Miso Extra lives to create. Whether it’s art, music, visuals or actual physical objects – she’s a real whizz at ceramics on the classic pottery wheel, don’t you know – Miso’s head is always buzzing with ideas. It’s this imagination and playfulness to mess around with stuff that has made her music so inventive and compelling for a couple of incredibly good EPs that have established the creative world that she calls ‘The Misoverse’. That world is brilliantly brought to life in vivid colour on her debut album.
When it came to making ‘Earcandy’, it turned out to be even richer and more layered than Miso anticipated. “I had no idea it would be like this, but now, with the power of hindsight, listening back, I think it represents a portion of my life that I didn’t realise I needed to communicate,” begins the Japanese-British artist and producer. “It’s not what I expected, but I’m pleasantly surprised.”
Miso is someone who radiates joy, and it’s that effervescent and idiosyncratic quality that bursts out of ‘Earcandy’. “The vision is just having fun making music and just making,” she smiles. “Enjoying making and seeing what comes from that. From giving something a go, you discover something about yourself that you didn’t really know.”
The record she has crafted is a genre expansive collection that feels very contemporary but also has threads that harken back to all manner of classic pop music shot through with a future pop kaleidoscopic scene. It’s frothy and frivolous but also gently tender and life-affirming at the same time. “This album is about being youthful and hopeful but also with the naivety that comes with that,” explains Miso. “It’s the joy of being young with the lessons that come with it. It’s not until you go back and reflect that you really figure out what those lessons are. It’s a celebration of youth and the beauty of that. This is why it’s bright, bubbly and fun to listen to. But when you dig a bit deeper and reflect on things a bit more and read the lyrics back, and you go, ooh, I’m not sure if that was like that.”
There’s a discombobulating feeling to some of the songs that represents the beatific and ever so slightly strange world of the Misoverse. “A song like ‘POP’ is cutely aggressive,” she laughs. “It’s definitely a feeling that people can relate to where this is so adorable, and I love it so much and want to squeeze the life out of it, and when you think of it, you think, oh, that’s a bit unhinged.” The intense obsessions of youth and how we navigate them are a regular lyrical theme. “In life, there’s a fine line you’ve got to tread with love and obsession,” she ponders. “It’s about trying to figure out how to be a girl. We all exist in our heads. There’s a bit of delirium in all of us. It’s just the human experience of how much time we spend inside our heads and that parallel universe in which we all like to exist that’s closely entwined with reality but hard to differentiate sometimes where one starts and the other one stops.”
One of the key songs on the album ‘Playboi’ is emblematic of the liminal space between the artificial and the deeply human real world in which Miso Extra’s music inhabits. “‘Playboi’ was so much fun to write,” she explains. “It almost comes at a turning point in the album where you’re trying to set boundaries a bit more and the difficulties with trying to set those boundaries and recognising what you tolerate and what you don’t tolerate. The song is a journey, and the whole experience of setting boundaries is a journey, so I really wanted to capture that.”
“I wrote that with a producer called HARV,” she continues. “It came about from us complaining, and as artists you create something beautiful from frustration sometimes. The list in the middle with the AI voice is a compilation of things we saw and Googled on Reddit. I really wanted it to seem like this moment where you imagine you had to ask Siri ‘What is a fuck boi?’ and what you wish it gave you as an answer. It’s a combination of what your friends would tell you and what Siri would tell you. In an age where we’re quick to Google things rather than maybe ask people’s opinions, that’s what I wanted to make from that. I really just loved the phrase Playboi and just really went from there.”
“Life is pretty cool. It really does give you some lemonade”
Making music for Miso Extra is a deeply collaborative thing, and the album features Metronomy, DJ Boring, TYSON, and A.K. Paul. “This album, in particular, was made during a time of me trying to find my community of musicians and creators and learn about how best I like to collaborate with people,” she says. “It’s one thing making something by yourself, and as creatives, you can be quite insular, so this album is very much a reflection on how I’ve been able to find so many amazing contemporaries and figuring out how I like to communicate my craft.”
One of the record’s main collaborators, A.K. Paul played a key role in the dreamy, hypnotic mission statement of ‘Ghostly’, which drops Madonna references in the lyrics and feels like a signature song for the whole Miso project. “It was a moment of, oh wow, life is pretty cool. It really does give you some lemonade,” she exclaims. “When I went to the session, we were chatting about Solange and Janet Jackson, and how powerful those women are, so I said, cool, let me think of how I can channel the power of those people. I was really loving Madonna at the time. When A.K started making the beat, I was like this is so powerful. It’s got a real funk to it, so I really wanted to do that justice with the lyrics. I really wanted some power guitar moments in this to accentuate that feeling. I think of it as a song I can listen to and perk myself up a bit. I’ve got this.”
Like all confectionery, no matter how sweet it is, too much sugar is never good for you, so Miso switches up the mood on the stunning closing title-track. “‘Earcandy” is the realest moment, when you have the calm after the storm when you’ve had some space and time,” she reflects. “The rest of the album has a lot going on. It’s bright and bubbly, there’s a lot of instruments and a lot of intricacies. I just wanted a song that felt really sincere, to be a bit more real and a bit more honest and take a step back from all the bravado and the smoke and mirrors. I just wanted to be grateful. That chat you’re having with a mate who’s like, I dunno if this person is right for you, and you get to the end and go, oh my god, babe, I’m sorry I’ve been a right nightmare to deal with. I think everyone’s been in that position, and in the end, you’re with your mates going oh, thanks, babe. I’m so grateful. I really enjoy your company and hanging out. It just feels really good.”
‘Earcandy’ is an album that contains multitudes of styles and sounds from an artist adept in multiple lanes. It works equally in the club or in some idyllic tranquil forest retreat. For Miso, where she really wants to take the Misoverse to the next level is on the stage with live performances, and her new show is ready to debut in June. “I love connecting with people,” she smiles. “Live shows are an extreme version of that. I get really nervous but that’s more to do with lack of practice. If you really practice something, it’s actually an enjoyable experience. It’s a give-and-take. The more you give, the more the audience gives, and vice versa. It’s a really nice exchange of energy. I’d love people to go away with a smile on their face and a smile in their heart because I had the best time.”
Miso Extra’s album ‘Earcandy’ is out 16th May.
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