Mimi Goese – Interview – New York City, July 2009
By: Kenyon Phillips
Don’t be too hard on yourself if you’ve never heard of Mimi Goese. Most people haven’t. Which is kind of dumbfounding when you realize just how f**king cool this bitch is. A NY-based performance artist with a voice that’s as unsettling as it is beautiful and a penchant for wielding butcher knives onstage, Mimi Goese has literally been on the cutting edge of art rock for 25 years.
As the audacious front woman of the preternaturally “out there” 80s band Hugo Largo, Goese (rhymes with Jay-Z) attracted name brand fans like Michael Stipe and Brian Eno – not to mention truckloads of smartypants college kids on both sides of the Atlantic. The band’s debut album, Drum, featured production and backing vocals from Stipe and was released on Eno’s Warner Bros. imprint, Opal, in 1987. The disbanding of Hugo Largo in the early 90s paved the way for Goese to collaborate with Moby (1995’s Everything Is Wrong) and David Byrne, who released Goese’s first solo album, the trip-hop masterpiece Soak, on his Luaka Bop imprint in 1998. Over the past 10 years, Goese has only gotten better. Her latest project? Persephone, a jaw-droppingly gorgeous collaboration with “mutantrumpet” inventor Ben Neill that seamlessly fuses 19th century classical samples with ambient grooves, Mariachi horns and Goese’s ghostly vocals. Rockfeedback was thrilled to catch up with homegirl about her past, present and future – and a whole lotta other shit in between.
Rockfeedback: Do you think a band like Hugo Largo could happen now?
Mimi Goese: “Being reactionary seems to be my favourite way to absorb the outside world. Hugo Largo was a reaction to all the rock and roll loudness of that day [the mid 80s]. Not only were we just two bass players, violin and vocals – we were so slow and meandering. Could Hugo Largo happen now? Sure. It happens all the time – a reaction against a scene. Would we get financial backing like we did then? No way. No one is funding indie wackiness like that anymore.”
Rockfeedback: What were your performances like in Hugo Largo?
Mimi Goese: “Messy and crazy. I wore a bikini made entirely out of wigs, put green food coloring in my eyes, walked on broken glass, jumped out of a second floor window, and threw lit cigarettes into the crowd. I even threw a butcher knife into the audience once. It was a reaction. There weren’t many female musicians back then, and the ones that were out there were all about sex. I would go onstage in a million thrift shop dresses and strip one off for each song in the set. I’d end up in shorts and a baseball cap, which sounds sexy but was actually more punk. We toured with Bjork’s band [The Sugarcubes] back then, and she was very punk, too.”
Rockfeedback: Sounds like you thought a lot about fashion...
Mimi Goese: “No money was ever really spent on fashion [in Hugo Largo]. Everything was Salvation Army. I still shop there. Some unusual stuff. I found a Comme des Garçons dress there once. I think the funnest thing about fashion is how things are put together. Someone's sense of style. That’s what I love about New York City. A man can walk down the street wearing a leopard print coat with a Hello Kitty backpack on and no one blinks.”
Rockfeedback: Why do you think Hugo Largo became as successful as it did?
Mimi Goese: “Ambition played a huge part. We used to be called precious, and I think it’s because we were full of shit. Our violin player, Hahn Rowe, was the only one of us who really knew how to play. He produced and engineered our stuff, too. The rest of us were posers. I listen to Hugo now and wonder why no one told me I couldn't sing on pitch. So that should tell you how much ambition has to do with being noticed and having success. With all the people I know who are monetarily successful, none of it happened by accident. Tim Sommer, who co-founded Hugo Largo, once told me he wanted to be a millionaire by the time he was 30. And by golly, he did it! Not with us, of course. [Sommer signed frat rock sensation Hootie & The Blowfish to Atlantic in 1993.] I had to be an “arteest,” and spoiled all our chances of making mula.”
Rockfeedback: You had some heavy artillery behind you in the late 80s, including Brian Eno. How did you hook up with him?
Mimi Goese: “Our dear friend Deirdre O'Donahue – a fantastic DJ – gave Eno a cassette (yikes! that's how long ago it was!), and we were on the B side. Man, we had the most unbelievable fans. John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin was there the night I threw the knife into the audience. I remember seeing him standing in the middle of the street in Bath, England, waving a Hugo T-shirt while we drove away. “
Rockfeedback: You collaborated with Moby in 1995 on Everything is Wrong – how did that come to pass?
Mimi Goese: “He tracked me down. He was wonderful to collaborate with musically. Very encouraging. I don't know if people know this, but he is very funny. I must say, though, when in the heat of an argument he said, "I'd feel more comfortable eating a friend of mine than eating a cow," I failed to see the humour in his remark.”
Rockfeedback: David Byrne released your solo album, Soak, in 1998. It is true that he heard you demo in a hair salon prior to signing you?
Mimi Goese: “My dear friend Valerie Ahms is much more than a hairdresser. She should have her own label – many musicians at that time in that world owe her thanks. Byrne used to be a Hugo Largo stalker before hearing my demo in Valerie’s salon. He would come to shows and lurk around afterwards. We were both too shy to talk to each other, so it took years for us to come together. He is as awkward as you might think. But boy, is he a fierce and loyal supporter. When Warner Bros. or whomever wanted to jerk us around, he gave them hell.”
Rockfeedback: Is your solo work a continuation of or a departure from Hugo Largo?
Mimi Goese: “Both, absolutely. Although I've improved my singing and songwriting. All my songs are descriptive and playful. More poetry than lyrics.”
Rockfeedback: Tell me about what you’re working on now.
Mimi Goese: “I am involved in a project [called Persephone] with Ben Neill. He is a composer who has invented his instrument – a trumpet with three bells that connects to his computer via USB. He creates sonic textures based on 19th-century composers. His work shows off what I can do. It is very dramatic, cinematic and melancholic. We’ll be doing a show at BAM [Brooklyn Academy of Music] sometime soon. I am also working on a musical project that will take shape over a long span of time. I plan on writing some music and sending it by email to people I would love to work with. They would then add something to it and send it back. In the end there would be a god/producer who would shape it all into a cohesive collection of songs. I really like the idea of working through the mail. Kind of like that game “Telephone,” where what you said originally comes back entirely different.”
Rockfeedback: In general, how do you feel about music these days?
Mimi Goese: “I so enjoy the movement that is happening now. It seems to echo how music is being heard and shared. Very guerilla, but very open. It used to be so important to me to be unique. Now bands are sharing ideas – playing on each other's work and being very open and inclusive. Everyone has a home studio now, and quality doesn’t matter because everyone just plays their music on iPhones and such. This isn’t killing music. It’s helping to keep it alive. The music industry is tanking. You have to build your own following instead of hoping a record company will break your band. Grassroots movements can really get a band heard now, and that feels powerful.”
Artists in this article: Mimi Goese