover, I love swimming, I love going to hot springs, I love the forest, the desert, I love dancing and hanging out with my friends. Oh, and I love travelling.
What does your label give artists that other labels can’t?
I don’t know if we give anything that someone can’t, but I think the people that want to be associated with Dogfood now that it’s new and that right now we’re launching with this emphasis on promoting artists of colour across the globe who are making music that is not just hip hop or music that would get swept under the rug by the main stream or music that would hide in the corner of Soundcloud or Bandcamp that’s really good and deserves to be heard. So that’s what we’re launching with, but that’s not exactly something that’s an exclusive manifesto for Dogfood.
Did you come across any hurdles during the start-up of Dogfood?
Dogfood is launching with three artists who are male. I actually hate that. I was looking for female artists who I could put on the compilation and I truthfully couldn’t find one with the deadline. One of the artists who was most visible was a female artist by the name of Pharmakon, who I think is fucking amazing.
When you’re starting a label its kind of almost safer to reach out for artists that you are really familiar with and then for the next project reach out to new artists. Let me tell you – it was difficult. I looked for a female artist, up and down, I really did.
I made Facebook posts, I made Twitter posts and I could not at the time find a female artist, who was a vocalist who was making music in line with what I was wanting to launch Dogfood with, and to be honest I still haven’t. I still continue to make these big blasts every month like ‘I’m looking for women artists’ but that goes back to a much larger conversation about why there are not as many women produce women as men. What is that discrepancy, why is that?
There should be no reason, but there is a reason and what that reason is … well I don’t know – so that was one thing that actually did bother me. I support and love the musicians who I’m releasing with but I hate that I, as Mykki Blanco am not starting my label with a woman on it. I tried but with the deadline it was hard. Dogfood is launching with a certain manifesto but that’s no exclusive.
I hope to attract musicians from all races and all sexes. I just want talent. That’s the biggest thing. The music’s gotta be good and it’s gotta be excellent live. I would not stand behind someone who’s not a stage performer.
C-ORE is such a hybrid of genres. What influenced this? How did you organise it?
The executive producer for the release was one of the artists Rahel Ali, and he’s the one who actually arranged the track list order and he created the Histronic tracks and Childish. The histrionic tracks were the heaviest noise tracks that are in reference to the other songs, then the artist Violence created the song Saturn once all of the other songs were listened to by him, but I chose the three artists and I chose them because even though they make dramatically different music, there is a sound that is consistent and cohesive through all of their music.
That is why I chose those three. There was a period of incubation where two of the artists were making new tracks that are featured on the new release in reference to the energy of the other tracks.
Do you think you will be able to successfully translate this sound live?
Yes, we have a European tour that’s scheduled to be happening around October 21 and it goes through all the way into November and December. The reason why I’m moving to Greece is because we all needed to move into one flat and we needed a rehearsal space so economically and with the financial crisis in Greece right now, us as foreign artists can afford to live in a flat that’s big enough for us four to live in and we can also afford to pay for rehearsal space for this tour and they were like “Yeah, Greece is warm, there’s the sea. Let’s do it.” So that’s what we’re doing when we’re going to Greece – we’re putting together the C-ORE live show.
You’ve grown up in so many different places. Where do you relate to as home?
Mostly three places. I relate to my home in North Carolina where my mother and family lives, I relate to my home being the bay area in California – a place where I grew up, where my grandparents lived who raised me for a short period and I’m still very close to, and then I truthfully do count New York as my home because I ran away there when I was 16, and then I also lived there again from when I was 21 and lived there for six years.
How do you think your upbringing has contributed to who you are today?
I think it’s definitely made me who I am now, but I also think as I’ve gotten older and especially when I stared touring Europe I would say I do have a very European sensibility now. I know that when I move to Greece I’m signing a 12 month lease, so I know for a year I’ll live in Greece. I know that for a period I’m going to be living in Greece and I truthfully have realised in my adult life from this year onwards – I plan to only live in Europe.
