MIA Discusses Queer Fanbase + Influences On New LP

Logo's NewNowNext sat down with MIA this week to address her new LP, Kala, her tumultuous relationship with Diplo, and her gay fans. Read the entire interview HERE; snippets from the Q&A can be found below. My MIA Siren pics can be enjoyed via this link.

When Logo launched a couple of years ago, I was interviewing people at Wigstock, and when asked what new artist they loved, all the drag queens and club kids and DJs and music fans all said “M.I.A.! M.I.A.! M.I.A.!” Have you noticed that you’ve got so many queer fans?
Yeah... [laughs] Every time “10 Dollar” comes on there’s always more and more screams from guys. I don’t know; they’ve been really supportive. When I did the Siren Festival this weekend and I walked through the VIP bit, and it was all of the gay guys who were cheering, maybe because I had sequins on. It was really cute... But I think it’s because... Well, I don’t know. Maybe because this new song is called “Boyz”? I don’t know... [laughs]

I really like the single, and I’m eager to hear the entire new album, Kala. How will this new album be different? What will people hear that will surprise them?
Well, I did most of the production and stuff with Switch on this album, but I wanted to be able to produce by myself and stuff. Whereas on Arular, I was in my bedroom for six months writing the album, and then I went out to different producers and got beats and just worked on it. It was really instant and easy. On this one, because I was having all the visa issues and stuff, I’d record all the drums in India, and then I’d be in Trinidad and record a different layer, and then I’d go somewhere else. So every song is recorded in layers, and each layer is a different country, and then I cut it into songs. It was like making a big layered marble cake. And then I separated it out into songs and stuff.

And mentality-wise, at the time I wrote Arular, I was just going through what I think everybody was going through, culturally... We were going through the war stuff; every channel you’d put on, every newspaper you’d read, it was like, so aggressive and you were bombarded with “evil,” “good,” “bad,” “terror,” and this and that. And I felt that my life wasn’t an environment that I owned anymore, you know? And I think it’s now not all so obvious; it’s all really more about undercurrents of stuff. At the time I wrote Arular, I felt that I was having aggressive political statements made at me, and we were getting told how to be a certain way, so I made my album like that. I used the same sort of thing and speech that was in the atmosphere... And on this album I was having female issues.

MP3: MIA - Pull Up The People