Mirwais (musician)

Mirwais Ahmadzaï (born 23 October 1960), commonly known by his stage name Mirwais, is a French record producer and songwriter. He was born in Switzerland to an Afghan father and an Italian mother. He is a leader in the French electronic dance music scene. A member of the defunct 1980s group Taxi Girl, he met Madonna in the late 1990s, when he submitted a demo to her then record label, Maverick Records.[1]

Mirwais Ahmadzaï
Birth nameMirwais Ahmadzaï
Also known as
  • Mirwais
  • Mirwais Stass
Born (1960-10-23) 23 October 1960
Lausanne, Switzerland
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Record producer
  • songwriter
Years active1978–present
Labels
Associated acts
Websitemirwais.org

Career

Taxi Girl and Juliette et les indépendants

Resultantly becoming known in France for this reason for the better part of two decades, Mirwais was a guitarist in the punk group Taxi Girl for eight years, before forming the acoustic outfit "Juliette et les Indépendants" with his then-girlfriend Juliette. Taxi Girl's first EP, "(S.O.S Mannequin)", was released in early 1980 on Pathé Marconi/EMI.

"For a teenager, the late 70s were a strange mixture of disco music and punk, and it was okay to like them all," he says. Taxi Girl captured the punk rock power of The Stooges, the techno futurism of Kraftwerk and the disco euphoria of Giorgio Moroder and molded the diametrically opposed styles into an electrifying new-wave sound that entertained and inspired a generation of listeners bored by the complacency of 80s French pop. Even the current darlings of the French electronic music scene, such as Daft Punk and Air, continue to namecheck Taxi Girl as a major influence on their artistic directions.[2]

Solo career

In 1990, Mirwais released his eponymous debut solo album Mirwais[3] which contained nine tracks and was performed by Mirwais exclusively in French; he had not yet learned English.

In 1998, he signed to French independent record label Naïve Records and released the single "Disco Science". This single was a success as a club dance hit and appeared in the soundtrack for the Guy Ritchie film, Snatch and the 2006 Luc Besson film Arthur and the Invisibles. In August 2000, he released the album Production,[4] which included the single "Paradise (Not For Me)" made in collaboration with Madonna. It also included two minor chart hits in the UK Singles Chart: "Disco Science" (2000, #68) and "Naive Song" (2000, #50).[5]
Naive Song went to number 2 on the US Dance Club Charts in 2001.[6]

Madonna

Madonna recruited him for writing and production collaboration on four of her studio albums: Music (2000), American Life (2003), Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005), and Madame X (2019). He also co-wrote a song that would later appear on her greatest hits album Celebration as a previously unreleased track.

Mirwais contributed the following tracks to the Madonna albums:

  • Music: "Music", "Impressive Instant", "Nobody's Perfect", "Paradise (Not For Me)", "Don't Tell Me", "I Deserve It".
  • American Life: Co-produced the entire record and co-wrote all songs with Madonna, with the exception of "Nothing Fails", "X-Static Process" and "Easy Ride".
  • Confessions on a Dance Floor: "Future Lovers", "Let It Will Be", bonus tracks "Fighting Spirit" and "Super Pop", and the deleted tracks "Triggering" and "Keep the Trance".
  • Celebration (2009 "greatest hits" compilation): iTunes bonus track "It's So Cool", a previously unreleased track from American Life.
  • Madame X: "Medellín", "Dark Ballet", "God Control", "Batuka", "Killers Who Are Partying", "I Don't Search I Find", deluxe edition track "Extreme Occident", and box set-exclusive tracks "Funana" and "Ciao Bella".

The Music album was nominated for three Grammy Awards including Record of the Year. "Music" won several MTV Europe awards. He was also involved in the writing and production of the title track to the movie Die Another Day, co-written and performed by Madonna. The song was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song in 2003.

Fischerspooner

Mirwais also co-produced two tracks "Cloud" and "Never Win" on Fischerspooner's second studio album Odyssey, released in 2005.

Y.A.S.

He worked on a project called Y.A.S. The official website stated: "YAS is the name of Mirwais' new project with the singer and composer Yasmine Hamdan. The album was released in France on 8 June 2009. All songs are performed by her. It is 'Arabic Avant-Garde Music'".

