Session Transcript:
Mira Calix
Red Bull Music Academy, Cape Town 2003

The video stream for this lecture can be watched here.

Chantal Passamonte, a.k.a Mira Calix, grew up in the siege economy of apartheid-era Durban / South Africa. Scarce imports drove her to leave the country, seeking musical immediacy. Once in London, her love for free-form bands, such as My Bloody Valentine and the Cocteau Twins propelled her towards what labels like Warp Records were doing circa '91, and pretty soon she was at the heart of this new electronic movement. Mira has been a heavy pusher of fresh sounds ever since, whether behind the counter at Ambient Soho; or convincing a member of the London Sinfonietta to play the violin with their teeth. When this girl scout with a knack for found sound is DJing and playing live all around Europe, her job is to pre-empt the future - and she’s not keeping any newsflash under wraps. All you have to do is ask.
»That's the point that I'm there for: it's to share what I think is really good.«

RBMA: »…you might know her best as Mira Calix (applause). But we're about to find out a lot of things that you might not know and about a pretty interesting path how she ended up back here in South Africa right here today. So let's start it out way back. You're born in Durban?«

Mira Calix: »Yeah, I was born in Durban and I haven't been back here for a long time and I landed up living in London, living in England like probably quite a lot of people.«

RBMA: »Was that like straight out of highschool or something ?«

Mira Calix: »No, I studied photography. And then I moved to London, really because I wanted to do a lot of things that I couldn't get here at that time 'cause I grew up under sanction. So I really wanted to be able to get gigs and I grew up sort of buying old copies of the Melody Maker. They used to get shipped in and we got them six weeks late, so everything you read about had already happened. And I really wanted to have that experience to go to things and do things and buy records. Records were very expensive then and I believe they are still very expensive now.«

RBMA: »So, when you ended up in London, where did you start working or what did you do to make a living? You're there in London, you gotta do something.«

Mira Calix: »Yeah, I had to do something, I did a lot of crappy jobs, I waitressed and did lots of things. And I landed up very luckily, by accident, working in a really great record shop called Ambient Soho. At the time I was doing bookings for a club, which was based at Heaven, which is quite a well-known club in London and it was called Megatripolis. I was doing bookings for the ambient room and I walked into this record shop that had just opened, called Ambient Soho, and obviously I saw the sign. So I went in and the guy who owned it was going away the next week and he asked if I could work. So he just left me the keys and I started working there and that was really great and basically, yeah, worked in a record shop. [I] got lots of really cheap records 'cause it was all like at cost and just got to listen to records all day and that's really the first time I heard a lot of Detroit [techno] stuff. I'd really come into electronic music through indie music, through bands like My Bloody Valentine and Stereolab and Spaceman 3. Bands who were using drummachines and who were using keyboards and synthesizers, but not really mainstream electronic stuff. And it doesn't stick to a verse/chorus pattern, so even if they're using guitars, which I really still love, the actual structure of tracks is quite free. So it was very similar at that time, that was '91, '92 and it was very similar to stuff that was coming out on Warp. Even though it sonically sounded different, it had the same feeling in the sense, that the structures were very open.«

RBMA: »That was a pretty exciting time, there was so much going on. It was almost like an electronic music revolution that was happening internationally.«

Mira Calix: »Yeah, and I think especially - I mean, internationally differently - but especially in England, because at that time (coughs) - sorry, I'm really dry - the first Autechre album came out. You had the Aphex Twin Ambient Works and you had a lot of that stuff. There were a lot gigs and a lot of people doing their first gigs in London and lots of parties and really good things.«

RBMA: »So from throwing these parties, did you ended up playing at them? I mean, you're working at the record store, you must have all the hot records.«

Mira Calix: »I landed up playing by accident because I was working in this club and they were doing a night and they asked if I could play and I just went: "Yes !" But I didn't really have a clue. I'd never even really looked to the mixer. So, I just got all my shit together and took it down there and just played it. And, erm, not very well, I still have that problem. But I got another gig and then I got another gig. So, I kept playing and people kept booking me, I must have been doing something right. But it wasn't the mixing part of it. And that was it, really, it just kept going and it's been ten years of just wandering around going: "Oh, they have booked me, fantastic!"«

