I fell in love with pop music when I was seven. It was the girl power message from my favorite band growing up; Spice Girls (and still a favorite) that made me pursue music full time."Youth Against Fascism" was what inspired my political awakening and it really did spark something in me and I just instantly connected. When you become a teenager, everything gets turned upside down. Your head is just exploding. There were the first band I fell in love with when I became a teenager; the first band to kind of show me that way.. They were my teenage soundtrack and Black Flag, S** Pistols, The Clash and all the grunge stuff of course, like Smashing Pumpkins.
I was a trouble teenager. I was uncontrollable. When I was 18, we formed an electro-pop punk band Mor, travelling across Europe and I was also in all these left wing organizations. It was very, very political, very, very "F** society". We played all kinds of squats, weird places, everywhere. It was so much fun. We would take over houses that were empty and demonstrated and got drunk and threw parties in my parents house...It was a lot of fun and I think that's also why I'm so inspired by the teen years when I write music, because everything's so f*** crazy and amazing and so intense. You don't understand anything going on around you with all these changes in your body and in your mind but at the same time you have all these first time experiences like love and you're just so free and no strings.
The changing point of my career was turning from punk to pop. In Odense, Denmark the punk environment and the hip hop environment were very close and connected. When I was in my 19 and 20s, me and my girlfriends started hanging around with these graffiti boys and skaters who listened to very cool hip-hop. I thought they we so cool and even started dating one of them. He knew everything about music and he gave me all this hip hop stuff. and heavy electronic music. I just fell in love, deep and hard with that music: J Dilla, MF Doom, Wu Tang.
But, I still love punk. I still am a society critic, I just didn't play in squats anymore. In Denmark, they have a more socialist political system which means you get money for studying, you get money of you're sick and you get money even if you can't find work. Of course it's a good thing that people get help but there's always a dark side of the moon because people tend to exploit these things. What happens, is lifestyle diseases -depression, laziness and this suffocating fog of stagnation that the young people can't seem to shake off. They have all these opportunities and everyone will just throw
money ahead of them. I think it's important that people have something to fight for and I think we all need a passion and fire that keeps us going. It's like being spoon-fed yet starved.
Once, I was visiting some of my old friends and we had a night that I like to describe as the "f**-it-all" high of being young. I was almost waking up in the afternoon, when I dreamt the chorus. I woke up and just ran to the piano. I'm only 25 years old and I'm still living out my youth. MØ is the danish word for "maiden" which really fits in my lyrical universe. I wanted it because its the idea of a pure and unspoiled girl so it was ironic too. A lot of my songs are about growing up and entering all this chaos but in a way, you always want to retain the purity inside you.We don't have any guidelines to life, And we kinds of have to find ourselves in all this chaos with a society that settles for less and doesn't encourage you. With my music, I wanna say, 'Hey man, life is f*** hard but we can do it together.'
I'd have to say my favorite song is Pilgrim. That song is just about being yourself. It's giving the finger to our society which is so hysteric sometimes. I know it's a bit cliche now but I really think it's true. You gotta do your own thing, pave and walk your own road and just f** of from everything. Don'get me wrong, I like living in the big city but sometimes you really just need to get away from all that superficial stuff. Just sit under a starry sky and experience how insignificant you really are.
I don't know if I've changed that much since I was 20 but I do love my new life. I think expressing my identity and communicated with my community through music is my way of life. A lot of my fans comment on how I don't put up an act or cover like Lady Gaga. Some people say that I should but I think it's so important that you are yourself. I wouldn't even be able to hold up the masquerade. It would crack and show. I also think it's very important that when it comes to meeting fans that you're just being yourself. That really helps connect with them and you just meet a whole new world and really feel like you're influencing people.
Monday 29 September 2014
Friday 12 September 2014
Mother Tongue
Hello!
Personally, I don't usually read essays for fun. In fact I was assigned to read Amy Tan's essay "Mother Tongue"for homework. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this piece and it presented me with a new style of writing. Usually when I write essays, they're analytic or descriptive or a comparative but always academic. What I found extraordinary with Tan's essay was how effectively she used her language and experiences to convey the message of the purpose of language. In fact, she states first that "I'm not a scholar of English or literature...I am a writer".She describes her own memories so vividly that it's like we are there with her. The piece is practically oozing with emotion in a way that enables us to understand her.
Before reading this essay, I rarely thought about language. It was part of my daily life and I never stopped to think about it. It seems like this was one of many things that zoom past us in life. Now, I find myself thinking what is that I am speaking, who am I speaking to, do I change how I speak? and so many more. Tan's piece has made me take a step back and gain a more introspective look at language. To me, Tan's piece conveys the purpose of language: to convey oneself.
One issue that stood out to me was the stereotypes of non-native English speakers that our society has seem to have adopted. Tan points out the "narrow-minded attitude toward people of different culture and language backgrounds." Immediately, we can see that her mother played a key role in her life. She gives us many detailed experiences where her mother was treated differently because of her English. One case that really bothered me was when her mother went to the hospital to receive her CAT scan to check her brain tumor and they claimed they had lost it and gave no apology whatsoever. "She said they did not seem to have any sympathy when she told them she was anxious to know the exact diagnosis, since her husband and son had both died of brain tumors." However, when her daughter comes in and talks to them with perfect English, they immediately apologize and promise a conference call. In our society, doctors are held with high respect and are known as 'heroes and saints'. To see a doctor judge a patient's significance with her language is concerning.
