German Interview in piranha magazine - October 2012

[sookiee]

I put a part on google translate and it seems really interesting interview (at least what I understood)
especially this question

Ich habe eine Frage, die ich öfter mal Musikern stelle, aber ich glaube, die Antwort bei dir könnten extremer ausfallen: Was ist die häufigste oder größte Fehleinschätzung, mit der du konfrontiert wirst?
Dass meine Musik von anderen Leuten gemacht wird. Wenn ich laufe, hängt eine meiner Schultern nach unten, weil ich all die Jahre eine Harddrive im Arm getragen habe! Ich trage meine Platten – buchstäblich – von Studio zu Studio. Ich schreibe meine Songs, Tag für Tag – es ist das Einzige, das ich überhaupt kann. Und ich finde es bizarr, dass Popmusik heutzutage… in den 70s und 80s, da konntest du Popmusiker sein und es galt als etwas! Aber heute, wenn du glänzende Popmusik machst, oder schimmernde, sogar mutige Popmusik – dann denken die Leute, es muss irgendwie vom Fließband sein, man muss eine Marionette sein und dahinter muss eine Maschinerie stecken!


waiting a proper translation, I don't trust google translate

[mellody]

t4p! great interview, he says some interesting things there, tho they're also just chatting a lot about artists i don't know, lol! finally mika found an interviewer who actually knows AND likes all those musicians, so even tho i don't know them, it's fun to read the chat. :-)

sookiee, the bit you posted, mika says that it bothers him that often people blame him for being a marionette and think his music is made by others.

i love the paul anka story. paul anka told him that if he's a bad piano player he must be a good writer because then he'll tell the story with the melody.
and the last few questions are very interesting as well, basically he says there that he likes contradicting himself because this means movement, and it's more interesting. i think he's right, if an artist becomes too predictable, it'll get boring... so i'm happy that mika sees it that way.

[LaraMay]

Originally Posted by DerMoment1608

No, that's not German. It means "Don’t feel sorry for Mika", right? I don't know why the interviewer wrote it in Swedish. Maybe he thought it's cool? And/Or it's a reference to the song "Känn Ingen Sorg For Mig Göteborg"?

But even if I'm not sure why he choose to write the headline in Swedish, the meaning itself does make sense, because of the first sentences:

Yeah it's that Håkan Hellström song That's like an anthem for my town Anyway thanks for sharing

[Statue_of_Liberty]

Thanks for posting! It was an interesting read even though 90% of the mentioned names are just a bunch of letters for me

And yay for anything happening in Germany regarding Mika!

[DerMoment1608]

I never got an answer - so I took that as an "I won't give you the audio". Therefore I translated the interview now

******

Don’t feel sorry for Mika

"Mika? On this Indie-Schmindie-Popindie-Blog? Indeed! Yes! [With the words he used it's a very vehemently "indeed" and "yes"]

Because so many times my interviews are only through phone now - so, if somebody like this colourful entertainer is in Munich for once, then one wants to sit in front of him! If he then is, on top of that, a wonderful, enjoyable conversational partner who has to tell interesting things, then it would be dump to withhold such a talk from the blog. Sooooo: Mika's third record is coming, he mostly recorded it together with Nick Littlemore (PNAU, Empire of the Sun) and there is a lot to talk and explain about it. We are sitting in "Salt" at Rundfunkplatz… and best thing is if you are imagining Mika grinning all the time, with a permanent sparkling in the eyes, while reading this interview.

Alright! I like to start interviews with small talk. To relieve this awkward tension.

Hahahaha. Yes, you can cut it, with a knife!

Indeed, haha! But that way you can relax and discard fear.

Whose fear, yours or mine? Hahaha.

Well, I was looking for this restaurant, where we are sitting now, on the internet beforehand. So I would know where I have to go. While doing that I saw the menu. And it is on of these total strange menus.

I haven't eaten anything yet, I don't know yet.

They offer stuff like apple-wasabi-ice-cream!

Oh, I LOVE something like that!

You love it?

I have a thing for strange food!

They offer "green-tomato-jam", too! That would have been the question that I asked myself. If you, who is often invited from labels etc. to such places, still want to eat something like that actually. Me, I wouldn't end up here normally. Are the taste buds adjusting? Or aren't you secretly wishing sometimes to be allowed to simply have a pizza?

Well, I'm indeed the type of guy who can eat here his… special dodo-steak with… snail-ice-cream on top, but who could go to McDonalds for dinner later. I don't have preferences. Probably because I'm doing this job for a long time now. In fact I'm in the business since I was eleven years old. And once you are on the road everything gets this kind of gipsy feeling. Than you are simply a traveller. On one day you are in some totally glamorous hotel, the next day you are sitting at 3 o'clock in the night on the floor of an airport and you are waiting with a slice of cold pizza in your hand for your connection flight at 6 o'clock in the morning.