RBMA: »So back then, when you were booked, what DJ name did you use?«

Mira Calix: »Oh, I was just using my name 'cause my name is Chantal.«

RBMA: »So the name Mira Calix, does that come with the productions ?«

Mira Calix: »Yeah. I did my first record in '96 for Warp and it was just a two tracker 10". At the time I was actually working at the company and I didn't really want to put a record out under my name. I was a little bit bashful and so this name kind of appeared. It's one of those things that just made sense. I really can't explain it in any other way. I wrote it down and it looked good, I really liked the phonetics, that sounded really nice and it sounded like a nice person. So, I used it.«

RBMA: »Yeah, I always thought it would be some weird Scandinavian lady.“

Mira Calix: »Yeah, there's actually a town in Sweden called Calix, but I didn't know that at the time.«

RBMA: »So, you start DJing, this is like going OK and how did you go on working at Warp?«

Mira Calix: »Erm, because I did a lot of jobs, basically. I did a lot of jobs all at once. I worked for a record company called 4AD, which is probably best known for The Pixies. I don't know, if anyone here knows The Pixies.«

RBMA: »…I'd say, they're best known for their album covers…«

Mira Calix: »…and for their album covers.«

RBMA: »The Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance.«

Mira Calix: »And Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance. And This Mortal Coil, old bands I really love. So, I was working there and I was running a fanzine with some friends and we were reviewing a lot of Warp stuff we got sent in. One day I phoned up to speak to the girl who did the press stuff and she'd left, so I applied for the job and did loads of interviews and got there.«

RBMA: »When did you start working there?«

Mira Calix: »I started working there in '93.«

RBMA: »So this is pretty early.«

Mira Calix: »Yeah.«

RBMA: »So, what was it like when you first came there? What was the first release you were responsible for?«

Mira Calix: »I did Amber [Autechre Album from 1994].«

RBMA: »Oh, really?«

Mira Calix: »I did that freelance before I got a job there.«

RBMA: »(laughs) Not that Amber!«

Mira Calix: »No (laughter).«

RBMA: »How long did you do the press stuff? I could imagine that can get really aggravating?«

Mira Calix: »Yeah, it does get aggravating. I did it for about three years. But it was a good job, mainly because it was a lot of music that I really loved. And that was my motivation for doing it. I really wanted to do other people to hear this stuff and press is not a really great job. But you get to actually try and communicate and it's a step along from working in a record shop. In a record shop people come in and you say: "You should really buy this, it's great!" And when you do PR, that's what you're doing, you're trying to get it out there.«

RBMA: »You do this first record. And when did it go from recording to performing? Did you ever perform?«

Mira Calix: »I actually started playing live this year.«

RBMA: »OK.«

Mira Calix: »So I'm a real slow person. Before that, I've just been DJing, but it went really from that first record, which I - at that time honestly - just thought, 'I've put a record out and that's it. I've got it, this little piece of vinyl and I can show it to my grandchildren and - fantastic!' And I'd really didn't think that it would go much further than that. Simply, because I was just making tracks for myself. But after a while, I carried on making tracks and Steve and Rob, who owned the label, they really pushed me and just offered me a deal and kicked me out the office, which was a bit of a nuisance. And that was it, really.«

RBMA: »That's cool.«

(music: Mira Calix – Sparrow)

Mira Calix: »That's Sparrow, that's from my first album.«

RBMA: »So, that was recorded like '95 or '96?«

Mira Calix: »That was recorded in probably '97/'98.«

RBMA: »After your first album did the DJ gigs really picked up? More people asking you internationally?«

Mira Calix: »Erm, yes, but actually I've been doing a lot of that before.«

RBMA: »OK.«

Mira Calix: »So I've been playing in Europe mostly. The one thing about the kind of stuff I tend to play more in Europe than I do at home, weirdly enough. It's great 'cause I've been to Latvia, Slovakia, lots of places I would have never ever seen. And Iceland. You know, it's pretty amazing. Obviously, I'm sure it picked up if you put a record out, it always does. But I'd been playing quite a lot before that. So it was just a continuation.«

