Madonna Producer Blasé About Grammy Nod
February 19 -- The very notion of being nominated for a Grammy award sends most musicians into ecstasy. But Mirwais, who is up for Record of the Year honors as the co-producer of Madonna's "Music" (along with five other tracks on the Music album), is remarkably cool on the topic. Then again, he's French. "Yes, I'm excited," he says flatly. "If I have a victory, I will be really happy. But it's not something important to me."
His nonchalance is understandable. Since entering the music business in the late '70s, Mirwais — whose solo album Production comes out domestically on Feb. 27 — has shown little regard for following the rules. "Today, maybe there are a lot of people with a business plan in mind," he observes. "When they are 18 years old, and start making music, they think, 'In five years, I will be nominated for a Grammy, and in 10 years I'll have a nice car and be a movie actor.' But it was completely different for my generation."
Mirwais says he started his first band, the influential French new wave act Taxi Girl, to vent youthful frustration and his dissatisfaction with society. "We started to do music because we wanted to express ourselves. It was so important, because we were marginal, and we were not happy with our way of life. Today, the young teenager isn't really bored, because everything is focused on them: the movies, the toys, and video games."
And don't forget the pop charts. With prefab boy bands and teen queens still dominating the airwaves on both sides of the pond, Mirwais thinks the commercial success of "Music" — Madonna's first No. 1 single since 1994's "Take a Bow" — is much more important than any accolades he receives. "'Music' was experimental, but it went No. 1," he observes. "People say, 'But it was Madonna,' but she's had a lot of singles that didn't go No. 1. Why did this one? Because it's different. And that's important. It's a small victory for the underground."
Now, Mirwais (whose recent single, "Disco Science," is also featured in Snatch) hopes his example will inspire other artists outside the mainstream to try making their mark on the Billboard charts. "Music is not neutral," he insists. "It's like architecture. If you build an ugly city, people won't live really well [there]. But if you built a very beautiful city, maybe you could help people. A world with good music could help people. That's why people from the underground should do everything possible to go into the charts — to change the architecture."
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