Japanese musician Miho Hatori, co-founder of the band Cibo Matto, has worked e.g. with the Gorillaz, the Beastie Boys and John Zorn. New Optimism is Miho’s solo project – an attempt to make experimental dance music filled with positive energy but free from all ironic gestures. The result is the album “Amazon to LeFrak” released this May and produced with the support of former Vampire Weekend member Rostam Batmanglij. It is the sum of many different musical directions from Miho’s past – pop, hip hop and Caribbean influences – that form an unpredictable range of Technicolor sound, constantly in lively flux, with grooving bass lines and intelligent, mischievous song-writing. Playful, personal pop between genres, strange and wonderful!
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“Irony doesn’t help me”: Miho Hatori on New York, Noreaga and her solo project New Optimism
When did this specific project, New Optimism, start for you?
Miho Hatori: I started the project almost seven years ago and started to play shows as New Optimism little by little. The idea came from when I heard the post-modern term “new sincerity”. It’s really based on irony and advertisers use that term to create content. I think there was a lot of that kind of energy in the air. I wanted to do something that was the opposite of it because irony doesn’t help me [laughs]. It’s too dark of a way to process life for me, so I came up with the idea of “new optimism” and got to play a show and started to make songs, as well.
Full article on FACT Magazine