RBMA: »And when you go out and play do you play abstract music?«

Mira Calix: »I tend to, yeah. I mean, I tend to play… it really varies. It depends where I'm playing. Because I've done a lot of playing with bands, opening up before them and playing between bands. I really like doing that sort of things, so I do a lot of gig stuff. And it depends very much who I'm playing with, because I've got a really wide taste and a very broad record collection and I tend to sort of... have to… you can't carry your record collection with you. Well, you can in an mp3 player, but I tend to play with records, you can only carry so much. So I tend to sort of try and go with what I'm playing and be sympathetic to whom I'm playing with because I'm usually playing with people I like. I don't play with people I'm not into.«

RBMA: »What's an example of a band that you've toured with? Like the music of the evening?«

Mira Calix: »I've played a lot of one-off's, obviously with a lot of Warp artists. I've played with a band called Pram, who I really like.«

RBMA: »Oh yeah, Too Pure.«

Mira Calix: »Too Pure, yes. And, I'm trying to think… a lot of the Sähkö people. I don't know, lots.«

RBMA: »So you usually play off vinyl, so how do crowds react? Do people still stare at you like you're supposed to be like...«

Mira Calix: »...an exhibit.«

RBMA: »Acting like, maybe if you touch the bass fader and so 'hah !' (makes an exaggerated move on the mixer)«

Mira Calix: »I think it depends where you play. Sometimes I've had that and it's really freaky because I don't do much. I'm not Jeff Mills, you know? And I'm not a sort of, whatever, craze or something. I'm not there freaking out on the mixer. I think when lots of people look at you, you sort of think, 'There's nothing to look at, you might as well look over there'. But in other places people just have a good time, they dance or they sit around or they do whatever they want. I've had those kind of gigs where everyone is [staring]. But the thing is, when everyone's right there, it's usually because they're really interested and you have to sort of remember, although it's intimidating to have a wall of faces in front of you, they wanna know what the records are. My best is, when people trying to read labels as they go 'round, which I think is practically impossible.«

RBMA: »You know who figured it out?«

Mira Calix: »No, I just hand them the record sleeve 'cause you can see they're just straining, you know? I don't sort of feel it's a secret, I'm quite happy to tell people what I'm playing. That's the point that I'm there for: It's to share what I think is really good, so I'm quite happy to actually share it and not make them trying to figure out what white label it is or something.«

RBMA: »And your gigs, where was one of the most bizarre times you've had, playing in front of people or a strange gig?«

Mira Calix: »I've had a lot of bizarre experiences, but I think a really great one was in Iceland. Because it was in a school and you couldn't smoke and I seriously need to smoke when I play and everybody was seated, proper school halls, everybody was seated on school chairs. It was very strange because I started playing and people would clap more or less after each record. And I thought, 'OK, this is pretty surreal', though I kept going I did not experience that before. And then, after about half an hour, I put on Windowlicker [by Aphex Twin], which hadn't actually come out yet; and it was the most amazing thing, you just saw chairs flying, literally. Everyone just got up and all these chairs just moved to the side in about 30 seconds and after that it was just crazy.«

RBMA: »So how often do you go into the studio? What motivates you to go into the studio?«

Mira Calix: »Usually just craziness. I actually just really need to be there. Because I go away and I talk quite a lot, I don't have lots of time in the studio and it's really quite precious to me. When I have time in the studio it tends to be in short blocks and I go in because I really wanna go in and have some fun. For me, going in the studio, it's just a chance to play; although I use analogue synths and I use a computer and I use a lot of digital stuff. I also really like recording and using found sounds, so I made a record that's pretty much just made of pebble sounds. It's an adventure, it's like being a girl scout or something. So you got to get out and record stuff and then you got to get inside and play with it. And, you know, all the gigging and stuff is great and I really enjoy it, but I think probably most of the people here make music, when you're in the studio, that's when you're really happiest because it's when you get to make yourself happy. And there is no other element that is going to distract you from that. I did this project last year, that basically it was to do with the Museum of National History in Geneva. And the idea was to compose a track just made out of insect sounds and then to go and perform it in the museum, which was pretty amazing, because I was sort of standing there under a dinosaur's skeleton and stuff. I had to make 30 minutes of music.«

(noise from a trash compactor from outside the streets)

RBMA: »Based on a trash compactor (laughing)?«

Mira Calix: »Yeah, why not. So there was this idea of writing a piece, but you couldn't add anything to it so you had to just make it with the insects and you could affect them, you could do things to them, but you couldn't add any instrumentation, whatsoever. This is just a little part of it. They actually gave me a lot of insect sounds and the rest of the stuff. I actually just put a microphone in a shoebox and just put it outside - basically just to protect it from the wind. So you've got really simple sort of school kids stuff. That's a really good way 'cause you can just leave, leave it running and just come back to it and hear what you've got.«

(plays some of the insect music and rolls another cigarette).

