words chris rees

A couple of songbirds from London wing in on
a quest for a nest.

Mimi and Will are performing at Underground 50 in early December, separately, but they’ve been in HK for a month already. The two are a couple, visiting Mimi’s parents and generally fishing for a new life. There seems to be a lot of blowing in the wind with this pair: you could say they are at a crossroads. Will, stage name FourteenBirds, is enjoying the solo life now after his previously “next big thing” band They Don’t Sleep “came to a silent end. We played great music, but then one day we realized it was the same music for a year and a half.”

Now as he sits on stage alone, strumming sparse but emotionally charged chords on his guitar, his shaking voice never really lets me settle, but draws me uncomfortably into an intrigued balancing act on the edge of my seat. You’d expect the man to be serious, you’d expect him to wear a long coat, whip his great ginger beard over his face mysteriously, but no – instead he tells me about a recent dream: “This one was really good. I was at a late-night chicken cabaret, and there was violence everywhere, not sexually, but blood everywhere. I’d have to get my note book to tell you more – I wrote it down.” This is all in response to my question about the source of his inspiration.

Obviously, the couple follow some alternative logic and are very impulsive. “We hadn’t heard of Underground when we arrived,” Mimi tells me. “I just graduated [graphic design], I brought my commercial portfolio with me.” They are here to write the next chapter in their lives. “I’ve got a ticket to Australia for March,” says Will, on a vague plan to play all over the world, “but I want to investigate the HK music scene. If there’s a reason to stay –
I’ll stay.”

Mimi’s entire career has been along this vein: “I only started recording when I was 20, my friends talked me into it.” Her friends talk her into a lot of things. “One time, we were at an art fair in Hackney Wick [England], a fund raiser, but there was no stage. And we were by a river. So we decided to just borrow a small barge and put some planks together and we played on the raft!” And she remembers one of her best gigs, similarly idiosyncratic: “The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. There was an abandoned church nearby, really gothic, with stained-glass windows and an organ in the attic. We just played there and people came. It was amazing.” Now Mimi and Will are in HK without an agenda, just to play and see what comes their way.

Spontaneity shines through Mimi’s music. I ask her to describe it in one word and she replies, “Rock, edging towards hymns; rock led by lyrics, um, folky, like Prince versus PJ Harvey...” In a word. She plays what she feels, just as she draws what she feels – check out her online sketchbook, sometimes the focus falls on individual people. One particularly striking image is of an aged man with a speech bubble that reads, “Hell, I ain’t nuthin’ now but, boy, I used to be a god.” “That was a man I walked past one time,” Mimi elucidates. “I drew what I thought he was thinking – by the way he moved, and acted.” She’s actually got a little project going on at the moment, “I’m getting a stall at Gold Coast in Tuen Mun, on the Montmartre Promenade, it’ll be up on weekends and public holidays, the idea is to do portraits for people and landscapes to document the fleeting faces and changing coastline of the Gold Coast.” Its all going towards an exhibition she’ll be showcasing “later on in the year”.

Will is a bit of an artist as well, but it is difficult to get any reason out of the man. “What is the FourteenBirds reference?” I ask him. “It’s not that clever, actually,” he replies. “I did a project at uni where I took an animated short and made electronic music to it, and changed the image. I took that short from Toy Story, that one with the birds?” Wasn’t that Monsters, Inc? “Whatever, yeah, For the Birds, I did that, and I liked that image of 14 birds on a wire – well, not necessarily on a wire – just 14 birds.” This lack of understanding about his own symbolism proves what he says when he explains, only half-jokingly, the advantages of being solo: “I don’t have to be serious anymore, I can be as pathetic as I like.” Mimi gives a knowing girlfriend smile/nod as he continues, “when you’re in a band, there’s always this problem of trying to come up with the best thing for practice – to be the best – you want to strut your stuff. Now, I can be as stupid as I want – I don’t have to… strut.” But the freedom that comes with his new solo work makes it that much better. Though you won’t find him bad-mouthing his old crew – he treasures the experience as much as his current one.

Will may be torn between solo and group music but Mimi has no conflicts: “I’m not good playing with others, I definitely prefer solo.” So would you ever play together? That would be so romantic! “Ha,” laughs Will, “I was practising in my room earlier, on a song, and Mimi came bursting in on the mouth trumpet!” “Yeah,” Mimi recollects with a broad smile. Then, “I thought that sounded really good!” she defends herself. “Well I was thinking,” says Will, “that would have sounded really good if it were a real trumpet!”

As of right now, Mimi is teaching in a kindergarten, and Will, well, “I play on my PSP a lot, oh, and Mimi’s computer. And I paid respects to her granddad on dead day.” Yes ladies and gentlemen, Mimi and Will – they’re ready to… pounce. And with a definite outsider’s sound looking in, they’re fresh enough to do it. If they can find that reason to stay.

Mimi Yeah! and FourteenBirds are playing for Underground 50 at Club Cixi (G/F, On Hing Building, 1 On Hing Terrace, Central) on December 7. The show runs from 8-11pm and tickets are $80 on the door, $60 for students.