This week the Jimplecute took a call from Mishka, a Bermudian musician and singer/songwriter. He plays Friday night at 1852 on Austin Street. He’s a traveler and sailor at heart; his lyrics and sound are deep reflections of the reggae roots soul and consciousness of the Caribbean culture in which he grew up but which are equally infused by his hypnotically bluesy folk acoustic compositions and vocalizations.
Mishka first emerged back in ‘99 on the independent music scene in London with his eponymously titled debut album put out by the influential Brit record label, Creation Records. Since then he has toured extensively throughout Europe, the Americas, Japan and Australia and has gone on to release 5 more full length studio
albums, all of which have received worldwide critical acclaim. The most recent album, Roots Fidelity, was released in 2015 under Mishka’s own indie label Mishka Music and recorded and produced in Maui, Hawaii.
Here’s a Q&A with Mishka:
Jimplecute: Just a couple of things won’t take long this morning. You’ve spent over a decade working with Matthew McConahay and Kenny Chesney being in your corner. Then recording with Jimmy Buffett and Willie Nelson and performances at South by Southwest, so it seems like the Southern US and Texas keeps pulling you back here, even after playing all the beach fronts and tropical oasis and things like that. What do you what do you like about playing in Texas?
Mishka: Well, I guess I mean, I guess it’s really that you know, people seem to be into music You know, I mean, granted music is everywhere but maybe it’s that there’s a pretty good live music culture in Texas, like, especially places like Austin and stuff, it’s like it’s there’s an appreciation that’s, I guess it’s mutual for the artists and for the listener. So that’s, that’s a cool thing.
Jimplecute: Now, the other thing is, a lot of your music seems to be in pretty good sized venues from what we’ve seen that you’re doing, you know, South by Southwest, for example, is a huge music venue to play at. And so which do you prefer? Do you like the big venues like that? Or do you prefer the more small, intimate type venues, kind of like what you’re gonna be playing at this weekend?
Mishka: I prefer the ones that sound good. Both big and small have good and bad sound depending on the venue. At the end of the day, it’s about the music. It is about how you perform. You can play well good sound and you can play well with bad sound. When you play with good sound, when you play well with good sound, it’s rewarding because it’s, you know, you actually get to hear your instruments and the other players in the band. If you’re playing with a band. I guess it’s like cooking with good ingredients, you know, you get to eat the quality and that really shines and feels good. If you’re playing for 5,000 people, you know, it’s like, if it’s sounding good, it’s sounding good.
Jimplecute: You grew up being homeschooled with your siblings, cruising the Caribbean on a boat. So how many siblings do you have?
Mishka: I have two older sisters. My very first memories of pretty much everything, because I was three years old when we moved on to a boat, and so I didn’t, I didn’t know anything else. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, this is this is a strange or difficult or interesting experience.’ I mean, it was interesting, because it was interesting, but it wasn’t like, it wasn’t novel to me at the time, because it’s all everything. Instead my first memory of being conscious was like, you know, on the ocean, living in a first small space with four people who are born, I was born into that family who I love. So it was it was great. Actually, it was, it was really a lovely time in my life.
Jimplecute: Cool. Now do you think that kind of freestyle of living and learning helped you as you bit off a music career and moved forward? Or do you think it hurts you some?
Mishka: Well, I think creatively, music it helped me because it put me in a kind of very right brain mode, you know , that creative part of the brain, right? I wasn’t… I didn’t have a restriction. The first, you know, 10 or 15 years of my life, it was very, I listened to a lot of music, I spent a lot of time painting and drawing and then sort of, you know, messing around in little boats and stuff and diving and swimming. So, I had this sort of this sort of freeform flow of life. As a kid I did do some homeschooling, but it wasn’t very much. So the things that dominated my headspace, were creative things. And I suppose on the flip side, it wasn’t really, it’s taken me a while to become attuned to the whole industry side of it the business. Because I didn’t, I wasn’t really tutored or groomed in those ways, to be like or give me a competitive edge.
