Mickey Callisto

Words and Photographs by Willow Shields

The first thing I was ever told about Mickey Callisto was to the effect of “you have to see him, he has the best voice ever and is so good live.” so, at Green Man festival last year I did see Mickey Callisto, and it was all true. I later described to him that his set felt like someone had lifted the lid off a little box and pure euphoria had come spilling out of it. 

I officially met Mickey Callisto opposite Camden Road station, walking out of the station a vision in a bright blue and green tracksuit was sitting on a bench next to a huge red-pink suitcase and a keyboard case. We hugged and I asked how his show the previous night had been. He told me it was great and proceeded to regale me with a story on how the green room and his hotel room were next door to each other. We crossed the road to the Camden Road Arms and settled down on a table outside, on the quieter side of the pub. After popping into the bar to get a cider and a lemonade, Mickey and I started small talking about music, dating and the various facades musicians put on when they go on stage. 

I started with “Is Mickey Callisto your real name?” he said, “I really wish it was my real name, my real name is Michael Spence” “Similar!” “It's similar but it's pretty boring isn't it? Callisto; I always think it’s like I’m a Mexican boxer going in the ring” I then asked, “Where did you get it from?” and he answered “So, Callisto is from my love of space and astronomy. I think I thought of the name when I was about fourteen or fifteen. Callisto is a moon of Jupiter, but also in astrological terms, Jupiter is the ruler of my star sign which is Sagittarius, so that’s where Callisto came from. I think the moon also has a slight orange tinge which matches my ginger hair.” Then going back to a previous topic of conversation I had wanted to explore more, “We were just talking about putting on facades, going on stage and such. What is your relationship with being on stage?  What's the difference between you at home and you on stage?” he replied “To be honest when we were talking about putting on facades before, a lot of people have quite contrasting personalities on stage and off stage. I don't. I’ve always been quite a confident person, I think that's because I'm very at one with myself. On stage, that's just my opportunity to portray what I am to other people, and inspire other people who are maybe not as confident to feel the way that I do.”

photo credit: NASA

I then ran out of steam a little so defaulted to one of my favourite ever interview questions, “If you were a sea creature what would you be?” With the biggest smile, Mickey said, “Ooh, I’d be a puffer fish. Because it just expands.” I had wanted to ask earlier in the interview but felt the need to warm up to this question, for no real reason, “Where do you get your style from?” As Mickey replied, I realised how captivating Mickey Callisto tells stories, “So it was 2019, I'll take you back, and I was going to one of my first ever raves. In Manchester at the White Hotel, for anyone who's never been - it's phenomenal. And I needed an outfit for the night, so I was in Blue Rinse Vintage in Manchester, which is actually where I get a lot of my outfits from. And I'd seen this red ski suit, and I'd never really seen a vintage ski suit before and I was like ‘oh my god, this is amazing’. And then my friend, to me, at the time says, 'are you really going to wear that to a rave?’ i was like ‘YES?’ so basically that's where my style came from, from seeing this vintage ski suit. After that I just went online, on depop and seen a lot of similar things. So that's where I get my style from, and also because I love sports. And i'm just very sporty, i think that comes from when i was younger i used to play a lot of sports, that's where it came in from.” Laughing, I probed “Do you get really sweaty on stage?” a giggle in response and then, “Yes! Honestly I don't know how I've never spontaneously combusted on stage yet. I’ve degraded down from the ski suits down to boiler suits which are a bit thinner. I need to find something that's mesh to be honest, so I can let myself breathe!” I wanted to circle back to the sports he had mentioned in talking on his style, “Were you good at sports at school? I'm assuming yes.” he replied “At school… At Uni I played about five different sports. So I was on the dodgeball team, the badminton team, the football team, and the squash team. I love sports, keeping fit, besides music, that's what I really like doing.” 

“Are you comfortable talking about your sexuality in relationship with your music? Tell me about Homospace,” He replied with “To be honest, I'm an openly gay man. And Homospace, as much as I don't see it as a gay club, if it was a real club it would probably be a gay club and LGBTQ+ club. Homospace isn't about being confined to one sexuality. Homo for me means ‘as one’ and it spreads the word of unity, so that's what it actually is. But also a great gay club.” Then, knowing the answer but needing the story behind it, I asked, “Growing up, who were your musical icons?” Beaming Mickey began his story, “I mean there's one obvious one who everyone sees, who I love. Because, for me, he's the greatest singer of all time. Freddie Mercury. I remember being fourteen and I was at the back of music class. And you know the keyboard setting where you press DJ? And everyone was pressing DJ in the music class, and I just seen a video of Queen. And I’m just watching this video, seeing Freddie Mercury come out on stage and i just thought; how can you be this good at singing, captivate an audience, dress so well and move the way he does? For me, I'm not religious but if I had to worship a God, it would ve Freddie Mercury.” Then after fumbling around the next question as if i was looking for a packet of chewing gum in a tote bag, I finally got to, “What inspires you to write music, at the end of the day?” He responded, “The things I write about, mostly, are my experiences in life. Also I write some third person experiences from what I see with other people. A lot of my lyrics are about positivity and bringing people together. As the world goes on, I think a lot of the time we become more divided and I think my job as a musician and a songwriter is to spread a message of unity. There are some people who write music, who are quite introverted. I'm quite extroverted, but one thing we all have the same message. That's what I try to do: spread positivity and fun.” 

I then recounted our shared but differing experiences at Green Man Festival and went on to ask, “Having been in one of your crowds, it's very. It's like euphoria in a little box. What’s been the best experience you've had with a crowd?” A sigh through a smile, and then “To be honest, and i'm not just saying it because you were there, genuinely Green Man Festival. What we were talking about earlier was, the crowd and the people watching it, we all felt as one. For me, when I see bands - I've seen some great gigs- but sometimes you see front men or singers, where there's a sort of hierarchy between the singer and the audience. You’re not singing to them, you're singing with them. With Green Man Festival, it felt like the audience was just as much a part of my performance, as I was to them. And everyone was just brought together. As a performer, I try to be a vessel, to just empire other people. It was wholesome, it was lovely. My highlight of that performance was, there was a woman and her husband and they had a baby dressed in a blue tracksuit and they were like “we've dressed our baby in a tracksuit!” and I said “that one’s better than mine, where did you get that tracksuit?” It was amazing!” Both of us giggling I declared, “More babies at Mickey Callisto gigs!” My final statement/question was “Let's be real, you like space, let's not tiptoe around it. What's your favourite space fact?” He excitedly replied, “I think my favourite space fact is that when a sun goes supernova that it turns into a black hole. A sun that explodes, that falls in on itself, can then turn into something that sucks light into it. The other thing is, and I think this is one that baffles everyone. When you look at stars in the sky, you're looking at something that happened millions of years ago, it's just mind warping.”