M.I.A. Thrives on Turmoil and Hardship

Posted on Jul 9th 2009 6:00PM by Benjy Eisen
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M.I.A. thrives on hardship and adversity. After all, she was a refugee from a civil war and was constantly shuffled between England, Sri Lanka and India, isolated from her father and raised with the uncertainty of her family's next move.

"Every time you get to a level and you move on to the next stage, the past just gets deleted," M.I.A. tells Spinner. "That's how my life has been, always."

But hardship is hard to come by when you've just won a BET award, stormed Coachella's main stage, have a couple of Grammy, Mercury Prize and Academy Award nominations under your belt, and you still have time to helm a boutique record label, start a fashion line and direct music videos. Oh, and M.I.A. is a mommy now, too.

Time itself may be hard to come by for M.I.A. these days and it has become her biggest adversary. But, for the first time, she's settled in one place and is reclaiming control of her life. "I've always found it easier to create when you're just sort of left on your own to deal with your own s---," she says. And that, she explains, is "why I don't have a manager and I don't have a team and I don't have anyone ... I'm rebuilding everything from scratch again."

M.I.A. is currently experimenting with tracks for her new album, both in a brand-new home studio and in an L.A. studio with Diplo and Switch, the two producers who helped engineer her current sonic identity.

"I'm just kind of exploring everything," says M.I.A. If that means embracing her new level of success, then so be it. Just don't expect her third album to be all roses and clovers because of it.

Read Full M.I.A. Interview