In an interview on 13 January 2007 published on lecourrier.ch, Mirwais said, "At the moment I work with Yasmine Hamdan (one half of Lebanon electro-duo Soapkills). The idea is that today, in Western culture, we hear about Arabs everyday - in a bad way, because of terrorism, etc - but we lack of cultural representations coming from those countries that could mix with the western culture, whereas this youth is eager to. I don't want to do world music, but a good western production with a real Arab identity."[7]

Y.A.S.' album, "Arabology" was released in May 2009, with the first single, "Get It Right", following in June that year.

Uffie

After remixing "Pop the Glock", Mirwais became one of the producers of Uffie's album Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans, for which he produced four songs "ADD SUV", "Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans", "Illusion of Love" and "Hong Kong Garden", one of which featured Pharrell Williams ("ADD SUV") and one which featured Mattie Safer ("Illusion of Love").

Music for films
  • Die Another Day, title track of the 20th James Bond movie. Performed by Madonna.[8]
  • Quelque Chose d'Organique directed by Bertrand Bonello (1996)[9]
  • Pardonnez-moi directed by Maiween (2006)[10]
  • GHB directed by Laetitia Masson (2014)

Discography

Taxi-Girl
  • Seppuku (1981, Virgin France)

solo

Singles
  • "Cellophane" (1990, New Rose Records)
  • "Disco Science" (1999, Naive Records)
  • "Naive Song" (2000, Naive Records) US Dance Club #2, Belgium Bubbling Under #3 (Wallonia) and #5 (Flanders)
  • "I Can't Wait" (2001, Naive Records)
  • "Miss You" (2002, Naive Records)
  • "2016 - My Generation" (2020, Productions 50/50)

Videography
  • "Disco Science"
  • "I Can't Wait"
  • "Naïve Song"
  • "V.I. (The Last Words She Said Before Leaving)"
  • "Miss You"
  • "2016 - My Generation"

Remixes
  • Jean Jacques Smoothie - "Two People" (2001)
  • Fischerspooner - "Never Win" (2005)
  • The Slips - "Superbeat" (2007)
  • Shortwave Set - "Til' 69" (2008)
  • Sonny J - "Can't Stop Moving" (2008)
  • Mika - "We Are Golden" (2009)
  • Uffie - "Pop the Glock" (2009)
  • Madonna - "It's So Cool" (2009)
  • Moebius - "Light My Fire" (2009)

Albums
Mirwais (1990)
No.TitleWriter(s)ProducerLength
1."Le Futur"AhmadzaïAhmadzaï3:58
2."L'Amour"AhmadzaïAhmadzaï3:20
3."Velours Bleu"AhmadzaïAhmadzaï5:13
4."60-90"AhmadzaïAhmadzaï4:51
5."Reviens"AhmadzaïAhmadzaï4:17
6."Cellophane"AhmadzaïAhmadzaï3:59
7."Modernisme"AhmadzaïAhmadzaï3:37
8."Tu Sais Bien"AhmadzaïAhmadzaï5:27
9."Régime Sud Americain"AhmadzaïAhmadzaï4:23


Production (2000)
No.TitleWriter(s)ProducerLength
1."Disco Science"Ahmadzaï/Kim DealAhmadzaï3:34
2."Naive Song"AhmadzaïAhmadzaï4:23
3."V.I.(The Last Words She Said Before Leaving)"Serge Gainsbourg (adapt.: Ahmadzaï)Ahmadzaï6:51
4."I Can't Wait"AhmadzaïAhmadzaï3:15
5."Junkie's Player"AhmadzaïAhmadzaï3:50
6."Definitive Beat"AhmadzaïAhmadzaï3:30
7."Paradise (Not For Me)"Ahmadzaï/MadonnaAhmadzaï/Madonna6:27
8."Never Young Again"AhmadzaïAhmadzaï5:37
9."Involution"AhmadzaïAhmadzaï5:37

References
  1. VAZIRI, AIDIN (20 April 2000). "Madonna Adds a French Twist to Forthcoming "Music"". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  2. "Mirwais online". Archived from the original on 19 November 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
  3. "Mirwais - Mirwais". Discogs.
  4. "Mirwais - Production". Discogs.
  5. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 370. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  6. Inc, Nielsen Business Media (14 April 2001). "Billboard". Nielsen Business Media, Inc. – via Google Books.
  7. "Mirwais, un héros très discret - Mirwais, a very quiet hero". Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2008.
  8. "Die Another Day - IMDb" – via www.imdb.com.
  9. "Mirwais Ahmadzaï". IMDb.
  10. "Pardonnez-moi" – via www.imdb.com.

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