»[I] basically took this piece earlier this year and worked with the London Sinfonietta, which is an orchestra. And we did the piece again, but we did it with an orchestra and the material that I had, which I sort of reworked. And then, we actually had live insects on stage at the south bank of the Royal Festival Hall, which is the first time they have ever done that. That was quite amazing. We managed to get tiny little cameras in there. And [the insects] they were not supposed to eat each other up. But for some reason they decided that there was gonna be a massacre, so there were lots of people squirming in the audience. And there was a huge, I don't know, sort of 20-30 meter screen of all this insect annihilation, but I actually thought it was great. It was alive, you know, it really worked.«

RBMA: »You talked about working with this symphony [orchestra]. Do you draw from any classical music background?«

Mira Calix: »I didn't really sort of grow up listening to classical music. I do love a lot of, I guess more contemporary classical or what's considered classical, but maybe it's more sort of early computer music that mixes with that.«

RBMA: »Like [Iannis] Xenakis?«

Mira Calix: »Yeah, like Xenakis and Stockhausen and things like that. I really love string instruments. I tend to like all instruments made of wood. So I've got a wood thing going on and I record a lot of wood and I love the sound of wood - pianos and strings and cellos and stuff. So for me working with this Sinfonietta was amazing, because they're very talented people. And just actually getting to hear what they could do with those instruments, because we were working on this idea of the insects, so they were trying to make insect sounds with instruments. Which is actually - on the one hand, it sounds very corny - but when you hear it, it sounds pretty amazing. These people can really work these quite simple, small instruments and make such incredible sounds come out of them that you don't normally get to hear. You normally hear great violinists play Vivaldi, but this was actually hearing great violinists do that.«

RBMA: »Creep you out.«

Mira Calix: »Yeah.«

RBMA: »That sounds actually like a pretty amazing experience because it seems like they're stuck in the sequencer mode or something, and you know that they are fantastic musicians. You know, that they live and breath these instruments.«

Mira Calix: »And it's people with perfect pitch and people with just amazing ears and I think in any experience like that, you learn something. It was great, because I learned something, but they did too. So, it was good.«

RBMA: »Was that version recorded and will that be released?«

Mira Calix: »It was. I think, it will be released at some point. It was an evening, where they actually scored - that was an emphasized piece that we rehearsed and worked on - but they scored a Boards Of Canada track and a Squarepusher track and an Aphex Twin track. And that evening, they also did a Stockhausen piece and they did [Gyorgy] Ligeti and John Cage stuff. It was quite an amazing evening of really - they sort of called it 'Contemporary Masters' or whatever something to that effect. So it was all those kind of pieces and then they just scored electronic tracks.«

RBMA: »How big was it actually, like a full 72-piece?«

Mira Calix: »Sinfonietta is basically half an orchestra, so it's half a symphony 'cause a symphony orchestra can go up to hundreds. So it's just one set of each section.«

Participant: »Can you tell us more about working with an orchestral arrangement?«

Mira Calix: »What I did was, I actually had the piece and it was actually that section of the piece. I do have the live recording of the orchestra version.«

RBMA: »OK, let's put that out.«

Mira Calix: »But I need to learn how to skip [the CD player], because it's the whole evening.«

RBMA: »OK, time to rock the deck!«

Mira Calix: »(to the participant) And then you can actually hear the difference. Basically, we scored the keynotes from the piece because all the string sections are made from wasps. That's how I did it.«

RBMA: »Not the synths?«

Mira Calix: »No, there is no synths.«

RBMA: »Not a wasp synth?«

Mira Calix: »No, actual wasps. So we worked from that and then we worked on an improvisational situation, where I had my MAC and they listened to the piece and then we started to basically try and get them to improvise certain insect sounds and took it from there. It was really just sitting around and playing bits. So it wasn't fully scored, it was a semi-scored situation and then took it from there. They had quite a lot of input, although obviously I could say: "That sounds really great, we need a bit more, with the clarinet," or whatever. So, it worked as a group.«

(plays the CD and rolls a cigarette).

