Mirwais Ahmadzaï

Mirwais
Mirwais in 2023
Background information
Birth name	Mirwais Ahmadzaï
Also known as	Mirwais Mirwais Stass
Born	(1960-10-23)23 October 1960 Lausanne,Switzerland
Genres	Rock post-punk house new wave electro
Occupations	Record producer songwriter
Years active	1978–present
Labels	Virgin Emi Naïve Sony

Mirwais Ahmadzaï(born 23 October 1960), knownmononymouslyasMirwais,is a Frenchelectronic dance musicrecord producer and songwriter. Born in Switzerland to an Afghan father and an Italian mother, Ahmadzaï was a member of the defunct 1980s groupTaxi Girl.He metMadonnain the late 1990s, when he submitted a demo to her then record label,Maverick Records.

Life and career

Early life

Mirwais Ahmadzaï was born inLausanne,Switzerland to an Afghan father and an Italian mother. The family lived inKabul,Afghanistan for a while before relocating to Paris.

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 groupTaxi Girlfor eight years, before forming theacousticoutfit "Juliette et les Indépendants" with his then-girlfriend Juliette. Taxi Girl's firstEP,"(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 ofThe Stooges,the techno futurism ofKraftwerkand the disco euphoria ofGiorgio Moroderand 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 asDaft PunkandAir,continue to namecheck Taxi Girl as a major influence on their artistic directions.

Solo career

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

In 1998, he signed to Frenchindependent record labelNaïve Recordsand released thesingle"Disco Science".This single was a success as a club dance hit and appeared in thesoundtrackfor theGuy Ritchiefilm,Snatchand the 2006Luc BessonfilmArthur and the Invisibles.In August 2000, he released the albumProduction,which included the single "Paradise (Not For Me)" made in collaboration withMadonna.It also included two minorcharthitsin theUK Singles Chart:"Disco Science" (2000, #68) and "Naive Song" (2000, #50).
Naive Songwent to number 2 on the US Dance Club Charts in 2001.

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), andMadame X(2019). He also co-wrote a song that would later appear on hergreatest hitsalbumCelebrationas 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):iTunesbonus track "It's So Cool", a previously unreleased track fromAmerican 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 ".

TheMusicalbum was nominated for threeGrammy AwardsincludingRecord of the Year."Music" won several MTV Europe awards. He was also involved in the writing and production of thetitle trackto the movieDie Another Day,co-written and performed by Madonna. The song was nominated for aGolden GlobeforBest Original Songin 2003.

Fischerspooner

Mirwais also co-produced two tracks "Cloud" and "Never Win" onFischerspooner's second studio albumOdyssey,released in 2005.

Y.A.S.

He worked on a project calledY.A.S.The official website stated: "YAS is the name of Mirwais' new project with the singer and composerYasmine 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-duoSoapkills). 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. "

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

Uffie

After remixing "Pop the Glock",Mirwais became one of the producers ofUffie's albumSex 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 featuredPharrell Williams( "ADD SUV") and one which featured Mattie Safer (" Illusion of Love ").

The Retrofuture

Mirwais announced in early January 2021 via his Instagram page that the release of his third albumThe Retrofuturewould take place in 2021.

The music video of the first single, "2016 – My Generation", premiered on Nowness on 19 April 2021. The music video was directed by Ludovic Houplain/ H5paris, based on an original idea by Ahmadzaï. "2016 – My Generation" was then released through all DSP platforms on 21 April 2021, making it the first single Ahmadzaï released in 20 years. He described it as "the description of a world that is already there, but in an accumulated form".

The Retrofutureis a concept album that focuses on dematerialisation and falsification. Each song is preceded by the name of a year, as in the title of "2016 – My Generation".

Discography

Albums

Taxi Girl

• Seppuku(1981, Virgin France)

Studio albums

• Mirwais(1990, Productions 50 50)
• Production(2000,Naïve Records)

Singles

List of singles, with selected chart positions

Title	Year	Peak chart positions					Album
		FRA	AUS	NLD	UK	US Dance
"Cellophane"	1990	—	—	—	—	—	Mirwais
"Disco Science"	1999	—	—	—	68	—	Production
"Naïve Song"	2000	—	—	83	50	2
"I Can't Wait"	2001	—	—	—	—	—
"Miss You"	2002	85	92	—	—	—
"2016 – My Generation"	2020	—	—	—	—	—	Non-album single

Film music

Songs that Ahmadzaï composed and wrote that are featured in films:

• Quelque Chose d'Organique(1996) – directed by Bertrand Bonello
• Snatch(2000) – directed by Guy Ritchie
• Die Another Day(2002) – title track of the 20th James Bond film, performed byMadonna
• Pardonnez-moi(2006) – directed by Maiween
• GHB(2014) – directed by Laetitia Masson

Remixes

Remixes that Ahmadzaï contributed:

• 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)
• Richard Ashcroft – "Hold On" (2009)
• Richard Ashcroft – "Out of My Body" (2009)

Videography

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

External links

• Official website
• Official Taxi Girl website
• Mirwais at discogs.com
• Rolling Stone – Mirwais
• Mirwais AhmadzaïatIMDb