| Immediately after one of her sets at SXSW 2010, we sat down with Uffie for a chat about … everything.
Despite the success of one-off tracks like “Pop The Glock,” “Dismissed,” “Hot Chick,” and her song with Justice, “Tthhee Ppaarrttyy” (2006/2007), major interruptions and delays took hold, and we’re now, finally about to see a full, debut album. (Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans, May 31.) Uffie explains this and much more in an exclusive TheMusic.FM interview, below.. And don’t miss our video/audio of Uffie dropping new tracks live at SXSW 2010. |
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Uffie - MCs Can Kiss.mp3
Uffie – MCs Can Kiss [MP3]
We love “MCs Can Kiss.” What’s the inspiration for the song? Have you actually heard any criticism from rappers?
The sample MCs Can Kiss is from a song by Roxanne Shanté, who is someone I really like. Actually, I don’t really consider myself a straight-up rapper. To me, rapping — it’s almost mathematical. You know, to get the flow right, … it’s a lot of hard work and it’s a precise skill. And so, I never claim to be a rapper. And people are saying things like “oh I hate her because she thinks she’s this rapper, blah blah blah.”
So MCs Can Kiss was a bit like a “Dismissed Part 2″ in a way — like making light of the situation. So, I guess it it’s kind of like, “MCs, bring it. I never said I was one. It’s more to me about entertainment and music in general rather than being an MC.” So it was just making light of that situation.
So are you moreso pre-empting any possible criticism?
I’m trying to bring it!
Like to be on the offense, not the defense?
Yeah, I just knew it was going to come anyway. And with my album — it just got so intense, yet I had started music for fun, and I just felt I could bring the fun back and make light of every situation that I thought would come up.
And is that really you on saxophone at the end of “MCs Can Kiss?”
Do you not hear my mad skills? Haha. No, … I know — everyone’s so disappointed when they find out it’s not me. No, that’s Oizo being a jackass. That’s just a Oizo thing. But, when we’re live, we have a pianist, so I play it there — we have a sax sound. So it kind of becomes real in the live setting.
Yeah, I wasn’t sure who would have a real saxophone sitting around.
Yeah, I know. I wish I could say yeah. Now I should actually start lying and say yeah.
Too late.
Yeah, I ruined it!
So Ed Banger Records fans will be glad to hear you’ve worked with a lot of the crew on this record — Mr. Oizo (pronounced French-like: wah-zoe), Feadz, SebastiAn — …
Definitely. I’ve sucked all their talent dry!
What was the process like in working with them? Would you often work together in the same room or would they create something and send it to you?
Feadz and Oizo are the first guys that I worked with. Mirwais is actually the first guy I worked with outside of them.
Feadz and I — when we first started, we were “together,” so we would record in our living room. And how I would work with Mirwais is he’d send me beats and I’d write lyrics, record and then send it back.
It’s kind of sad because now everybody works through email. Like even if they’re down the street from you. So, you’ve got beats, they inspire you, you send it back. Even if it’s your friend and you’ll see them tonight and they’re down the street, it’s all through email.
And about the other producer on the album, Mirwais (pronounced Muhr-wise) — a lot of people don’t know much about him …
Yeah, it’s funny because nobody knows this guy who like wrote and made all the Madonna songs. So he helped me massively, because he helped me find myself — like my artistic confidence. Because I was working with Feadz since I started, and when we broke up — I think that’s why the album took a bit longer as well — I was kind of stuck because you don’t wanna work with your ex boyfriend, obviously!
So Mirwais and I got together and he really encouraged me to start singing, thinking outside of the box, experimenting a bit more.
How would you describe what we’re going to find on this album that we haven’t heard before from you?
| Feelings. There are feelings! When you make EPs, you know that they’re meant to go to clubs, so there’s a bit of a pressure to make them dancefloor-y. Where, what I was thinking about the album, is that it’s an oportunity to think outside the box, push yourself, and create music that people can listen to inside their home. And so I went with slower songs, there are violins, and it goes a bit deeper, lyrically. It’s a bit more poetic. I think people will be really surprised when they hear it … especially the Mirwais songs. Feelings. |  Photos by Charles Poladian |
Justice – Tthhee Ppaarrttyy (feat. Uffie) (alt. version) (2007) |
Ke$ha – Tik Tok (2009) |
I’m not going to ask you a blanket question about the Ke$ha song “Tik Tok” –
Who?!
