Diandra Interviews Mai Lan: Self-Assurance Is Vital To Artists

Performing at The Standard Hotel on September 28, Mai Lan believes self-assurance is VITAL for an artist, and I could not agree more. If you do not believe in yourself or your art, it affects how or even if you can create it. Thus, her belief that confidence is key explains the bombastic nature of her work, and why she is attracted to artists/ characters like Rick from Rick & Morty, Wednesday from the Addams Family, and author Alexandre Dumas. Each one finds vibrancy and ownership in their lack of normalcy. In our interview, Mai Lan proves to be an artist means to be strange, but to be a great artist means to find that difference empowering.

Diandra: You have worked in costuming. How do you incorporate fashion into your music, and what type of fashion style would you say your music could be categorized as?

Mai Lan: For my videos, I’m looking for a way to be as close as possible from how I feel the song. It’s always very visual. I always know, pretty well, the exact mood we’re in, the type of light, the colors, the ambiance. So my style has to fit that too, it’s a whole thing. If my music was a type of fashion, haha that’s hard. It’s already so hard for me to give a type to my music. I guess it would be a mix too. Something strong, with colors and graphic lines. Sexy and smart.

You have said that the characters you most admire are Wednesday Adams and Rick of Rick & Morty. Which of your songs you think most represents these “strange” characters and why?

Mai Lan: I wanted so bad to be Wednesday when I was a kid ! I love the little space where she stands between the fun and the scary. It’s the same with Rick; he’s between the asshole and the super cool. Love those kind of double vibes. Many of my songs have that: Vampire, Dial my Number… and especially Gentiment je t’immole, one of my first songs in french.

Diandra: I heard that  Albert Camus’ The Stranger is one of your favorite books. What of this literary masterpiece inspires music within you?  
 
Mai Lan: It’s actually not. I’m gonna talk about Alexandre Dumas instead. One of my favorite authors is Alexandre Dumas. Reading his books is like candy, he takes you to crazy epic stories, you can’t do anything until the book is over. There are strong characters in my songs like Dumas’s characters, I love it when there’re very expressive with a fun personality, I like to get in their skins to tell my stories. I guess they’re some kind of exaggerated sides of me.

Diandra: You use music as a way to free yourself from rage and stress. What is the song, of yours, that you feel is most joyous?
 
Mai Lan: Many of the songs in this album are very personal things shared with decency and intimacy. I have a need to express my feelings, but I want to make sure everybody can take something from there, make my songs their songs, linking them to their lives and experiences. I think the lightest song must be PUMPER. It’s only fun, in a party mood with very cool and  simple lyrics. I wrote it when I was in French Guyana where it’s so hot. I couldn’t think of anything else than dream of  a way to make it cooler. So in the song I’m sayin we need a Pumper, that’s a fireman’s truck, to get some water !

Diandra: You have discussed your father’s influence on you in terms of music. What is your happiest music memory with him?

Mai Lan: I’m still laughing when I’m thinking back of him dancing on Jukebox Baby from Alan Vega. He used to play it super loud and get in the middle of the house and do his little dance moves. I thought that was the cutest move ever.

Diandra: Independence and artistic control are very important to you as an artist. How do you maintain these energies in career choices and creative process?
 
Mai Lan: I work with people that can enter my world and play with me. I avoid working with people who execute things as a job. Those ones first don’t create with love, and also always want to make it their project and gratify their ego. It needs to be a place where we meet, I want them  to bring their ideas, to feel they’re a part of it, but being sensitive to what I see and want to express. My Panamæra team is a pretty good partner for that. We’re totally on the same page.

Diandra: Your music has been described as “dance music.” What about your songs do you feel moves people’s bodies, minds, and hearts?

Mai Lan: There are two ways to listen to my album, you can be in a dance mood, and enjoy the fun vibes, the strong beats, and take the lyrics as crazy absurd cool stories. Or you can get deep in it, feel the anger that comes out of some tracks like Nail Polish or Clermont. You can also enter reflexions on some others like Time to Fade  or Pas d’Amour and put yourself in my Autopilote mode.

Diandra: You spent 6 years between your debut and sophomore album. What did you learn most about yourself as a person and artist within those years?

Mai Lan: I got to work a lot on my technique; that may be where my song Technique comes from. It was the first one to be released as a single, and it was so different from the stuff I was doing before. It was a way to say “ ok guys now I can do all that, check it out !” That brought me some good self-assurance in writing, but also on stage that is one of my favorite things in life now. This self-assurance is vital for an artist. You have to work on it, if you can’t reach it, then you can suddenly stop believing and creating. (Me: #wisdom)

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