Mysie brings vitality, intuition, and play to Øya Pageant 2026 [Interview]

Meet digital multidisciplinary artist, producer, DJ, and singer-songwriter Mysie, raised in South London with Ugandan roots.

Mysie crafts a genre-fluid digital sound that blends jungle, home, UK storage, and experimental dance, leading to a sound that’s distinctly her personal.

She introduced that genre-blurring method to the Klubben stage at Tøyen Park throughout the twenty seventh version of Øya Pageant on Saturday, August 15, pairing it with the instinctive, high-energy efficiency fashion that has grow to be central to her reside reveals.

For Mysie, it might have been her first time acting at Øya, however she carried herself with the convenience of an artist who has spent years immersed in music, largely as a result of she has.

Classically skilled as a pianist, Mysie first discovered her inventive footing as a dancer in a krump collective, the place she was launched to the experimental hip-hop of J Dilla, Flying Lotus, Thundercat, and Hudson Mohawke. Their boundary-pushing approaches would grow to be foundational to the way in which she thinks about rhythm, motion, and digital music.

Throughout her Øya efficiency, Mysie commanded the stage alongside her cousin and DJ, Jotham, who steadily performs together with her throughout reside reveals and tour dates. His presence added one other layer of connection to the set, with the pair transferring seamlessly between DJ-led transitions and Mysie’s reside efficiency.

Even for these within the crowd who had by no means heard her music earlier than, it was clear that Mysie was profitable over new followers with each bass drop, drawing them in via rhythm and motion.

Her confidence as a performer was particularly evident throughout “KITTY ON TOP,” when she inspired the gang to sing the lyrics again to her in a call-and-response second. From the viewers, it was clear simply how engaged they have been, hanging onto each phrase, embracing their very own interior kitty, and dancing freely.

By the top of her set, the viewers had loosened significantly. What started as a efficiency shortly turned one thing extra communal, with the gang singing, dancing, and responding to Mysie’s cues.

Mysie at Øya | Photographed by Mathias Ertnaes

Sitting down with Mysie after her set, we started by exploring what guides her when constructing a reside set, from vitality and storytelling to creating a definite expertise for her viewers.

She mirrored, “All three, to be trustworthy. I feel an important factor for me is to take the listener on a journey. I wish to take anybody who’s new to my music, anybody who is aware of me, or anybody who’s discovering me and simply didn’t anticipate finding me there, and take them on the Mysie journey, bringing them into my world.”

For Mysie, that journey is intently tied to vitality and the connection she builds with every viewers.

“Vitality is an important factor for me. My units are very excessive vitality, and I feed off the viewers a lot. So, I clearly have my cousin, who’s my DJ as effectively. Household’s a giant factor on my journey and entering into digital music within the first place. Actually, for my units, it’s about constructing a narrative, constructing the vitality, and taking folks on a journey. That’s an important factor for me. I would like folks to return away feeling impressed and feeling energetic. I would like folks to really feel relieved coming from my units as effectively. It’s a way of expression for me.”

Music runs deep in Mysie’s household. Her grandfather, Israel Magembe Wamala, was a outstanding Ugandan musician who based and led the jazz band Kampala Metropolis Six within the Fifties and is credited with serving to introduce Congolese jazz and blues to Uganda’s music scene.

That connection to motion additionally is smart given Mysie’s background in dance, which continues to form the way in which she approaches manufacturing and songwriting.

When requested whether or not she thinks extra about making folks transfer or how she needs them to really feel whereas creating, Mysie stated: “Oh, God, that’s so arduous! Effectively, it truly is each, once more, as a result of I come from a dancer background. I began music via Krump. I used to be in a Krump crew, they usually launched me to folks like Dilla, Hudson Mohawke, Flying Lotus, all of those individuals who influenced me to get into that type of music within the first place.”

She went on to say, “Dance has all the time been a component once I produce, and once I give you sure intricacies even inside the music, I’ve particularly put that there, for dance functions and for motion. It performs such an enormous half, and clearly, the whole lot I do, even by way of making the music, after all, it has to do with feeling.”

Intuition is central to Mysie’s inventive course of, significantly in the case of resisting outdoors expectations.

