With a self-described sound that is akin to 'œdiamond shit on a yuppie expanse'?, NYC's Mixel Pixel will likely not be making it onto the playlist of standard, mall-mandated mix radio stations anytime soon. What is certain, though, is the Rob Corradetti, Matt Kaukeinen and Kaia Wong's unlikely cut-and-paste mélange of synth-pop, thrift-store videogame samples and surrealist anti-folk simply won't behave and be categorized, and will just as likely inspire as it will bewilder. Pras Rajagopalan spoke to principal songwriter Corradetti about music, Muzak, and the Great White North.

HOW DID MIXEL PIXEL COME ABOUT?
I guess it started when I was living in Minnesota for the summer in 1997. I was working on a farm in the early morning and recording songs on a four track at night. I was 20 and full of angst and ideas, so it started as a home recording thing. I met Matt and Kaia in college. In 2001,
we started playing shows.

MANY OF YOUR SONGS HAVE THIS WEIRD, ATARI-PSYCHEDELIC FEEL TO THEM, BUT ALSO SEEM TO RETAIN AN INNATE MELODIC QUALITY. IS WRITING A SONG WITH A MELODIC OR POPPY ASPECT SOMETHING YOU ACTIVELY AIM FOR?
In a way. It's funny, the things that sort of come out of me as an artist '“ and the band - it's like our brains are covered in a thin veneer of 1980s ectoplasmic residue. I feel like a folk singer trapped inside a child of the 80s. I want to write simple, straight-forward melodies and lyrics on my acoustic guitar, but it's never that simple. A Mixel Pixel song often is an artifact, a collage or a scribble just as much as it is a pop song.

WHAT EFFECT DO YOU WANT A MIXEL PIXEL SONG TO HAVE ON A LISTENER?
What I've come to realize is that people make emotional connections to all sorts of music for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes I am shocked by what people like. I am sometimes shocked that people like Mixel Pixel. So I don't think someone who sets out to write a song should be thinking that far ahead (as to 'how will this effect people?'). I think the goal of indie music (and our music in particular) is to push creativity, personal expression (in a do-it-yourself way) and give people an alternative to corporate mind control. Anyone making music for the artificial glamour of it is only making commercials. That's not music. That's plastic. Or as they used to say, that's Muzak. I feel that if music doesn't come from within, it's not genuine. It's worthless.

I KNOW YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A VISUAL ARTIST FIRST AND FOREMOST. YOUR SLEEVES AND POSTERS ARE REALLY CREATIVELY DESIGNED AND PROJECTED ANIMATIONS ARE THE NORM AT MIXEL PIXEL LIVE SHOWS. WHAT ROLE DO YOU FEEL THESE VISUALS PLAY? HOW IMPORTANT ARE AESTHETICS TO YOU?
Aesthetics are very important to us. Mixel Pixel is just as much about visual art as it is music, maybe more so. I like to think of what we do as 'pillow pop' in that it all comes from a single dreaming head. In dreams, more so than in the waking world, sounds and colors have liberty to mingle and exchange roles. When people talk about dreams they can more easily express a derangement of the senses, but when we wake up the senses are conditioned to fit into separate channels, the seeing part and the hearing part. I feel that as we get older we lose touch with the notion that all of these senses fit together and are interchangeable to an extent. So, in a way, I think Mixel Pixel is (almost) a juvenile protest against getting old and forgetting how to dream. Mixel Pixel is about dreaming.

YOU'VE PLAYED IN CANADA QUITE A BIT IN THE PAST. WHAT IS YOUR OPINION OF OUR FAIR LAND?
I feel like we somehow belong in Montreal. It's our home away from home. The people there are so kind to us and I feel like the music coming out of there, and Canada in general, is more interesting and quirky than a lot of what I see in the States.

By Pras Rajagopalan