The artists who inspire Mitski
Though she exists within a modern crop of indie folk women channelling their successes and struggles into songwriting, it’s difficult to lump Mitski in alongside the rest. Her songwriting weaves vulnerability with poetry, her lyrics carrying all the weight of the heartbreaks and anxieties she describes. Her music is unflinchingly intimate, infused with her own personal experiences, but it’s also universal.
Mitski explores themes such as longing and loneliness, soundtracked by instrumentals that are just as intimate as the themes they accompany. As a consequence, her music has endeared itself to young women worldwide. Mitski has become the voice of her generation, likely inspiring a whole new crop of songwriters – but who does she look to for inspiration?
With her nuanced sound and theatrical songwriting, her pop sensibilities and devastating lyrics, it’s no surprise that Mitski takes influence from a wide range of artists. She looks both to musicians who came before her and to those who surround her, previously noting her love both for Hungarian composer Bartók Béla Viktor János and Frank Ocean.
The singer-songwriter explained the continued relevance of Bartók in her episode of What’s In My Bag?, suggesting that he writes “great melodies that we can learn from today. It’s just like folk melodies. It’s just very… Bartók’s very pop”.
Mitski listened to classical music during high school but also grew up on American pop music. According to her interview with The New Yorker, the revelation that music could diverge from mainstream pop came in the form of Jeff Buckley, who introduced her to a different form of songwriting. The discovery of experimental creatives like M.I.A. and Björk proved to her that “you can do what you want – it doesn’t have to be this pop formula, and you don’t have to have this voice or look this way.”
Mitski also takes inspiration from her Japanese heritage, citing Ringo Sheena’s Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana as the album she wishes to make: “It’s my favourite album in that there’s so much attention to detail, so many instruments. It was a great feat for her as a solo artist to make, so I think I was turned to that album.”
Be The Cowboy, Mitski’s fifth record, which spawned some of her biggest hits, including ‘Washing Machine Heart’ and ‘Nobody’, comprised a multitude of muses. As revealed in a playlist by producer Patrick Hyland, the record took inspiration from the likes of ELO, Talking Heads, Connie Converse, David Bowie, Beach House, Prince and more.
Speaking with Golden Plec, Hyland explained some of the record’s influences in more detail, sharing, “Frank Ocean is one artist that both Mitski and I are both extremely fond of and an inspiration we’ve shared for as long as we’ve known each other. I can remember ‘Lens’ in particular coming up for me while we were making ‘Two Slow Dancers’, the idea of a song starting with just electric piano and vocal and then building from there. I also think that it has a bit of the stark, theatrical quality that we were chasing throughout Be The Cowboy.”
From Bartók to Buckley, Mitski’s influences are as expansive as her discography. It’s not hard to see how Ocean’s vulnerability or Beach House’s dreamy soundscapes have filtered through to her own output. Her unique sound represents a collage of her influences and inspirations, each contributing to her artistry.
