Name: Sabine Wenzl aka Mieke Miami
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, improviser, producer
Nationality: German
Current release: Mieke Miami's new album Birdland is out via Sonar Kollektiv on September 27th 2024. First single "Whispering Pines," which is out now, offers a first taste of what's to come.
Recommendations: The collected autobiographies of Maya Angelou; Duke Ellington: Masterpieces by Ellington

If you enjoyed this Mieke Miami interview and would like to keep up to date with her music, visit her on Instagram, and Facebook.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

Good for you! I see colours when I'm dealing with numbers and names - a totally pointless form of synaesthesia.

Music for me is often linked to movements. Not that I could carry them out. But the idea of them (like e.g. a layup in basketball or birds gliding in the sky) is very much linked to movements in music.

To me the perfect way to listen to music is trough headphones, looking out the window while riding a train. If I want I can close my eyes then (big advantage compared to car).

Entering new worlds and escapism through music have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to listening to and creating music?

Making myself feel better.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience?

As a small kid singing in a little group of other kindergarten kids, taking it way to serious. I always regarded music, composing and performing as the highest most important, most admirable thing. I have no idea why that is - there is literally no example in my family for musicianship.

I do remember, though, my father unsuccessfully practicing the bavarian instrument Zither in the room next to my bedroom nearly every evening.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

Actually my deepest musical experience I had when I was 6 listening to the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's album - that absolutly shook my existence.

When I was 14 I picked up the saxophone and started getting into jazz. At that time I was looking for truth and the meaning of life, hoping to find it in jazz. Somehow stayed the same ever since - looking for truth in all kinds of music.

How would you describe your own relationship with your instrument, tools or equipment?

Super un-attatched. I am glad when somethings sounds great and I know how it works and that's it.

When I'm drunk I like to talk about saxophone mouthpieces.

Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

I feel we are all filters for the big thing that is everything. So I don't  fancy the idea of inspiration because I don't feel that I am making or creating ideas, they just thankfully happen to come and my personality, skills, experiences are the filter they run through.

But listening to music and any kind of personal experiences shape the filter and influence the outcome.

Are you acting out parts of your personality in your music which you couldn't or wouldn't in your daily life? If so, which are these?

In real life we have many roles. Like I am a mom, a teacher, a wife, a friend, a neighbour … in music it's me in relation to no one else. Responsible to nobody.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music?

Honesty, curiosity, dedication.

If music is a language, what can we communicate with it? How do you deal with misunderstandings?

Music, like any other art, expresses things we cannot communicate through words. If I could say what these things are this statement wouldn't make any sense.

There are no misunderstandings. I think it's beautiful and super interesting when a song means something completly different to someone than to me. People would be surprised to learn how many of my songs are about death.

Making music, in the beginning, is often playful and about discovery. How do you retain a sense of playfulness and how do you still draw surprises from tools, approaches and musical forms you may be very familiar with?

I like to play instruments I am not trained to play like the guitar, bass and drums or even know nothing about like weird flutes or the bavarian zither. Not knowing what I am doing I have to rely entirely on my ear. It also prevents me from playing technically or head-driven.

I also like to record myself improvising like 4 or 5 times over the same piece  and later edit what works. Actually that is how most of my vocal melodies, bass lines and horn sections arise.

On keyboards I randomly chose preset sounds that have promising names. Like “Magneto” or “Crimson Horizon.”

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

As a parent I guess nothing beats the laughter of your child. But wait, that's human made.

Beeing in the woods or at the sea and hearing and feeling your surroundings breathe and live and being inside and part of this huge organism is similar to being swallowed by a piece of music. But actually it's even bigger.

I also once met an incredibly groovy dishwasher.

There seems to be an increasing trend to capture music in algorithms, and data. But already at the time of Plato, arithmetic, geometry, and music were considered closely connected. How do you see that connection yourself?
What aspects of music do you feel can be captured through numbers, and which can not?

When listening to Bach, the connection of balance, logic and beauty becomes very clear I think.

And of course music theory is a beautiful logic system based on math. That doesn't explain the magic, but that's like how biology (evolutional theory) can describe and explain the shape and texture of the feathers and the beak, but not the bird.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

Totally! Don't get me started! Actually my entire philosophy and attitude towards life, even religious beliefs are based on what I learn through and from music.  

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

Well - unless you lock yourself in a soundproof chamber there is never total silence. When it comes to total silence (no wind, no birds, no traffic): that's scary, it almost never happens except in moments of shock.

When it comes to music I would say contrast is everything. No dark - no light, no grief no joy, no silence no music. I even have favourite silences: the silence before an orchestra starts to play and the silence after a shockingly beautiful ballad.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more “mundane” tasks?

If you would spend a day with me you would become fully aware that making music is the only task I manage to carry out with full attention and concentration. Not that my coffee is bad, but the amount of effort and dedication I put into music can't be found in any other aspect of my life. (However I am certain that for a fine barrista the same goes for making coffee or dressing in a nice way for someone who loves fashion.)

There a several aspects to music. There is creating: through making music and writing lyrics I can access emotions and stories buried deep in my conciousness that I didn's even know were there and even if I did would never talk about. So I can relieve myself from all kinds of stuff, heavy or joyful. But in a way that is encoded and therefor safe for me, yet hopefully pleasurful for my enviroment.

When it comes to practicing an instrument it is just what you do to show music your respect and prepare yourself to be capable to channel whatever wants to be channeled. Sorry, very pretentious.

Performing is all about the moment, being present, finding a connection to the audience and hopefully exchanging energies with them.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I would love to see jazz thrive and become more relevant again.