The Modest Mysticism of Tirzah

Originally published in May 2021

When Frank and I find the musician Tirzah Mastin at her studio in South London, she and her family are there bundled up. While one daughter is wrapped up in her stroller, fast asleep, the other is parading around the studio’s corridors. This is the girls’ second home. Their dad, Giles Kwakeulati King-Ashong, known as the musician Kwake Bass, takes them to the park before we start our interview.

Seated in the space where she and her main collaborator, Mica Levi, work, Tirzah describes their process as an extension of their friendship.  Tirzah and Mica (known by her stage name, Micachu) met while studying at the music school Purcell. 

Together, they’ve worked on a countless amount of music, the majority of which is locked away in what Tirzah describes as Mica’s “vault.” They’ve also released two EP’s and one album, and are now working on a new album due later this year.

Tirzah has no involvement on social media, usually refuses press requests and her South London bubble formed long before a pandemic forced other households to minimize their scopes. Though she keeps her world in a tight radius, the perception of ‘shyness’ used to describe her in most articles is a bit of a misreading. Her sly smiles and modest certainty possess the genuine charm of someone with absolutely nothing to prove.

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Everything I’ve read about you says how shy and introverted you are. Do you consider yourself shy or introverted?

 No, I don’t think so. My closest friends would probably say no, she’s not. But I suppose everyone’s a bit shy in new situations. I definitely laugh a lot when I’m nervous, but I guess that’s not a shy thing. I wouldn’t say so.

Why did you start singing? When did you start making music?

Probably when I was fourteen. Me and Mica just had this revelation that it’s been almost twenty years! We were like, oh god. 

Have you ever made a song and thought, ‘this will be one that people will really like’?

No, it’s usually more just, ‘can I stand this?; And then you grow with it the more you listen to it. 

Does that mean you consistently listen to the music you’ve been working on?

Yeah, but it’s not a ritualistic thing. It’s more just trying to work towards something and trying to figure out which ones stand out the most, through listening to something outside the bubble you made it in. 

Do you ever listen back to something that you didn’t like initially, and have a change of heart?

Yeah, although it’s quite hard to remember how I felt at the time I was doing it. We’ll listen back when we’re recording it, just to see how the session has played out, and then we’ll just leave it. But I think most of the time you can’t grasp until it’s later on, what you think of it. 

I guess anything personal requires hindsight.

Yeah, definitely. And most of the time I’m not consciously writing about something in particular, so it helps to then go back later and be like, oh yeah, I was probably thinking about that thing.It’s less pressure in a way. Definitely less pressure. And then you can just sort of be a vessel as you’re doing it – and it’s just more fun. You can make sense of it later.

What has your day-to-day been like in the past year? You finished recording the album, then we were in lockdown for six months…

Well, it’s really been centered around Jocelyn and being pregnant! When lockdown happened it was just a continuation of what it was going to be like, anyway, in a way. It’s just been that parallel of home life and jumping on a plane for a night, doing a show, and then coming back to the regime of lunch, bedtime, potty, poos. Stuff like that! All the best stories are about poos and wees. [laughs] Leah bought Justin a Whoopie cushion and we realized that some of the sounds are just funnier than others. The complexity of poo noises!

 So, are we allowed to know what the album is called?

It’s gonna be called Colourgrade I decided ages ago and just stuck with it.

How does it compare to music we’ve already heard?

Well, I suppose it captures a sizable moment in time. Giles made the album live, into a playable thing. So playing that dictated the sounds and how we’d piece it together, or how we’d start it, anyway. It’s half how me and Meeks would work together and half Coby playing with Meeks as well. The feel of it, I suppose, on my part is that it’s quite wrapped up in becoming a mum. In that sense, it feels a lot different from the other one. 

Did you finish recording around the same time you gave birth?

Yeah, it was like another human deadline. It was around Christmas and Clyde was born in February. I think there was maybe some January recording, but it was finished pretty much in time for that. 

Did you write any of the music while you were pregnant?

Yes! I’d probably say around three-quarters of it. 

Do you think feelings around maternity informed the music at all? 

I think it does in ways I can’t describe… As you say, maybe with a little bit more distance… Even with a little bit of distance from it, I can see that it has already. And already having Jocelyn — the other one [Devotion] wasn’t written while I was carrying Jocelyn —  and this one was.

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Has this year made any existing issues more pertinent in your eyes?

Well, Black Lives Matter comes straight to mind because it’s something that is already in people’s lives and minds, and obviously more so in some people’s than others. I’ve got friends who were in the States when it was all going on, and every time I spoke to them they looked shell-shocked. And obviously, over here it’s the same, and it lands differently in different ways — in our household, anyway. And with it culminating with Clyde’s birth as well has just been… [makes explosion noise] I’ve got mixed-race children, so I have to listen and absorb before I talk too much. I have a responsibility to take it all in before I start giving my own opinion about it because I’m not mixed race, or black, or a woman of colour. We’re a family unit and you want to protect that, and you have to just — it’s complicated. Jocelyn and Clyde will grow up as mixed-race children and I don’t know what that’s gonna be like, but all I can do is listen.  And I suppose you’ve got to be ready to be wrong, and wait to be corrected and put in my place. Because we don’t know! 