“I solely function from a spot of guttural intuition in the case of the music,” she stated. “I’m going with what I really feel. I by no means subscribe to what I feel different folks will like. It’s extra about what I like, what I really feel, and the way I really feel once I hearken to my music.”

That intuition additionally shapes the way in which Mysie finds inspiration. A few of her finest concepts have come when she wasn’t actively making an attempt to create something in any respect.

“You understand, it truly is the occasions while you’re doing nothing. The occasions while you’re doing nothing, and also you’re residing life and experiencing life. It’s these occasions the place you don’t even understand that you just’re instinctually constructing and gaining affect from sure elements in your life, sure issues, whether or not that be occasions in your life, whether or not that be sickness, whether or not that be simply going to a competition, going out together with your mates. Simply residing life is definitely the place I get all my inspiration from, and I didn’t discover that till truly fairly in a while.”

Mysie at Øya | Photographed by Mathias Ertnaes

Mysie added, “You understand, you possibly can really feel such as you’re behind while you’re not releasing music, however these occasions while you’re having that break, while you’re having these moments to soak up issues, that’s truly the place I get my inspiration from.”

Currently, a lot of that inspiration has come via merely listening to music.

“I do a little bit of DJing, and I have been doing a variety of jungle stuff lately. There’s one thing about simply listening to mixes whilst you’re touring to the outlets, strolling to the outlets, or going elsewhere. I like discovery. I like discovering random mixes. I like simply going to the deeper, nether-region elements of SoundCloud or Mixcloud and discovering random shit. That’s like one of the best, finest, finest manner. Particularly while you discover those that have like 50 followers or 500 folks listening.”

That sense of discovery is one thing Mysie additionally needs to see mirrored extra broadly throughout digital music.

Whereas the style has traditionally been male-dominated, she believes the difficulty isn’t a scarcity of ladies making music, however a scarcity of visibility, funding, and amplification for these already doing the work.

Requested what expectations or stigmas surrounding girls in digital music she wish to see challenged, Mysie stated: “All the time. I genuinely really feel like girls are so unbelievable. It’s not that we’d like extra. They’re already there. There are already many feminine producers. It’s about highlighting and investing in girls, and it’s additionally about amplifying girls. It’s so vital. From all totally different backgrounds as effectively.”

Mysie went on to say, “I feel it’s essential to be intersectional about issues. As a Black feminine producer in digital music, I wish to see extra of that being amplified within the UK and in addition around the globe. I simply really feel like there must be extra amplification. It must be mirrored in festivals, it must be mirrored in lineups, and it must be mirrored in writing rooms as effectively. I simply assume that girls are so, so, so vital, and that amplification and variety are so vital to me.”

Her method to the business finally comes again to not shedding sight of why she began making music within the first place.

When requested about one of the best recommendation she had acquired as an artist, Mysie stated, “I’ve so many conversations. The perfect piece of recommendation, I feel, has been simply to maintain on enjoying and to maintain on connecting to your interior baby. I feel you will get into this sort of factor the place life will get so severe.”

Mysie at Øya | Photographed by Mathias Ertnaes

Mysie continued, “How I used to be as a toddler, I had a little bit of that quiet factor occurring, however I did not actually doubt the alternatives that I used to be making. As I used to be rising into totally different environments, you already know, you get into the business, and there is a little bit of an obsession with aesthetic, how issues are wanting, numbers, all of this bizarre shit. That’s actually not vital in any respect. I simply wish to play whereas I am right here on this earth, alive. I am positive all people is aware of, like, we reside life as soon as, proper? Not each day is assured. So, you already know, fucking up quantize on the DJ decks actually doesn’t matter. It is actually not the top of the world. Individuals are there to get pleasure from, they aren’t there to journey you up.”

For Mysie, meaning resisting the stress to make each efficiency really feel excellent.

“I really feel like, even simply performing at this time, no one got here to that efficiency considering, ‘I would like you to fuck up.’ Simply play and don’t take it too significantly, as a result of we’re all right here to expertise this within the second, you already know?”

It’s a philosophy Mysie has needed to be taught in apply. Regardless of her confidence onstage, she remembers being surprisingly nervous earlier than her first competition DJ set at Boomtown.