Even you? I would have thought - you have had your number-one-hits worldwide. I thought you don't have to sit on airport floors anymore.

Believe me, we get everything. From the fancy private jet to the endless waiting on the floor. If you are touring, you are touring. Especially if you are an artist like me who makes music that is very mainstream on the one hand - but very alternative on the other hand, too. The way how I communicate my music is touring. Doing that you are always on the move. And today I'm maybe playing in front of 10000 people, but tomorrow in front of 1000. There isn't a preset, American machinery that surrounds me. But I like it this way. Because that makes sure that I never get conceited. It holds everything slightly in the balance, which is certainly a good thing for an artist. If you are getting conceited and indifferent, it is a small death.

You have made your third album now. "The difficult third album."

No. "The joyous third album."! For me, that's my experience. The second album, that one was hard.

Was that so? Because the pressure was so big?

Because I continued immediately! But I didn't have to say anything again yet. It was a conscious decision of me back than to make a record that continues the first one exactly. Even the cover was nearly the same - I changed the colours, I changed the patterns a little bit, but the template stayed the same. Creatively, both for design and for music, I used the same template, and it was on purpose. Back than it seemed to be the right thing to do for me.

But on the third record... the hardest thing, it was: finding the start. One and a half year I had a writers block, because I had toured too much. I came to a point where I was asking myself: How do I start? What do I need to do to start? But than life interfered and hit my over the head. After I had started I realized what the key of the whole thing was: That I was isolated. Afterwards everything solved on it's own. Because I was surrounded from, from a… gang, while I was making my first record. I was at music collage, around me were students, I worked on their records, the worked on my record, we were a team, there was this whole network around me. Then it became suddenly clear to me that I was so isolated after that. Therefore I made a decision for this record: Even if I am a solo-artist I will be doing it like I was a member of a band. I would find people, who inspire me, and who open the lock. Who are setting free what I have in my inside. This realization changed everything. Because of that I have recorded the album travelling, too.

The feeling I have of the new record: I think in English you are saying "poised". That at least was what my computer told me when I was looking for an equivalent of the German word "souverän".

(german, he repeats: ) Souverän....

Which means: To be cool with things, to be above things.

Post-coital. Does that make sense for you? Do you know what I mean with that?

I do know, yes. I have experienced that indeed. Rarely, but yes.

The cigarette after the sex. This sort of Souveränität. Haha, I'm joking. But: Yes, that hits the nail on the head. I have felt that way. While I was doing the record. It was like: I know exactly into which shape I want to carve it, and I will carve it now. And I'm going to have fun while doing it. But as souverän as the record is, there still is this resting-in-oneself-feeling of joy. [Because of the German translation I don't know if Mika used English words for "souverän" here or if he used the German "souverän" again, I would make sense at least]

Anyway, it seems like this is an album where you don't have to prove anything for anybody. Is that right? It sounds self-confident. It sounds like: "Okay, here I am, and that is me".

Yes, it is a little bit like that. It is like that. And that was liberating, at that time. But the record isn't too much self-referred? Does it sound selfish?

I wouldn‘t say that, no.

The spirit is very generous. Yes, there was this easiness, this lightness: This is me, here I am, and - yes, that's indeed exactly like I've felt when I was making the record. Not beforehand, however. Beforehand it was: "What the hell am I going to do? Where the hell can I start? What on earth should I do now?

My, my! I haven't picked that up while listening. Although I thought - you can look in two different ways at your second record. You can say: Okay, he has shown that he isn't a one-hit-wonder. Everything was on a lower lever than on the debut, but he still had some number-one-hits. If it would have been the debut I would have been regarded as a big break-through.

Indeed! We still sold two million records. If somebody sells two millions with his first album....

than everybody would have said

FUUCK!! Haha! But because we sold 5,5 million of the first 2 million very terribly bad. Which is somehow, you know - oh well, never mind. You have to be cool. You have to remind yourself why you are doing music in the first place. You goddamn have to come back down, have to look at it from the outside and have to say: Are you making music because of the numbers? Or are you making music because it's the only thing which makes you feel like a human being? You have to remember what your initial intention is, because that is the best internal compass you can use if you are making a record.

While making the first record you didn't have thoughts about sales in the millions in your head, it was about the art, about expressing.

