The New CVU 2013 Q&A: Mig Mora!
Every day in January The New CVU will preview 2013 plans for a Chicago artist or industry figure/organization. Today: Mig Mora!
Chicago's Mig Mora lives in two highly competitive and highly creative worlds, both as founder of local-centric clothing outfit City Of Win, and as an MC. On the musical side of things, Mora just released his Music For The End of The World mixtape last month. Below, the multi-talented artist shares his the origins of that effort, his collaborations on the mixtape, and what's next for him and his ventures in 2013.
CVU: You just released your new mixtape, Music For The End of The World, at the end of 2012. How long was that effort in the works?
Mig Mora: Some of the songs that made their way onto the album are a couple years old; I remember I wrote "Destroy & Rebuild (track 4)" back in 2009 but never really released it because I didn't feel like I had an outlet to get my music out there. It wasn't until late last summer that I decided I was definitely going to put an album out and it was at that time that I came up with the concept and started writing specifically for this project. I had talked about putting out a solo album for a couple years and I think the title of the project helped provide a deadline because obviously there was a lot of end of the world talk in 2012 tied to December 21 and I work better under deadlines so that helped provide some motivation to get the project out before the end of the year.
CVU: This effort coincided with the much hyped Mayan end of the world predictions. If the world had ended, could this mixtape serve as your final musical will and testament?
MM: Yeah definitely. I released the album through Ruby Hornet on 12/12/12 so if the title only referred to the Mayan calendar that would be a pretty short shelf life for the project. In reality I felt as though I've talked about putting out a solo album for so long that it really might be my first and last considering how long this one took. So yeah, the title definitely implies that I stand by this project if the world happens to end before you hear anything else from me musically. It just happened to be a convenient title since a lot of the content on the record is conspiracy themed and since it's a sci-fi concept album of sorts.
CVU: You've got some notable collaborators on this mixtape, including Netherfriends, BBU, Stefan Ponce, and more. Talk about the collabs on this effort and how those came together.
MM: Netherfriends actually emailed me out of the blue after we released the City of Win mixtape last spring and we hit it off pretty much right away. We actually met coincidentally at a 4th of July party in Pilsen like the day after he first emailed me if I remember correctly. It was a fun party and the night ended in a jam session so it was just good chemistry from the beginning. I definitely plan on working together a lot more in the future; in fact, we'll be releasing a song we made together with Chandler London very soon so stay tuned for that!
The BBU feature as well as the Scheme and Chandler London collabs were a product of our City of Win sessions last spring. Those two songs ("Thin Line" and "Kingdom") were featured on the City of Win mixtape but they really fit with the theme of my album so I wanted to feature them on this project as well.
The Stefan Ponce collab was something that started about a year ago; we talked about working together on a full-length project but we both have very busy schedules so the song "All Kill Everything," was the one song that we actually finished based on those conversations and sessions. I'd definitely love to work with him more this year.
Also, big shout out to Ellay Clark who sings the hook on "Untouchable." She's super talented and we actually met at our day job so that was cool and unexpected. And of course, last but not least, much love to Stefan Clark (no relation) who produced most of the album.
CVU: You're not only a recording artist, but also work on the apparel end of things, with the City Of Win brand. How do you view the connection between music and fashion?
MM: There's definitely a strong connection between music and fashion as forms of expression. It's a connection that really is bigger than any one genre or any specific style. Right now in Chicago especially I feel like both music and fashion are passion points that are driving a lot of community amongst young people, which is very cool to see and be a part of. From a dollars and sense perspective I think it's only natural with the digitization of music. People aren't as readily willing to pay for an audio file that they can download for free in most cases, but if they like your music people might very well buy a t-shirt to support you because you can't download a t-shirt. Not yet at least.
CVU: What else is on deck for Mig Mora in 2013, whether on the musical front or with City Of Win?
MM: Right now we're rocking the City of Win winter collection and gearing up for the spring line, which is a lot of responsibility because we don't ever want to stop improving upon everything we're doing and what we've done in the past. On top of that you can definitely expect to hear a lot more music from me this year. I released a song with Hood Internet and Prob Cause a couple weeks ago, which is a remix of an On An On song. That was pretty dope considering I've been a stan of Hood Internet for like seven years. I'll be writing for my next album pretty soon; the working title is Mig World Order and to a certain extent it will pick up right where Music for the End of the World left off.