Jimplecute: Your sister is also a musician. Does she do the same kind of music, or is she off in another direction?
Mishka: Well I think we both have a similar beginning in music which is sort of singer songwriter of folk music. Which is what my parents were really into growing up. We both have that as our beginnings, but then when she grew up and became interested in her own music, she got more in the rock kind of stuff. I got more interested to reggae and stuff like that so, we will have this sort of singer songwriter beginning of things that each was influenced by.
Jimplecute: Have y’all have y’all done anything together?
Mishka:We’ve toured and we’ve actually worked on a song together. It’s not released yet. We’re sort of still finishing it. It’s a single. We don’t see each other that often because we live in different parts of the world but when we do we play.
Jimplecute: Now in that same vein, who was your big family musical influence? I know there’s always that one family member you know who influences you. Mom dancing with you in the kitchen. Your brother turns you on your first vinyl etc. Who is your big family music influence?
Mishka: Well, that’s a good question. Because there are there are a few but I would say if there’s the first one that’s probably one of them. But it’s probably like Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, they’re like the three that would be all up there, you know, but I just couldn’t say which one is like the most
Jimplecute: Well was there someone inside your family? That was a bigger influence pushing you towards music?
Mishka: No, no pushing. It was very like, it was just a lot. I mean, it was just like music played all the time. Like my mom, I guess. I guess my mom would love to play music more than anyone. She would put in the 70s. It was back in the days of tape cassettes, right? So she would put tapes in all the time. That’s not to say, but my dad loved music, too. She was just the one that was the DJ. Cool, yes, my mom, my mom played a lot of music
Jimplecute: Roots Fidelity is your newest album, and it’s released on your own label. You’ve been on several different labels as you go along. What did you draw from the other guys that you took, when you built your own label? You follow what I’m saying here?
Mishka: Well, I mean, really agree to actually use the simple equation and realize it, it was realizing that I didn’t have to give anything away to a label to do very little physical and remote. To be honest, most of the labels I’ve worked with have not really been with any big label, since my very first album when I was a student of Sony Creation, right? 20 years ago, I mean, I’ve sort of been on independent labels. And as, the thing that’s happened is, that the platform has changed so much, there’s less and less physical distribution of CDs, and selfies and stuff, and more and more digital platforms. So it takes less manpower and less financial resources to get the music out there to everyone. So I think what I realized was that, it’s like, oh, well, sort of anyone can, can create their own label and put it up without a lot of overhead without, you know, a lot of investment.
Jimplecute: There’s this idea is that, is it just as easy? Do you find problems? Or is it just as easy to distribute? Because of aspects of, you know, you saw, I guess you sign up, per se, with Spotify, or Apple or Apple Music, or the Google music or all these other digital distribution platforms, you just kind of record, upload it, sign up with them and upload it to them and get going. Do you miss the brand recognition a big label gives? I guess it’s not as probably prevalent anymore, as it used to be either.
Mishka: Yes, it’s more of the work is more on the promotion side, for sure. Okay. Like literally, if even if you’ve never recorded something tomorrow, you can write today, here, you can record a song. And then by the end of the day, you can go on platforms like CD Baby or one of these kind of like aggregators that then put yourself on any, any and all platforms, right, and you don’t, you don’t have to be known or anything, you just do it and it takes 5% of the whatever, and then it suddenly is on iTunes, Spotify, everything. So like, that’s, that’s really, that’s changed, it’s put a lot more artists out there. And it’s made it a lot easier for everyone and anyone to put stuff out. But um, but again, this is really the promotion game. And that’s, that’s the part that’s more difficult, obviously independent because I don’t have the machine of a large label, or the fame of kind of hero Buffett or something, right? To share that Limelight with so it’s like, it’s it’s kind of six of one half a dozen of the other because it’s, you know, when someone wins, at the end of the day is your own thing.
Mishka is playing Friday, October 10, at 1852 on Austin Street. Tickets are $50 and available through Eventbrite.