Oh, maybe I should! — because it seems that it’s been covered, but –
You have no idea …
Do you feel like it’s been covered?
Yeah. My point is that — there are similarities, but the girl is number one, you know what I mean? You can’t fuck with that. I actually feel bad for how much shit she’s getting, whether she copied me or not. Honestly, I don’t like her music, I don’t like the girl, I don’t dislike her — I’m just not fucking bothered.
Here’s a question marginally related to that. There are these two worlds, obviously — the world of people who get on mainstream radio, …
MTV, and the other ones!
Right, and that used to be called underground. And you’ve been called underground.
Yeah, definitely.
But it doesn’t seem like it’s “underground” anymore, because of the web, where music fans will flock to what they like, and…
Definitely. Ten years ago I don’t even know if I would be playing at a festival like this. Because, my stuff… I actually pride myself on being underground. I have no interest in becoming a commercialist kind of thing. Because I don’t want to compromise anything that I do. I love playing a clubs at like 4 in the morning!
About what you were saying about the Internet — I think Myspace really broke this. Because previously, artists that you loved were “stars” way up there that you couldn’t reach. And with the Internet, Myspace, you can email them directly. The Internet made it so you can touch each other one-to-one. So it kind of brought stars from being here [high hand gesture] to here [low], and that change kind of affects everything, because we’re a bit more at the same level.
This is your second SXSW, right?
Yeah, the first one was 2006. I remember I turned 18 the previous December and that’s just when I started doing “Pop The Glock.” And I remember with my DJ — we were like, “we have to get a shitload of songs together, because we have to do concerts.” We were actually making songs back then so that we would be able to do concerts.
But when I played South by Southwest in 2006, it was like at bars, very disorganized. We were just walking everywhere, getting drunk everywhere — we weren’t even booked. People would just be like, “come play my show!” And we were so new and so excited to be invited to play anywhere, that we went to like every party.
Sounds like it worked out pretty well.
It was the best thing — I kind of miss those days. You’ll never have that experience again. It was amazing.
And when you look at the landscape of who’s here at SXSW — it really is dominated by indie rock, so what’s it like to be that representation of electro or rap?
I’ve got to be honest — it’s really weird because besides LA, this is my second concert in like a year and a half. I just had a baby — so it’s so weird to be back.
But people used to ask me a couple years ago, like “if you became commercial, blah blah blah.”
And I was like, “ahh…, but if I became commercial I would be doing it my way, so it’ll be like breaking through. Something new.”
And now, that’s not even the case. I mean, I feel like what used to be — not underground … but indie — is now mainstream. I think people are so fed up with the Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson — that fake poppy image — people realize that’s like bullshit, and they’ve kind of pushed it out, and next in line is the indie, the Bloc Party, that kind of group. So we’re kind of witnessing a transition in a way.
I feel like we’re witnessing a kind of phenomenon. It’s like watching a conveyor belt bringing in the new thing.
What’s really exciting about it is that now, bands that would never have been heard before, they don’t have to shift anything — their image, what they speak about — they don’t have to be censored and they can still become the mainstream number one. So I think it’s an exciting time to be breaking through in music, because your possibilities are endless.
| At this point I had to ask Uffie about her baby, and she showed me her BlackBerry background — a photo of the cutest four-month-old girl imaginable in a pink knit hat. Her name is Henrietta.
“It’s my first time away from her,” Uffie says. But when she must travel, her father takes over, watching Henrietta at his home in the south of France. |
 Photo by Olivier Zahm. Full-size here. |
DON’T MISS OUR LIVE VIDEO/AUDIO OF UFFIE DROPPING NEW TRACKS LIVE AT SXSW 2010
