BigShinyThing

Maya Arulpragasam (aka Missing In Action) is a 28 year old Sri Lankan who arrived in the UK aged 8 as a political refugee. Her (estranged) father is the founding member of the militant Tamil Ealam Revolutionary Organisation of Students. Prior to her music career she was a successful painter designing album covers for the likes of Elastica. Her album Arular is out now and she graces the cover of i-D magazine this month. She says:

England is great if you’re rich, if you belong there, you can breath through your Bentleys all day every day and never see anything and it’s beautiful. But if you fall under that line you’re fucked. No matter who you are - you can have a nine to five or you can be the local crack dealer but you’re all equally fucked and a huge amount of the population fall under that line and they don’t have that joy in their life. I’ve seen it and it’s getting worse and worse. I wanna know, can we have a better deal? That’s all it is. How do you bring more joy into people’s lives? You have to make your own happiness.

I want the kids who work in call centres to have some fun! I’ve worked in a call centre. They don’t let you be you. They don’t let you have a personality. Every human being’s got the hugest potential. You are capable of doing whatever you want. Why not rip up this country into some shape? Otherwise, what’s our generation gonna have achieved? Why not do it? What have we got to lose?

The brilliant looks-like-it-cost-a-fiver video for Galang is here.