I think I’m going to be between two countries because I love the UK and have so many friends there and now signing with K7! It just makes so much sense for me to stay in the UK but I don’t particularly like living in London. If I could have an apartment in London and Paris, that would be the ideal dream. I know I might have to end up learning French.
What’s has significantly changed in your life during your career?
I have lived more publicly and more transparently than ever before. I publicly admitted that for my whole entire career I’ve been HIV positive and that was a really big deal. As I am no longer an independent artist, signing with !K7 Records has been amazing as I’ve been able to have the support to do so much more than I was able to do then as an independent artist for Mykki Blanco, and I really feel like now when I work very hard, I see the results much more immediately, and that gives me the confidence to keep going.
Once of the things that happens as an independent artist that can be very disheartening is that you work really hard because you have to do it all yourself and see the results much later. There can be periods of self-doubt, and now with !K7 I feel really blessed that I don’t have any self-doubt. I was so afraid to admit that I was HIV positive because no other musician has done that.
So when you’re the only one, you feel really apprehensive because you think “oh no is this going to overshadow my music” are people are only going to think about this when they think about me. What has happened so far is that I came out about it, everyone knows, and I’ve continued to focus on the project.
I’m working on the new Mykki Blanco album and mix tape. I’ve continued to do interviews and photoshoots. I didn’t realise my fans liked me more than I thought. My fans were like “this doesn’t change how we feel about Mykki, it just changes what we know about Mykki”. Rather transforming what people think of me. As long as I continue to produce new work and new art that’s not going to be an issue.
When did you know that you wanted to be a performer?
It sounds kind of sad, but I always knew because I know I couldn’t do anything else and it used to scare the shit outta me. When I was younger it used to cause me a lot of anxiety because I thought “if this doesn’t work out and I don’t end up getting a claim or notoriety, I’m going to be a very poor artist”. I posted a music video to YouTube about four years ago, and I have to say I was smart. I knew that without having really strong music videos people would no understand Mykki Blanco.
When do you feel most connected to your audience and what are the rewards?
It’s when I have a new release out and I know everyone is there to see me. When it’s a packed room and I know they’re all there for my concert that’s when I know. As much as I’m enjoying the label that I’m creating, I truthfully cannot wait for the new Mykki album to come out.
What is the concept behind the album artwork for C-ORE?
The artwork was designed by one of the musicians Violence, whose name is Olin Caprison and he created it on the idea of us being core, as a group and there’s a photo that we took of us all of us intertwined, drunk at a bar – and he conceptualised the image based from that photo. I honestly don’t know what was going through his head, but that’s what he did.
Growing up, which artists inspired you?
When I was a little kid I loved The B-52’s and Jamiroquai, then as a teenager I loved Marilyn Manson, Eminem, Missy Elliot and Kathleen Hannah. The second wave of that was Blonde Redhead and Lil’ Kim.
How has your music evolved since you were last in the studio?
With the new songs, I think they have a more radio ready sound. What I want people to take away from the new songs is that they’re bumpin’. I think for the last four years I have been very selfish as an artist because I couldn’t give a fuck what fans thought – I was just making things because I wanted to explore things.
Now, I have to say I consider what fans want and that doesn’t necessarily change what I make but now I think of my fans as an extended family. In the beginning I was a bit younger and arrogant and I thought of them as fans. Now I think of them as people who’s opinions really matter, who I want to impress and be there for.
What is your ideal performing environment? Indoor or outdoor?
I do prefer indoor venues because you have more control as an artist but I enjoy festivals because you don’t have to wear an elaborate costume – people just see the rawest version of you. I do like the theatricality of the indoor venue.
by Katrina Mirpuri
Mykki Blanco has announced some live dates for his tour in Europe:
November 6 – Illuminations Fest – London, UK tickets
November 7 – Electronic Beats – Zagreb, CRO tickets