It must be weird as a mum, putting yourself in check like that.

I can’t tell you how many times in the day I’m like, I’m not doing this right! You’ve got to put that voice to the back of your head otherwise you’ll just go mad. But the way my day’s set up, it doesn’t allow much other than getting them dressed, fed, put to bed, clean bum, and maybe I’ll brush my teeth at the end of the night. But obviously every parent has got different priorities. It’s not like your life ends, or you can’t have a shower, but the reality is your time is quite limited. It’s more so that I’ll think about how my parenting is doing, as opposed to how things are fixed outside of those walls.

Do you ever think about fame? Or do you have a relationship with fame?

No, not really…

You must get some weird fan moments.

 I suppose when I’m playing gigs – that people just know or have heard the music, and come – that is crazy.  That’s great.

Do you enjoy performing live?

At first I didn’t know what to make of it. I didn’t know what to do – I was just there on the stage. But now it’s just nice to be playing with Meeks and Coby, with people around. And then it feels more like a group thing.

Your live experience is going to be really different!

So different! Yeah, I think that’s always where it was a bit tricky because you weren’t playing with other people, it was just a digital thing. It felt like Karaoke, which is what we called it!

Do you ever get stage fright?

Yeah, definitely. But in a good way – it’s just kind of nerves, because you’re waiting for a moment that’s fixed. That’s quite weird. 

When you and Meeks are recording and working together, is it similar to playing live together? 

At first it was more structured, which felt weird to me. I wasn’t used to singing over a definite thing – most of the time it was something no-one really knew. And then it was like, oh, I know this song and I know what they’re playing! Which at first felt quite weird. But then after a while we could play around with it more, because you know where the roots are in a way. And it’s more interesting for everyone. Because then you’re just playing music as opposed to playing music following a thing.

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What music are you listening to at the moment?

Well, you know what, I don’t get time. I should make time. But I’m listening to Arko, and Yasmin El F Wonder, Coby… I think that’s about it. I don’t know, because it’s so rare. And just the rest of the time it’s Jocelyn’s favourite bangers. 

Peppa the Pig Remix.

Yeah, well, it can drive you mad,  we’re trying to say, listen to what we want to listen to. At the moment her favourite is ‘Heard it Through the Grapevine’. She can sing and dance along to that. And she loves Karendi – a track called ‘Time (Forever)’, and Bob Marley ‘Stop the Train’. And Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin albums.

Do your kids ever say anything about you being a musician? Because it’s kind of an unconventional profession.

It’s funny you say that because my sister gave her a book that was like; JOBS, with every single job you can imagine! Even jobs you’d think — not to sound rude — but jobs you wouldn’t think to put in because they’re filling in other jobs. They had artists, which should be in there – but they’ve put a curator, painter, the people that work behind putting an exhibition on – it’s quite in-depth. And there was no musician! Not even with a violin!

Have you ever recorded her with the idea of putting her on a song?

Yeah, she is actually in the bath in one song, but really abstractedly – you wouldn’t know.

Is there a feeling that you can imagine someone getting when they listen to your music?

You don’t want someone to feel distant, or that you’re just indulging yourself. But there have definitely been times when me and Meeks have listened back to something and been like – you don’t want to force it – sometimes something feels like you’re forcing the listener into feeling something, even though you didn’t mean to and that’s obviously not the intention. I suppose I’m more conscious of this one doing that, because it’s hopefully not obvious that it’s about my being a mum, or things on that level. But I suppose you don’t want at any time that to be the case.

Do you personally manage any of your online presence, your strategy, any of that stuff? Do you think about any of that?

Occasionally it pops up. If you’re going to be playing a gig, vital things where people will need to know, because otherwise, no one’s going to be there. I’ve just gone with what I’ve been comfortable with and what I can do. I haven’t really tried, but I just know that I just can’t handle that external platform.

Do people you work with try to do it for you?

There’s always the question, how do you want to deal with your online persona? I think they do things like put on the dates of things. And they just ask me the question, they want to know whether I suddenly want to be everywhere or something. In terms of strategy of an album – I’ll try and process it because obviously they want to know. And I end up saying, you think about the strategy! I don’t know about strategy like that, I’m just doing the music. I can understand on some level because not everyone listens to music how I like listening to music. I like putting on an album, but not everyone does. So they’re thinking about those people, and the strategy there. You have to trust, but also try and be aware of what’s going on. 

I have a question about escapism. When do you feel the most transported? 

The other day I got out the paints with Jocelyn, and I hadn’t painted for a long time. I’ve drawn but not painted. To do it with a little bit of time and patience, I thought this is so nice – I could do this for ages. So that’s definitely one.