I regularly stop my bike in front of a green traffic light because I am studying stickers and flyers on a lamppost. I am obsessed with them. Word jokes, people’s heads in the shape of an egg, love letters. To me, this is the ultimate form of self-expression, rebellion and street art. I found an intriguing example that sparked my curiosity. It is a yellow flyer that I encountered at several places. The flyer states in capital letters: LEAVE A VOICEMAIL AND I MIGHT MAKE A SONG OUT OF IT. At the bottom of the flyer you can tear off a piece of paper with a telephone number. This flyer was created by Might Delete Later, a project by an anonymous Latvian/Dutch music producer who creates songs from voicemails she receives from strangers. This artist has twenty-six thousand followers on Instagram and performed at major festivals around the world, including “Tomorrowland” and “Defected Croatia”. I decided to call her for an interview with POM Magazine to find out more about this project.
by Giulia Weijerman
What is Might Delete Later?
The idea behind Might Delete Later is that in a voicemail people can simply say whatever comes to mind. Their voicemail may or may not end up in one of my songs. Whatever they say on the voicemail may or may not be listened to by someone. The caller has no idea who will listen to the voicemail they leave. That is the charm of speaking to no one in particular, it offers the possibility of going nowhere. From the moment we put the first flyer with our telephone number on a wall in Amsterdam, this whole concept of may or may not, worked out well. Currently I receive 10 to 15 voicemails per day. Perhaps two of them I use for my music. Sometimes I use a voicemail that was left 8 months ago. So it really is about that “might” part.
What about the “delete part? Do you delete the voicemails that you receive?
To be honest I don’t delete any of them. I save them all, I listen to all of them and I tag them all with categories like Love or Food. Somehow people like to call when they are eating their favourite snack or fruit and elaborately talk about it. Once, someone sent me a voicemail saying: “At the moment I’m calling and eating the best watermelon that I have ever had”. There are a lot of sad things people talk about but also a lot of amazing things that are happening in their lives. I don’t delete the voicemails but I may not use them.
Do you receive angry voicemails or with another kind of emotion that comes out strongly?
I receive voicemails with worries about how we are going to survive on this planet given issues like sustainability and global warming. I receive voicemails where people share their feelings about the effort put into affording a living. Those voicemails come from locations ranging from The Netherlands to America and Australia. The weirdest thing for me was during the time of the Dutch parliamentary elections. I received so many voicemails about the elections and how people felt about that. Voicemail captures a moment in time. If I use these voicemails for my music it would represent the time that we went through together. The voicemail I receive next year will probably be about different views and feelings.
Besides voicemail, do you use a more modern technology?
Well, I only use voicemail and that is a very old medium. You can leave a message but you will never be able to hear it back. It is just me who hears the message. I think people just need a space where they can drop their thoughts, just say how they feel. Last week I received a voicemail from someone who said: “Hi, so I called you last year, and I am calling you again, because I am feeling better, I feel myself again.” People remember what they said.
Do you blur the lines between public and private in your music?
When I started Might Delete Later, I always had this idea that perhaps one day someone who is sipping coffee somewhere, listing to the music in that place and suddenly jumping up from their chair saying: “That’s my voice on the speakers!” That’s exactly what I am after. Someone can say their thoughts and I use it in my music. It means that we are doing this together. The coolest things is that I receive a lot of random, phony voicemails. I received a voicemail that was like: “Hi, I lost Derek. Have you seen Derek?”
I would love to know what happened there. Who is Derek? How did you lose him?
Do you get in contact with your audience other than by voicemail?
My intention is to receive diverse voicemail messages in different languages and from different continents. On Instagram people can message me for flyers and on my website you can order them anywhere in the world and put them up there. This is how social media helped us. Some people placed the flyers in Rome next to the Colosseum. Someone in London put the flyers in Hyde Park next to a sign saying: “Do not feed the birds”.
I read on your website that you are a strong advocate for sustainability. Do you also prioritize this in the Might Delete Later project?
When I walk in my own city, Amsterdam, I see a lot of company flyers made of plastic. When I put up a flyer somewhere, I don’t want it to impact the environment there. Our flyers are biodegradable. It is a lot more expensive to make them sustainable, and it takes a lot of effort. I even want the paint on the flyers to be ecological, but it also shouldn’t wash away with the first drops of rain. The sticky stuff, the glue, I think it took me about half a year to find a supplier of non-toxic sticky stuff.
What are your future goals for Might Delete Later?
As an artist I love playing on as many stages as possible, because the more I can show, grow, and learn from how the audience reacts, the better. During the show we use a screen where people can see the text of these voicemails. Right now we are working with a couple of designers on a stand-alone expo, where voicemails will be transcribed real-time.
Would you ever consider delete, Might Delete Later?
Yes, because things can happen. Maybe after a million voicemails I cannot do it anymore for whatever reason and it just all goes down. I would like to continue this project forever. I would be the happiest artist on the planet. If I could give Might Delete Later to someone else then that would be amazing. Maybe then Might Delete Later, gets deleted if 10 other Might Delete Later ambassadors take over and then at some point we are in a different galaxy, and there are no more voicemails or phones. But for now, we are good.
Did they ever find Derek?
No. We are still on the lookout for him. If anyone reads this interview and has seen Derek, please call and send me a voicemail. I would love to know what happened there and who he is.
