Part 1

Name: Miist
Nationality: Chinese
Occupation: Pianist, composer, singer-songwriter
Current Release: Miist's latest new single “The Bruises Won't Ever Understand” is out via Ephemeral.
Recommendation for Harbin, China: People from all over the world go to Harbin in winter to see the Ice Sculptures. It’s a very unique experience. Everyone should see it once if they can.
Topic that I am passionate about but rarely get to talk about: My podcast is part of my music but it’s also a extension of what I want to achieve with my music. It is called Make Me Smile with Miist. It is a health and wellness podcast with my original music in every episode. The goal of the podcast is to remind people to do the 15-second actions I mentioned earlier to change their world, however, the podcast gives me a platform to go more into the science and psychology behind each action and the issue we are trying to solve.
 
If you enjoyed this Miist interview and would like to know more about her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, and Facebook.



When it comes to experiencing strong emotions as as a listener, which albums, performances, and artists come to mind?

I grew up listening to a lot of a Singaporean singer-songwriter Stefanie Sun’s songs. She took me on different journeys in life. I felt her emotions in the songs, and experiencing my early loves when listening to her songs.



So even these days, when I sing her songs on my ukulele or listen to her songs, they still bring me back to those early days and make me feel what it was like to fall in love and out of love. Well - not sure it was “love”, but at least I thought it was “love” at the moment!

As I grew older and started listening to more English songs, I fell in love with the Carpenters, Barbara Streisand, ABBA and Adele and more, particularly 70s songs. They all have beautiful stories in their songs, and I love the throwback voice.

My favorite artist is Barbara Streisand. I think the way she sings every word is perfect for storytelling.



There can be many different kinds of emotions in art – soft, harsh, healing, aggressive, uplifting and many more. Which do you tend to feel drawn to most?

I love experiencing different emotions in songs and I’m open to whatever kind the singer and the music takes me on. I enjoy experiencing the journey, even emotions I’m not familiar with or those I normally don’t personally feel.

However, I find myself more drawn to sad songs. It’s almost like my body likes to and wants to experience some pain, but only from music.

Strangely - I don’t like to watch sad movies.

I have had a hard time explaining that listening to death metal calms me down. When you listen to a song or composition, does it tend to fill you with the same emotions – or are there “paradoxical” effects?

I think I can understand you. I experience both in different songs.

If it’s a happy, fun song, it makes me want to sing out loud with it and dance.
If it’s a sad story, painful emotion, I feel it in the song, I sing it with tears, however, afterwards I feel relief and calmness. I think that’s the healing power of sad songs, at least for me.

If I can feel the sadness in the singers song, it means the singer understands me. Knowing that someone else understands the way I feel tells me I'm not alone so it makes me feel better and gives me strength to endure it.

In as far as it plays a role for the music you like listening to or making, what role do words and the voice of a vocalist play for the transmission of emotions?

Some people write lyrics first or some melody first. Either way, if the emotion, the words, the melody, the arrangement and vocalist’s performance are all telling the same story, it almost always creates a great song. So I think they are all members of the same team or we can view it as a band.

If the words and the voice and the performance of the vocalist (good vocalists have different voices and different ways to perform a song) play their part correctly, it could make the song and if they don’t do the right things, it could also ruin the song. That’s why sometimes we hear a beautiful tune and say “Man, I wish it had better words,” or someone makes an old song famous by covering it differently.

In my songwriting, my husband and I work on the words and singing them in a way to tell the story I wish to tell. English is not my first language, so sometimes, I could emphasize the wrong word in a sentence or say things not perfectly nuanced and I understand that to tell the story - the way it is told - can mean the difference between something that sounds 'nice' and something that hits our heart.

A great vocalist realizes that and there are vocal coaches that make a very good living helping singers tell the right story.

When it comes to experiencing emotions as as a creator, how would you describe the physical sensation of experiencing them? [Where do you feel them, do you have a visual sensation/representation, is there a sense of release or a build-up of tension etc …]

I experience physical sensation very often when I listen to other people’s songs, or other musicians performances/recordings in my songs.

It usually starts from my arms - I get goose bumps and can feel the hair stand up. When it’s really good then it triggers a sensation on the back of my neck and it goes down from my neck to my back. And when it’s amazing, it almost numbs my neck and can become so intense that I have to scream a little. That sounds a bit strange hearing myself say that out loud.

I recently experienced the most intense version of the physical sensation, when I listened to Lili Haydn play violin on a new song of mine produced by Kitt Wakeley called "Looking for a Thread." It's about depression and the desperateness to find a reason to continue fighting. Lili understood what my soul was saying and performs an extemporaneous solo that gave me shivers up and down my body.

However, I don’t usually experience the physical sensation when listening to my own singing, I think it’s because I think too much when I listen to myself so I can’t fully experience it the way I enjoy other people’s work.

When it comes to composing / songwriting, are you finding that spontaneity and just a few takes tend to capture emotions best? Or does honing a piece bring you closer to that goal?

My most natural way of composing is to write only when I have a emotion that I want to write about. I rarely sit there and write for writing's sake.

The exception would be those days when I've been working on one of my many other projects like my Make Me Smile podcast that I start feeling an intense need to write music. Then I go to my closet and write something to get the 'itch' out.

But my writing is most powerful when my emotion is ready. I have to go into a very private space, in this case that is usually my closet. I keep it dark, and I close the door and lock myself in. I think the darkness and the quietness probably has something to do with helping me focus, helping me get in the flow, muting my left brain hemisphere that always wants to bring doubts into my thoughts and giving my right brain the freedom to work freely.

Once the emotion is ready and the right brain hemisphere has the freedom to work, usually in 5 to 15 minutes the emotion finishes the song. It’s more like the emotion turns the story into a visual sensation in my head that shows me a whole movie in front of my eyes. It has the beginning, the transition, the twist, the rollercoaster of emotions, the ending …

When I write with other people, sometimes I do work on a piece and rework it multiple times to meet our common goal. But again, my most natural way of writing is to work on the story and feel that emotion so that’s where most of the work goes and once the emotion is ready - and I'm in my closet - the song writes itself.

How much of the emotions of your own music, would you say, are already part of the composition, how much is the result of the recording process?

I would say 80% in the composition and 20% in recording. That 80% includes the melody and the lyrics.

Often, I'll write the melody first. I let the emotion take me on the journey. When I come out of my closet from writing I usually think 'OK. The story is finished'. But it is never complete until I tell my husband the story and we work on the words together. Then, when the words are done, I'm always surprised that the song is usually many times better than with only the melody.

The words are like the seasoning to food. They just make it so much better even though the original material might have been very good. The words enhance the flavor so much more than leaving it unseasoned - so I would say at that point the song is 80% done.

However during recording you are trying to present every word and phrase, every note and bar in such a way that it can be interpreted by listeners and mean something to them individually. The final part of that is the mastering engineer. I use Jett Galindo and she is like the ultimate presenter of a banquet. She makes it look and feel – perfect.