Though the artist and producer mu tate grew up in Riga, Latvia, he spent years living in London and currently calls Berlin his home. All three of these cities play a major role in the artist’s musical development, but a fourth, non-geographic location is just as important: the internet. The imprint of internet culture can be heard on his new album, life of mu, a tactile record that balances rhythmic and ambient impulses, situating itself inside of the belly of the beast with style to spare. That’s just mu for you! For today’s edition of Web of Influences, we went way back in time with the artist in an attempt way to get to his present practice. Read the article and listen to life of mu below.
Can you remember the first time you heard music that made you want to make music yourself?
Yeah, early teens me and my friends were big into rap. We listened to a lot of Wu-Tang and DMX (RIP). My first experience "making" music was at my friend’s house, he had a copy of eJay. It just had all these loops and one shots and we'd put stuff together with it for fun and record vocals as alter ego's with silly voices. We developed a full roster of characters who would sing or rap over the beats. Must have been 11 or something. So much fun. Since then, I always wanted to learn FL but didn't really get around to it till I was like 22 maybe.
Growing up in Latvia, what kind of sounds were exposed to at a young age? Anything that still informs how you make music?
My dad is a big fan of The Beatles, that's definitely a core musical memory for me. He spent the majority of his youth playing drums in bands. So I heard blues, jazz, classic rock music early on. But umm I didn't really get to develop my own musical taste till much later. We didn't really have internet until was 15, maybe. I had some tapes, my first CD was DMX Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood which has a gnarly cover art. Then I got into Ed Banger recs. I was obsessed with it. It felt really special to find something that felt so new and had a lot of personality.
What were some of your early clubbing experiences?
Honestly was kinda wack. Think I was 17 when I first went to a local club in Riga. They just played like radio hits and EDM music of the time. There were some bangers sure, but it was like one of these mainstream clubs where people go to get fucked up and it's not really about the music culture at all. I really thought that's all there is to a clubbing experience. Used to hate the club.
You live Berlin now, but you've spent many years in London. How has the musical history of UK changed how you approach making music?
I owe a lot to the UK music culture. It's been a privilege to be exposed to so much good sounds. Like I said I didn't really get to dig until much later so a lot of the classics just kind of passed me by. But UK is still number one for music.
The video for “choreography of life” is really great. How did you link up with Finn Hansen? What were some of the visual influences for both this video and visual world around the new project as a whole?
Ian Kim Judd introduced me to Finn and proposed making a music video. Finn sent some sketches, and they were perfect from the start. It's really rare for everything to align like that. I gave very little direction, it's really all Finn's work.
How do your peers and friends inspire you?
I only really "work" with friends. It's proven to be the most enjoyable and healthy way to make, release and tour music. We often don't even talk about music, you know just experiencing life together and trying to figure it out and that's really the most inspiring part of it.
What influence does browsing the internet have on the music you make
That's big of course. Finding out about all these pockets of music, especially on SoundCloud is still one of my favourite things to do. I caught a bit of the Myspace era and met most of my music friends on Instagram and SoundCloud. I was just really interested in what people do so I would get in touch. It's crazy to realize how many people I've met all around the world just off like knowing their music. Even if we never talked before, we know each other’s music and you can already kinda tell a lot about the person on the other side so once you meet it's like, Oh yeah, we already kinda know each other.
What does your dream concert situation look like?
I think the most important thing is that people engage with it. I don't think that anything I do has to feel special for anyone else but me, but when people come through, enjoy, dance or introduce themselves it makes it all worth it. Also why aren't there more daytime things in a biig space with huge windows?
Any non-musical influences at the moment?
Always. You really just have to live life to have something to say. My loved ones, relatable movies about nothing, long nature walks, good food, internet culture but also staying away from the internet culture.
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