M: yeah, once I finish, coz I’m not going to write raps forever... you know... I’m a writer and my dream in life is to make films and write films and I think if I was to make films, it’d be just as juxtaposed. One of my favourite film makers is Harmony Korine... and I went and saw him speak at the film festival a month ago and he’s like who’s life, how do you know its going to happen, do we really have a narrative - life is just about these moments and that’s what the record ‘Moments In Movement’… its just moments and they’re moving and they shape you.. And you go forth and you land up somewhere and then it all changes.
BCR: Are you interested in things like chaos theory?
M: Chaos theory I studied... I studied Media Communications... but within that I studied philosophy and media philosophy. My earlier work, when I was at University, I used to just regurgitate what I learnt at school and write raps about it. And chaos theory, I used to be obsessed.
BCR: That fantastic staccato delivery that I know you’re trying to slow down so people can actually hear what you’re saying, also the way your lyrics are organised in that chaotic order…
M: There’s an order to it somehow, or it orders itself. But everything is order. I’d like to think I am that order… I think editing is really important. I used to not edit my work and be really religious about it. Like, “how can you tamper with the moment?”… But I just thought, I’ll never release all this stuff. I’m still going through all my old books and at my parents house in Sydney they’ve still got garbage bags full of old notes and napkins, I’m not going to release everything I’ve ever written….
BCR: So, do you think of yourself as an existentialist rapper or a commentator first and foremost?
M: I think a commentator first and foremost because within that there is existentialism and I did study philosophy and that stuff had a huge influence, like Nietzsche, Heidegger and Walter Benjamin so… yeah… name dropping here [laughs]… But that’s always the thing that comes first, like my body dualism….
BCR: You talk a lot about sex and death, why does it manifest so largely?
M: I think I’m obsessed with sex because I’m with someone now and sex is amazing and very integral to our relationship. I’m also very into monogamy now. I used to be all like, eww, commitment, but I think commitment and monogamy is beautiful. I used to be so willing to throw that away for chaos and my own control. But I’m not obsessed with sex. I’ve been single a lot in my life and I’ve had my heart broken… If I was single I wouldn’t be obsessed with sex. I’m not like I need sex, I mean I do need sex but not like that! And with death... I don’t know, it’s just there you know?
BCR: Do you think having been born and almost raised in South Africa has had something to do with your politicisation and preoccupation with death?
M: Yeah, well I was born into this horrible… South Africa kind of gives me anxiety. I’ve been back about ten years ago and it’s dangerous and I don’t agree with that shit at all. I come from that holocaust death as a Jew. I was in Berlin and I was like, this is my home, this is where my family comes from and when I’m in South Africa I don’t really feel like that. My Grandparents fled Germany, luckily, and ended up on a boat to South Africa. My parents were just “we don’t want to live here anymore and raise kids” so… Identity’s weird. Sometimes it’s crazy to think that because of Hitler I’m alive [laughs].
BCR: So do you think that, not only the touring but also the writing, is a kind of therapy?
M: Yeah, I’m sure it’ll all come out in my writing and I’ll address all that stuff one day. I mean I do think I come from death.
BCR: I know you were brought up as an Orthodox Jew in Sydney, so how did you get into music when you’re from such a strict and, to a degree, self segregating community?
M: There were two paths for me; one was I was an amazing Tennis player [laughs] and I trained everyday, I went to tournaments and that was my life, playing Tennis. My parents considered taking us [her brother was also rather the pro] to those crazy Tennis camps in America, like Nick Bollettieri… But they didn’t. That was when I was 14 because you have to start young, like leave school at 14 and I see these girls I used to play with at Wimbledon - they don’t do well at all - I could have been one of them! So it’s crazy to think about. But my parents kept me at school and I started experimenting with drugs and was friends with the naughty boys at school… I always loved music… Growing up in South Africa I remember being really obsessed with Michael Jackson and when Thriller came out I had to watch it everyday. I had the red leather jacket, I don’t wear leather now, but, like, what six year old has a Thriller jacket?! Then I started loving Prince. I guess just, Black music interested me. Then in high school with the Tennis thing I just kinda rebelled against it and found punk rock and started playing with Ben Lee. I just went on their last tour with them. I didn’t record with them or anything. I knew Ben coz he directed plays at school and I was in them… He got me into a lot of music. I’ve always had music in me but… I guess... maybe tryin’ out drugs helped me [laughs]… acid and weed… I’ve always loved like... Axel Rose I love, just weird front men. I was obsessed with Metallica; I mean those first three records…
BCR: Ok, I’m going to go have a cigarette so…
M: No that’s fine – in Berlin you can smoke everywhere. I do think this no smoking has fucked up shows. It just kills it. As soon as a band is finished everyone rushes out and the DJ DJ’s to no one. I think there should be some mid way. It’s fucking up the momentum of shows.
BCR: Ok, so, last question – how 90s are you?
M: I’m very nineties! Like I said, Hip Hop in ’93, Black Metal, the grunge thing. Even a bit of dance music like acid. But I’m 80s as well, more in my dress sense, not that I was around for the 80s I was too young. But like my girlfriend is 60s, French 60s, new wave film and everything.
BCR: I think our generation in particular is very obsessed the past…
M: Oh yeah, just look at all the stuff we’ve been talking about today. It’s all the past, it’s not like it’s hidden. We can never go back there and I think we want to. We’re yearning for this technology free world so we bring all those things back to life via technology [laughs]. But we’re never going to get that.