»It was pretty amazing. Right at the beginning, there was actually a woman. The whole way that was performed, the surround sounds, obviously a lot of that you don't get on the recording, but one of the violinists played her violin with her teeth, so that scraping that you hear at the beginning is just this woman playing it with her teeth (laughing). It's pretty mad to look at.«

RBMA: »Don't those halls have like natural acoustic resonance and stuff?«

Mira Calix: »They do. And then it's also mic[rophon]ed up and it's a beautiful big theatre. It's quite incredible.«

Participant: »You were speaking about Stockhausen earlier. Something amazing about Stockhausen is, that he is being on the cutting edge for about 50 years. We had 50 years to try and digest the bastard and we still...«

Mira Calix: »...can't ! (laughing) But that's 'cause he's got more extreme nice and crazy operas with gremlins and things.«

Participant: »...and helicopters. That was even like about ten years ago. I'm just wanting to know in your opinion, and purely in your opinion, be as indulgent as you like: Who do you thing at the moment is making stuff that is beyond that time and will influence people for the next like 20 or 50 years. Just in the way Stockhausen started with in 1954 with his crazy stuff that was going to influence Cage, that is going on to influence probably all of us today, even if we might not know that.«

Mira Calix: »Even though we're not aware of it.«

Participant: »Of course. Who for you is making stuff that is out there and beyond that time?«

Mira Calix: »It is pretty difficult! I'd probably say Autechre. But if you're looking in a sort of classical world, if you sort of look at that side of things, although it is older stuff, I'd say Tod Dockstader, because I think that's really, it's probably really coming to it's own now. I think we hear a lot of stuff that actually sounds so much like what he was doing, but he was doing it on tape and now people do it with VST-plug-in's and stuff. But from that sort of world, I would say, it definitely fits in that description. But it's hard with people who are contemporaries, people who are around because it's hard to sort of see. I think you more have to look at it, people don't get it now, but they probably get it at some point in the future. The reason I said Autechre was, because that guy that I used to work for in the record shop, he had this thing: whenever they brought an album out, he started listening to the album before and then he'd say: "Oh, I'm getting into that now," so he had this thing going, he was always one album behind, which to me is an indication of it, being slightly too forward.«

Participant: »I've got a friend, as far as music of this time, who is convinced of music of Muslimgauze being the same angle. As much as I tried to listen to the hundreds of Muslimgauze records, I can't see it myself. What's your interpretation of his work?«

Mira Calix: »I'm not incredibly familiar with that, I've got one Muslimgauze record, which I really, really like, but it's hard for me to say, because I don't know it all, but that is a really beautiful record, but it's very old now.«

Participant: »He's apparently done hundreds of them. There seemed to be one a week for a while coming out. It's a very strange mentality, like, I’m not sure how his hearing process works. He’s hearing not like a normal person, he's doing something that is so particular to him, that he has to do it, it's like a driven thing. I mean, unfortunately, he has died now, but I was wondering if you could confirm that, because a whole lot of Muslimgauze is coming out the last month or so and maybe he's not...«

Mira Calix: »I don't know, because as far as I knew, he died a good four years ago.«

Participant: »Yeah, about three or four years ago. But it seems the releases just keep coming.«

Mira Calix: »I don't know. Maybe it's a friend?«

RBMA: »Super actors to have a movie.«

Mira Calix: »Yeah (laughing). But it's not quite the same situation. I don't think his record company has the idea like going 'we must cash-in now!' I don't know what the story is but I also heard that he died.«

RBMA: »Any further crowd participation? One more?«

Participant: »I was just wondering if Warp are gonna release that night of music with the score of the Squarepusher?«

Mira Calix: »Yes, I think they are. I think they'll release all the Warp stuff. I don't know if they'll do the sort of John Cage and Ligeti 'cause it's obviously harder to get the agreements for all of that. But as far as I know, we're actually going to - 'cause that [night] was just in London, it was a one-off - and we're going to do the whole evening, the whole program again in Holland and Belgium and France in June, so I think they'll release it then. They'll probably link it up.«

RBMA: »Well, ladies and gentlemen, I think it's time to...«

Mira Calix: »...go to the beach and go up the mountain and actually see something.«

RBMA: »I'd like to thank, Mira. Chantal!«

(applause)