Keba: Where are you
originally from?
Mikah Sykes: Springfield
and Eugene Oregon
K: Were you always
interested in music?
MS: I
was raised in a musical family. I was
submerged in different musical situations as far back as I can remember. But it wasn’t until I got a little older that
I became “interested” in music. Perhaps
it was 1st or 2nd grade.
Michael Jackson had god-like status, and in middle school I discovered
jazz and blues. I thought Stephane
Grappelli and Django Rheinhardt were real cool.
Their virtuosity was what attracted me to them. I was in band and choir growing up, but I
didn’t get really excited about music until I found the guitar when I was
eleven or twelve. I remember in
kindergarten I was put in piano lessons — and I hated them.
K: How old were you
when you wrote your first song and how did it come about?
MS: I
wrote outlines to a few songs, maybe as few as two, when I was eighteen or
nineteen. But the first song I wrote and
finished was when I was twenty one. It
was called “I Would Not.” It came about
on accident, late one night. It was a simple two part song in drop D; it didn’t
take too long to compose. It’s funny
cause I think it is one of the best songs I have ever written. It kind of felt like a stroke of beginner’s
luck—back then as well as now.
K:When did you start
to record things?
MS: I
have been messing around with tape recorders and video cameras since about the
time I was able to pick them up.
K: What sorts of things
inspire you?
MS: I
am fascinated by words and phrases that sound nice or fit together in an
interesting way, like the way certain arrangements of words can sound
sonically. I am not talking about the
literal meanings of phrases. I am
talking about how words can sound together.
Sometimes it’s as simple as the way people arrange their sentences in
conversation, sometimes it’s a grammatical error in a sign or an email. I write things like that down...I especially
like it when people use tenses incorrectly but in such a way that it makes
sense; when incorrect English sounds correct.
Also, as an amateur botanist, I am real inspired by plants. Especially the plants that are native to
where I am from. There is some kind of
faithful humility in the in-conspicuous flower, infinity of sorts that can be
understood when one looks closely.
K: Are
you constantly writing music or do the creative juices come and go in
segments? Like for me, as an artist, I
can never seem to constantly create art that I like. I go through periods of creative aridness,
and then, all of a sudden, ideas start to rain and flood my mind....that’s when
I get something good. What’s it like for you?
MS: I
work on music when I feel like it. I
pick up the guitar nearly everyday, but I only focus on a specific project when
I’m inspired to do so – I try to never think about writer’s block or how
productive I am musically. I will go for
weeks or months without much musical accomplishment. I take advantage of these
breaks to let go of the self imposed idea that I need to be constantly creating,
or that my identity is somehow validated through being a musician. This is an
idea that can kill creative clarity, and keep one from being real with themselves. I think it’s important to remember that music
is for fun, for meditation. That’s why
people started playing music in the first place. If you’re not having fun playing music you’re
probably taking yourself too seriously.
K: As a
very big Chili Pepper’s fan, I have to ask, what was it like to work on Bad Feelings in John Frusciante’s home
studio and how did that whole thing come about?
MS: John
saw me play at my hometown bar and liked what I was doing. A few months later I had a couple of shows in
L.A. He came to those shows. Later on during that trip we were talking and
he said he’d love to record me at his house.
I spent a day recording, and a year later I came back and spent a month
at his house and recorded more. It was a
lot of fun. He has some really great equipment to work with. We never really finished though; hopefully
one day we will. The whole experience
happened because of my friend and his then girlfriend, Emily Kokal. She introduced us, and she really helped make
it happen. She has always been a real
good friend to me, always very supportive of my music, especially through times
when I was feeling down about what I was doing.
K: Who
are some artists that you’ve been listening to lately?
MS: The
album that I’ve listened to the most lately is “The Preface” by Detroit rapper
Elzhi. I also really like “music for
strange situations” by Allessandro Allesandroni. Joanna Newsom’s “the milk eyed
mender” is really good. But my main
interest always has been jazz music. I
love anything by John Coltrane, Sun Ra, or Louis Armstrong. The album “Sonny Meets
Hawk” has been getting played a lot lately; it’s an Impulse! release from the
60’s by sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins. I love anything by Alice Coltrane,
her music really speaks to me. And I
definitely cannot forget to mention Reverend Frank Wright-all of his albums are
mind blowing.
