Mitski Gets Real, Performs “Geyser” on The Daily Show

Mitski has continued her string of media appearances with a spot on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on Tuesday night. She performed a stripped-down solo acoustic version of the song “Geyser” off her latest album Be The Cowboy before sitting down to talk with Noah about her album.

Expanding upon the meaning of her album title, the singer described the American myth of cowboys, saying that there is “an arrogance and a freedom to it” that appeals to her as an Asian-American woman who “walks into a room and feels like I have to apologize for existing.”

She goes on to describe the “structural loneliness” of touring, and how that feeling of loneliness contributes to her songwriting. She describes her close relationship to music, saying that it is “her only friend sometimes.”

Mitski goes on to call the perception of her as “confessional” gendered discrimination. “I don’t think I would get as many critiques of my music as confessional or raw if I wasn’t who I am,” she says. She decries this description as an effort to take away her autonomy over her music. “For some reason people need to imagine me as some sort of vessel or vehicle for the music,” she says. “Instead of the creator.”

Watch the interview in full here and see Mitski perform “Geyser” below. You can hear her 2015 Daytrotter Session further down.