Welcome to the Eclectic Picks Interview, presented by Arpraxis.

THE ECLECTIC INTERVIEWS

We thought it’d be great fun to delve into the musical psyche of some of our favourite artists and get the low down on their influences, vision and more. To start the EP interviews, this week’s special guests, South Acid Mimi from Kunming, China – who coincidentally have only just curated the Eclectic Picks.

SOUNDING OUT SOUTH ACID MIMI

ARP: Thank you for accepting our invitation to be out first interviewees. We are thrilled to have this moment with you to find out a little more about you and your music. Your name is out there…how to you come about choosing it?

Mimi: We probably got drunk and made up the name as a joke. That was eleven years ago.

ARP: You’ve got a very unique sound which is phenomenal, did anything influence this?

Mimi: We grew up in the Chinese rock’n’roll scene，and started an all-girls punk rock band when we were teenagers，every songs we played. Every experience of body and soul being baptised by music and those years we spent together, and growing together is an important factor.

ARP: Your track ‘Original Soul’ has caught many of our teams ears, what’s their story behind the track?

Mimi: Actually, there was no specific story behind that. Many lyrics are written unconsciously，like automatic，then turn off our rational brain then follow the lights，to find the Original Soul came from a deep place within us. It’s about exploring and expressing a raw, unpolished spirit, and we hope listeners can find a connection with that.

ARP: Listening to MIMISM conjures up so many visuals for me, I see it as an electronic particles unfolding and giving birth to a parallel universe, and everyone’s invited. Am I on or off track with this?

Mimi：Wow，Thats an exciting picture. We hope MIMISM provides a surreal experience, making listeners feel as though they’re entering another world.We‘d love to chill with you in that parallel universe.

ARP: If any of our readers and artists were to ask you to remix one of your tracks, would you have any parameters for then to stick to or would it be the rules or there are no rules?

Mimi: There’s No rules and no limit. We’d love to see how different artists interpret our music in their own way. Birthday wish：“ Every artist in the world can express themselves freely.” (ARP: Whose going to be the first person to ask South Acid Mimi then eh?!)

ARP: How strong is the club scene in your area and do you like the way it has evolved?

Mimi: Club culture is always booming in China，but We don’t go outside very often now. We are building our own club at home, our own open air dance floor in the garden， “Be farmer my friend”. (ARP: Hey Eclectic Picks, you know that venue we’ve been searching for, the one for an Eclectic Picks Festival…I think we e found it….whoooah.)

ARP: Are there any artists you like to work with in the future?

Mimi: We have been working with some good friends as a collective named Silver Cloud. We hope to incorporate more new elements and different partners to perform in different places or on other planets. (ARP: I’m going to listen to Holst for some inspiration.)

ARP: How important was it for you to use aspects of Lisu culture in your music, or was is just a part of you?

Mimi: Lisu culture isn’t just an element for us; it’s a part of our identity. It naturally flows into our music. Our song “岩” is an ancient Lisu poem recorded in an old book, but no one can pronounce it.00 ask her mother’s friend . He used to be a Lisu announcer on the radio station before he retired, but there is no such job demand now. This strengthened our determination to continue writing songs in Lisu.

ARP: Who are some of the artists that you think have produced great music? What grabbed you about their music?

Mimi: From the doors to yeah yeah yeahs to fever ray、la femme，Their sounds are gender ambiguous，and breaking the boundaries of species. this GREAT music has always influenced us positively, There are too many great artists. We love The Prodigy…Keith Flint forever！

ARP: If you had a Time Machine that you could only use to change the course of music, would you use it and what for?

Mimi: If we had the chance to use a time machine, we might go back and experience different musical eras, like the rise of electronic music in the eighties, but we probably wouldn’t change anything. Every era of music has its own significance.

ARP: ”Mimi is leading the dance, the young people can not stop” Where are you on this journey? Is there more to come?

Mimi: The Internet’s memory reminds us that it was September of 2015. We were on a tour of 14 cities in China.We went on many tours after that. We are already recording a new album，Maybe be able to go on a new tour abroad next year.

Huge thanks to South Acid Mimi for sharing your wonderful views and thoughts. We are so grateful. Let South Acid Mimi and us have your comments, questions and remix requests below.

You can check out the music of South Acid Mimi here:

• South Acid Mimi on Bandcamp
• South Acid Mimi on Spotify
• South Acid Mimi on Youtube

FOR NOW…THE END
Hold tight, we have more interviews lined up for you from the world of Drum and Bass, the mastering engineers who may well have polished your fave dance floor stompers from the 90s til now and funked up disco stereo speaker huggers.

Is there an artist, producer or music-related you’d like us to get in contact with to sound out? Let us know in the comments.