In Conversation With #126 - Mouse
Bristol based artist Mouse has just released a piece of hyper pop perfection with her EP ‘Angels Never Die’ - she took a moment to talk to us about self-exploration and gender roles within the music industry.
Hey there Mouse, how are you? So your EP ‘Angels Never Die’ is out now, can you tell us the meaning behind the title?
That’s a really good question! I am… I am okay, thank you. It’s really interesting how different a release day feels when it’s for a whole body of work rather than just a single. It’s hard to summarise, and the emotions I’ve felt throughout this campaign have been unexpected. I had so many grand plans for things I wanted to arrange and do to promote the EP but truthfully, my mental, and sometimes physical, capacity to do them has been limited because of the pandemic. However, the EP itself has been the best reminder of my capability to survive through any circumstance. Angels Never Die represents the alternate reality I escape to when the real world feels too difficult. I named the EP after I wrote A.N.D., which lyrically manifests strength after a difficult part of my life. As 2020’s events unfolded, I realised I needed to call the EP ‘Angels Never Die’ to serve as a reminder that no matter what happens around you or how hard things might feel, you can and eventually will get through it.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from this process?
The whole thing was recorded in my home studio. I lost my job due to Coronavirus in late March and then almost immediately got lost in Logic Pro X, finishing tracks, producing others and beginning the recording process. It’s hard to pick out a favourite behind the scenes moment as this part honestly blurs into one for me, simply because of how much else was going on outside of my home studio space, pandemic-wise. Things were changing almost daily. However, I did vlog everything so I have started a Studio Diaries YouTube series. I want my YouTube channel to be a place where women and other underrepresented people can discover music production as that’s where I found out about it myself when I was a teenager. There are a few episodes available now and the rest will be coming, track by track. There are also videos about how I designed and sewed the skirt I’m wearing throughout the campaign imagery and more.
The EP itself is incredibly open, was this your intention?
Yes, but more so as an example for myself then to explain myself to anyone else. I really admire strong women who are able to write openly about gender equality, sex, even politics and other topics which it seems almost taboo still for women to do. I wanted to know how it felt to release songs which were potentially controversial in some ways, by my own standards. It’s actually incredibly liberating.
The track ‘Unladylike’ challenges gender-norms, can you tell us a bit more about that? Do you feel the music industry is making progress when it comes to gender?
Yes, but more so as an example for myself then to explain myself to anyone else. I really admire strong women who are able to write openly about gender equality, sex, even politics and other topics which it seems almost taboo still for women to do. I wanted to know how it felt to release songs which were potentially controversial in some ways, by my own standards. It’s actually incredibly liberating.
I don’t really feel the industry is making strides towards equality. However, I am finding more pockets of women who are doing similar things to me. I recently read an article about why more women aren’t signed to major labels. It takes so much money financial input from a label to develop a female artist, primarily because having the right look is very important. These things are expensive to maintain and because the aesthetic of a male artist isn’t as important, significantly more men are given the opportunity to have professional development. Of course, this might not be the end goal for many women, which has merit too, but I think it’s really interesting to think about. My track ‘Unladylike’ explores a woman’s relationship with anger. Society teaches us an angry women is a bad one or a wrong one or an undesirable one. It teaches us to suppress our anger and not speak out on issues of injustice, no matter the size. However, anger itself is neutral and it’s what you do with the anger that makes it a positive or a negative emotion, regardless of gender identity.
What are the key themes and influences on the EP?
The biggest key theme for me throughout Angels Never Die is self-exploration and discovery. That might not be reflected so much in the music, but it was subconsciously what I needed while I was writing it. My influences are always very varied musically, but thematically, Angels Never Die is a mixture of reflections on real life, stories from my imagination and accounts of professional rejection. Heavy Crown and Unladylike were written after being made redundant a few years ago, for example. That does sound pretty dry on the outside though so I like the idea of anyone interpreting their own meaning for what they hear!
Do you have a favorite lyric on the EP? If so, which one and why?
That’s a great question… I’m genuinely very proud of all the lyrics on the EP. If I really had to whittle it down though, it’d either be “look inside you, home was there all along” from A.N.D. or “you know the way to thaw my heart” from Love Me Like You’re Gonna Lose Me. The latter because that song is written about someone very special to me who I met after I had finished a course of psychotherapy. Prior to that, people would describe me as cold or having a heart of stone, usually satirically, but it was true. I learned to love myself and others through that time. As for the former, so much was changing around each of us due to the pandemic. I rediscovered my home within myself through music which helped me cope hugely.
There is a real blend of sounds on this EP, a mixture of hyper-pop, club and even a tad of emo. What were you listening to while writing this EP?
It’s really funny because when I was actually producing the EP, I was hardly listening to anything which remotely sounds like what I do. My cognitive capacity to listen to lyrics when I was dealing with what was going on in the world was so limited, so I mainly listened to ambient music. I still do listen to a lot of it, and jazz too. However, very early on I was listening to Lady GaGa, Kim Petras and Rina Sawayama. That’s a line up I want to see when all this is over…
Now the EP is out there, what next for you?
TEEN (who produced Love Me Like You’re Gonna Lose Me with me) and I have a few more tracks up our sleeves. I’m currently working on a track I love with Jonny Parry (RVBY, Rampton Prom) and there is a really special version of this EP in production at the moment. I’m going to give these tracks a totally different feel and it’s going to be so nice to get to show them off in a much “heavier” light. In the meantime, I’m going to force myself to stop for a few weeks at least to reflect on this EP. I’m currently working on recognising when I need a break, and this certainly feels appropriate!