Mitski

Mitski is an American singer-songwriter from Mie, Japan, born in 1990. She also uses the name Mitsuki Laycock and the professional name Mitski Miyawaki. Her music is associated with indie rock, alternative rock, art pop, folk punk, folk rock, garage rock, indie pop, and dream pop.

Early life and education

She grows up in several countries, including Turkey, China, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, because of her father’s work with the United States Department of State, before settling in the United States. She has a sister and grows up speaking Japanese as her first language. As a teenager, she briefly works with a talent manager in Japan. She writes her first song at 18 while living in Ankara, Turkey.

She first enrols at Hunter College to study film, then transfers to SUNY Purchase College’s Conservatory of Music to study studio composition. While studying there, she records and self-releases her first two albums and meets producer Patrick Hyland, who becomes a long-term collaborator.

Recording career

Her debut albums, Lush and Retired from Sad, New Career in Business, are self-released in 2012 and 2013. Her third album, Bury Me at Makeout Creek, appears in 2014 on Double Double Whammy and marks a shift towards guitar-driven music. It receives critical praise but does not become a major commercial success.

She signs with Dead Oceans in 2015 and releases Puberty 2 in 2016 and Be the Cowboy in 2018. Puberty 2 is widely praised, and its single “Your Best American Girl” later appears prominently in retrospective rankings. Be the Cowboy also receives wide critical acclaim and is named album of the year by several publications. Its track “Nobody” later gains renewed popularity through social media, helping increase streaming of the album.

From 2018 onward, she incorporates choreographed movement into live performances, influenced in part by Butoh. In 2019, she says she will stop touring indefinitely and initially considers leaving the music industry, but later returns to recording.

Later albums and collaborations

In 2021, she releases “Working for the Knife” and “The Only Heartbreaker”, which lead into Laurel Hell in 2022. The song “The Only Heartbreaker” reaches number one on the Billboard Adult Alternative Airplay chart. Laurel Hell reaches the top ten in several countries.

She also contributes to “This Is a Life” with David Byrne and Son Lux for Everything Everywhere All at Once, and that song earns an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.

In 2023, she releases The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, and its single “My Love Mine All Mine” becomes her first song to enter the Billboard Hot 100. She promotes the album with limited cinema events and select concerts in Europe and North America. In 2024, she takes part in Spotify Singles and contributes music to film and other media projects.

A concert film, Mitski: The Land, appears in 2025 alongside the live album The Land: The Live Album. In 2026, she releases Nothing's About to Happen to Me, preceded by the singles “Where’s My Phone?” and “I’ll Change for You”.