“My first DJ setup at Boomtown—I wish to say it was a 12 months and one thing in the past. I’ve completed DJ units earlier than, however that was my first competition DJ set, and I did a home and storage set. Thoughts you, I’ve been in and round home and storage all my life. I grew up in South London! I do know that shit right down to a T, however I used to be so nervous. My buddy was like, ‘What the hell? Why are you so nervous?’ I used to be like, ‘Oh my God, are folks gonna know that I’m an imposter?’ Have you learnt what I imply? However actually, you get into this state, and it’s nearly having enjoyable. We have to have enjoyable and never get so obsessive about, ‘Oh my God, I put the reverb a bit too far,’ are you aware what I imply?”

Her nerves at Boomtown make her emphasis on play really feel much less like a mantra and extra like one thing she has needed to be taught for herself. For Mysie, confidence is not essentially the absence of doubt; it’s studying to not let that doubt dictate the expertise.

That mindset additionally extends to how she thinks about her evolution as an artist. Moderately than making an attempt to outline precisely the place her sound is headed, she sees self-discovery as a part of the method.

“I really feel like there are such a lot of elements of me that I’ve nonetheless but to find. I really feel like as I carry on discovering who I’m as an individual, my music will change, and I can already hear it change from once I labored on my debut album. A lot has modified from once I launched my first ever launch. I wish to get deeper into the influences I grew up listening to, whether or not or not it’s jungle, home, or storage. I wish to get deeper into that, go deeper into these elements of me, and be extra daring as effectively.”

She carried that sense of discovery into her first Øya efficiency, introducing her music to a probably new viewers. Not sure what to anticipate from a Norwegian crowd, she was stunned by the response.

“This was, actually, such a pleasing shock. What I like, truly, about particularly coming to those international locations is that persons are there to find new music. Not everybody’s going to know who I’m. It was so beautiful to obtain the vitality again. Folks have been simply giving a lot vitality again. That’s what I truly actually love, how chilled everyone seems to be. Not simply from the competition, I imply, even outdoors the competition, the folks which might be working right here, like there’s one thing about having an excellent vitality throughout the competition, from, you already know, the liaison to the individual that’s reserving. It actually does make a severe distinction.”

That trade between artist and viewers turned significantly memorable when Mysie seen somebody within the crowd singing alongside phrase for phrase to a monitor from her earlier challenge, CONTROLLA.

“I cherished seeing that there was somebody singing the third track from my final challenge, CONTROLLA, phrase for phrase. They have been simply singing it phrase for phrase! I used to be identical to, ‘What the hell?’ I don’t even know that track correctly. I don’t know, that one’s simply reached 100K, and I’m like, man, you found this, and you already know the entire lyrics! Truthfully, it was so unbelievable.”

That second captured what Mysie values most about performing: the connection between artist and viewers. Moderately than evaluating one competition crowd to a different, she sees every as its personal expertise, with the vitality transferring in each instructions.

“When it comes to different festivals, to be trustworthy, each competition is so totally different. I really feel like British crowds are hilarious. They bring about the vitality anyway. They’re so fucked up, so that they go loopy. That’s whether or not I’m DJing or truly performing, they’re so bonkers anyway. This [Øyafestivalen] has been such an excellent vibe. I like doing reveals! I like enjoying! Have you learnt how wonderful it’s simply to play?”

That very same intuition carries into Mysie’s studio apply, the place feeling usually comes earlier than construction. When requested about her favourite a part of making music, she factors to chords.

“Actually, I see producing and songwriting inside the similar ilk for me. I like arising with chords! Truly, to me, the chords are the core of the track. Everybody’s totally different, however the chords are the soul of the track. The melody is the soul of the track. The phrases, for me, come after. I wish to say one thing, clearly, with intention, however I do really feel, ’trigger I’m going with feeling and I’m going with my intestine, the chords and the melody are the center of what I make and what I like. Then, clearly, bringing that to life is unbelievable. All of them have their very own place, however I like producing music, I like composing.”

All of it comes again to the stability on the coronary heart of Mysie’s method: intuition and intention, craft and play. For her, there’s no single formulation for making music. It’s about following her instincts, staying curious, letting lived expertise form the work, and leaving room to play.

At Øya, that philosophy was audible in the way in which she moved via her set, responded to the gang, and trusted herself to observe the music wherever it led.