Of course, everyone has done this at least once even if we didn't know it. We're brought up in a society where we believe that language reflects intelligence and significance. Similar to Tan, I had my own experiences with this. My mother''s Indian accent and her limited knowledge of English had put us in many similar situations. Once, when we went to an embassy to apply for a visa, the man working declined her even with all the right documents. I was furious and enraged to think that he could talk like this to my mother. I stepped in and asked to see his manager. After my own 10 minute confrontation, we received an apology and the visa. I could personally relate with Tan.
Tan does not like to refer to her mother's English as 'broken' or 'limited' because she can understand her perfectly. "Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world." By beginning to understand the importance of her English from her home, a product of her culture - her 'language of intimacy'- she found her writer's voice. I think what Tan wants us to see is that there is beauty, passion and most importantly meaning in the way her mother talks even if we don't see it.
Personally, I don't usually read essays for fun. In fact I was assigned to read Amy Tan's essay "Mother Tongue"for homework. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this piece and it presented me with a new style of writing. Usually when I write essays, they're analytic or descriptive or a comparative but always academic. What I found extraordinary with Tan's essay was how effectively she used her language and experiences to convey the message of the purpose of language. In fact, she states first that "I'm not a scholar of English or literature...I am a writer".She describes her own memories so vividly that it's like we are there with her. The piece is practically oozing with emotion in a way that enables us to understand her.
Before reading this essay, I rarely thought about language. It was part of my daily life and I never stopped to think about it. It seems like this was one of many things that zoom past us in life. Now, I find myself thinking what is that I am speaking, who am I speaking to, do I change how I speak? and so many more. Tan's piece has made me take a step back and gain a more introspective look at language. To me, Tan's piece conveys the purpose of language: to convey oneself.
One issue that stood out to me was the stereotypes of non-native English speakers that our society has seem to have adopted. Tan points out the "narrow-minded attitude toward people of different culture and language backgrounds." Immediately, we can see that her mother played a key role in her life. She gives us many detailed experiences where her mother was treated differently because of her English. One case that really bothered me was when her mother went to the hospital to receive her CAT scan to check her brain tumor and they claimed they had lost it and gave no apology whatsoever. "She said they did not seem to have any sympathy when she told them she was anxious to know the exact diagnosis, since her husband and son had both died of brain tumors." However, when her daughter comes in and talks to them with perfect English, they immediately apologize and promise a conference call. In our society, doctors are held with high respect and are known as 'heroes and saints'. To see a doctor judge a patient's significance with her language is concerning.
Of course, everyone has done this at least once even if we didn't know it. We're brought up in a society where we believe that language reflects intelligence and significance. Similar to Tan, I had my own experiences with this. My mother''s Indian accent and her limited knowledge of English had put us in many similar situations. Once, when we went to an embassy to apply for a visa, the man working declined her even with all the right documents. I was furious and enraged to think that he could talk like this to my mother. I stepped in and asked to see his manager. After my own 10 minute confrontation, we received an apology and the visa. I could personally relate with Tan.
Tan does not like to refer to her mother's English as 'broken' or 'limited' because she can understand her perfectly. "Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world." By beginning to understand the importance of her English from her home, a product of her culture - her 'language of intimacy'- she found her writer's voice. I think what Tan wants us to see is that there is beauty, passion and most importantly meaning in the way her mother talks even if we don't see it.
Saturday 6 September 2014
Hi, my name is Rasha Hamza and I was born on the 10th of October, 1998. My ancestors originate from a small beautiful village situated between Palakkad and Thrissur, Kerala, India. I, on the other hand, was born on the Island of Pearls, Manama, Bahrain. Currently, I live in the UAE.
Since I was a child, I've always wanted to be a writer. I loved reading ever since, well, since I could read. By the time I was 4, I already learnt the alphabet and before I knew it I was in grade 4, reading the Inkheart Trilogy. Now, I'm balancing my love for both reading and writing, and the arts.
I now know 2 different languages fluently, English and my native tongue; Malayalam. I also study French and Arabic. However, I think language can be anything. Anyway you communicate with other beings. Personally, art is another language that I love expressing myself in. You can communicate messages with colors, lines, space and etc.
Honestly, I'm not that talkative but I can still communicate with my body language. For e.g, a wave or a wink or the position of your body. I find it amazing that humans can create and develop languages. We've always gathered into civilizations and created order and society. We've created our own cultures and languages. We have even created computer codes, a whole different language to solve a complex problem.
To me, culture is basically a way of life. This includes traditions, beliefs, social behavior and etc. Language is a product of culture. I'm born Indian but I have in fact never lived there. I'm the only one of my siblings who knows our home tongue thus this creates language barriers when we visit. It's not easy to communicate ideas with our family but they compromise with body language and their own version of sign language (like in charades!). Living here and studying here, I've adopted many western ways into my own culture. Studying in the IB, allows me to have a global and open-minded perspective, especially on different cultures.
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