Biography
At the crossroads of art, music, and DIY culture, you’ll find Misfit Mod, the moniker of New Zealand's Sarah Kelleher. With icy electronic beats, wet synths, and a hypnotic voice (one that veteran BBC host Tom Robinson said gave him goosebumps), Kelleher’s music radiates a technicolor fantasy full of understated strength and late-night whispers.
Growing up in New Zealand—a country famous for its idyllic landscapes as much as its dreary working-class conservatism—Kelleher spent most of her time as a child absorbing whatever caught her interest. Hanging out with her brothers and friends, riding around on her highlighter orange BMX, and singing along to her father’s records was as much a part of shaping her imagination as were da Vinci and Giotto, TLC and Boys II Men.
Part aversion to tribes, part artistic manifesto, Kelleher resisted taking instrument lessons or studying music theory, allowing her instead to cultivate a refined and cultured naivety that expresses her sense of musical purity and artistic individualism. Not interested in replicating what’s already been done, Kelleher combines her intuitive take on melody and vocal layering with a technological approach to the production of sound: in addition to being a serial autodidact, she is also one of New Zealand’s few certified female audio engineers.
Kelleher’s aesthetic is built on the juxtaposition of art and sound. A former gallery curator and art history graduate, Misfit Mod’s music and attitudes reflect this philosophy: teaming up with Swedish fashion designer Josefin Arnell, Kelleher created the live score for a fashion, music and performance-art hybrid; and at a recent show in London, Kelleher worked with mixologists to invent a cocktail that mimicked the feel and taste of her music (crushed lavender, violets liquor, sweet cherries).
In 2007, still in New Zealand, and following a string of shitty events that Kelleher would rather not talk about, Sarah began spending most of her nights in a makeshift studio in a small corner room of an apparel factory. For 6 to 8 hours every day, Kelleher would go to her office and record, eventually laying the foundation for Islands & Islands, a record she would continue obsessing over for years. Escaping New Zealand in 2008, Sarah would spend the next couple of years traveling across Northern Europe, tweaking beats in Oxford and Amsterdam, writing and rewriting her lyrics in Paris, polishing her vocal melodies in Berlin.
Sharp and precise, Misfit Mod has built a collection of songs that cut straight to her aesthetic core. From the rich and chocolatey ‘Sugar C’ and mantra-like ‘Cars’, to the unearthly “Ghost Me’ and sun-blurred ‘Valleys’, Islands & Islands is an album of subtle variety and aching beauty. For all of those who are misfits too, Islands & Islands forms not the vanguard of some new tribe, but the spear tip of one artist’s journey into a raw, eclectic, and vivid interior world.
Connect with Misfit Mod on Facebook at www.facebook.com/misfitmod.
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