Track By Track: Mitzi

Brisbane quartet Mitzi offer a breathy, flexible fusion of dance music and guitar-pop on debut LP ‘Truly Alive’. Frontman DOMINIQE BIRD muses on Afro-Cuban percussion and op shop samples.

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‘Who Will Love You Now’

The first single off the album. It’s a deeper cut than what we normally write, especially because the warm heavy synth stabs and the content of the lyrics. I think the song kind of caught people off guard, because it was our first new track since our [2011] EP [All I Heard] and it wasn’t bright and upbeat, but I think it was something we needed to do. The song alludes to notions of insecurity and it loosely follows the story of someone, in their later years of life, ending a relationship and wondering whether they will ever be in love again. It’s not all gloomy, though. There is a sense of optimism at the end.

‘Can’t Change Her’

Slow disco/funk jam. After listening to the demo we decided we needed some live percussion on the track to add some groove, so we managed to get Afro-Cuban percussion legend Gustavo Cereijo to lay down some congas and bells. On top of that, we got some friends who sometimes play with us live to play sax and trumpet at the end. We were listening to Blood Orange’s Coastal Grooves a lot while recording this song, and I think that really shone through in the track.

‘Like It Was’

One of our favourites. The song starts quite stripped back and builds until the instrumental breakout at the end. The demo was really electronic, so we decided to record live drums over the top on the synth line, which is a nice contrast. This song has some deep bass, which we will definitely do more of in the future.

‘All I Heard’

Off our EP, it was the first Mitzi song we recorded. Even though we’ve developed our sound a lot since we recorded this track, we had to put it on the LP. It just felt right. It’s funny to think how rookie we were at producing back when we recorded ‘All I Heard’; I think our engineer was a metalhead and had no idea of what sound we were going for. Joakim told us after remixing one of our songs: “I love the tracks, but the drums are recorded quite poorly!”

‘Truly Alive’

Our favourite track off the album! We wrote and recorded this song with Jono Ma (Jagwar Ma, Lost Valentinos), half in his studio in Sydney and half in our studio in Brisbane. It begun by jamming out drums and bass guitar to a 808 drum machine down in Sydney. Vocals came quickly after and lyrics weren’t really thought out; more so done like David Byrne’s speaking-in-tongues technique, just singing words off the top of your head. After that we added loads of MS20 and 808 and we were done. All in all it took us only a day in Sydney and a day in Brisbane to write and record.

‘Modern Life’

A pretty chilled-out, breezy tune. The song stems from a string melody ripped off a 12” found in an op shop. After that some acoustic guitar was added and that was the basis of the track. The song’s really simplistic; there are only three chords throughout the whole song. We were going for a bit of a Fleetwood Mac vibe, even though it kind of sounds nothing like them.

‘This is Right for You’

The fact we were doing a full-length meant we had to do a slow jam. There’s some emotion here. Those keys, damn. We’ve changed it up a lot [live] because it’s so slow. People who will now hear the original might get a shock when it changes to heavy bass halfway through.

‘On My Mind’

A very old track. The original demo was written years and years ago, way before Mitzi. Once we started working on it for the album, it went through a million different stages. It got quite frustrating; at one stage it was a big electronic banger. We eventually decided to add live drums and Wurlitzer, which by the way is the best instrument ever, and it changed the vibe completely. Gustavo also plays percussion on this track.

‘Down’

Straight-up disco track. We were going for the whole Nile Rodgers/Chic vibe. It was the last song written/recorded for the album and we just managed to squeeze it on. Not a whole lot to say about this track, except we get our falsetto on in the chorus.

‘The End’

Aptly named song to finish off the album. Once the song kicks in, we just go crazy: screeching horns, tribal percussion, psychedelic guitar, etc. It’s the big finale. Oh, and I think after some silence there’s a secret track after it. Shhh.

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‘Truly Alive’ is out now through Future Classic.