Indeed! But getting there... Let's tell it in a chronological way for you: The second album happened, yes? And I wasn't even, I wasn't… I was quite happy that a record with a song like "Toy Boy" could do so well. At the same time the thing was - I was saying to myself: I think I have to go on tour. And I've started in clubs and bars, but I've worked my way up to arenas, in Europe, in Asia, too, my tours became big history. Which was important. But I decided, too, that I wouldn't write songs during that time, it was on purpose then. And when I was back at home I lived a little bit of life. But over the time insecurity grew: What if I couldn't write another song? While I'm living my life? What would happen then? What should I do then? If I had suddenly unlearned that thing that I was doing since I was a teenager? Because I had forgotten why I'm doing it.

But than life suddenly packed a punch. I was in a long relationship, five years - and it fell apart. At the same time, while that was happening, my sister had an accident, she fell out of a window - and it was as traumatic as possible, it was from the 4th floor. Simply shocks life offers. My instinct told me - instead of staying at home and being the helping brother… once she was doing better I packed my suitcase and I escaped. I left everything behind.

I took one suitcase with clothes and one suitcase with a hard drive along. And firstly I met up with Nick Littlemore, with whom I had talked 6 hours before I booked my ticket to Montreal for the first time through phone, and I simply went away and left everything behind. And I'm walking into the studio, and for the first time - well, I'm no pothead, but he is sitting there in the corner, is smoking his little joint - and I was so tired because of the jetlag, so I was taking a shot of whiskey. I was drunken and jetlagged, he was high, but he was up fort his session so much! [Slightly different version here ] He brought 22 (!) old keyboards! Seven basses, and eleven different guitars! Although we didn't have had a song at all, although we didn't know yet what we were going to do! And all of this samplers! And he paid for everything himself, he charged the whole budget with his credit card! So I'm walking in - and there was another musician, his name was Paul Steel, around my age. Nobody had ever seen the other, I'm walking in, and I think: I'm not alone anymore!

May I ask quickly: If his name is Steele, is he the brother of Luke Steele?

No, they are unrelated. Well, I'm walking in, and I'm saying: "****!" And we are immediately starting to moan together. And then I knew again: Wow! I'm not alone! I can make music again, just like that! That way bands are making music, again and again. They aren't sitting in front of a piano and aren't trying to solve everything by themselves. We were moaning, and than this strange thing happened: the song "The Origin of Love" happened! Within 15 Minutes! It is the first song on the record now!

After that point I thought: "**** home!" It isn't important, I will continue to be on the road, I will move from place to place. And I was doing that for seven month, until the album was finished. This is the way how everything changed.

Nick Littlemore was certainly a clever choice. Probably you were a fan of Empire of the sun?

I knew a little bit about them, strangely I didn't like their image so much - although especially this seems to be the thing everybody is crazy about. What enthralled me really, sound wise, was the fact that the sounds were indeed dancy, but done on vintage-keyboards. I was interested in that. I thought: Whoever had made it - at that time I didn't knew who Nick Littlemore is - that person understands obviously that electronic music could have have heart. If you play a slightly off-tune old keyboard, than you are giving character to the thing, you are giving sex, you are giving history. It doesn't sound like something that was done with Ableton or Logic on a computer - which have the same sounds again and again.

That's why I wanted to work with him by all means, because I knew: This man makes fresh, relevant electronic pop music, but it sounds like it is from the 70s, it sounds like Vangelis, it sounds like "Chariots Of Fire". What is this guy capable of? He is a genius! Only, he doesn't like to bring records to an end, that's his only problem. Which makes it quite hard. Hard to work with him.

He is a perfectionist who never thinks that something is finished?

And then he just disappears. If he has to finish a record, he leaves the studio. He leaves the COUNTRY! He left me alone with the record, to finish it. Hahaha. I can't even begin to tell you how hard THAT is if you are trying to make an album. [Part of the reason why I took so long for Mika to finish the record, no Nick anymore? ]

[DerMoment1608]

Well, the reputation of being difficult precedes him. There is the same story with Empire of the Sun. Me, I discovered Empire of the Sun because I was a big fan of The Sleepy Jackson.

Oh, me too. I LOVE The Sleepy Jackson.

Hearing Luke Steele's song writing, coupled with dance music, which has, like you have said, this organic, warm atmosphere, too... it fitted SO well together! It didn't care that these guys were walking around with feathers and capes …

I didn't either!

The outfits were very flashy, but the music was very subtle.

Beautiful!

Anyway, The Sleepy Jackson said that a second Empire of the Sun record wouldn't happen, because he couldn't get his hands on Nick Littlemore anymore.

It was, because Nick Littlemore was working with me, hahaha! He did have had an affair with me!

But he did his last PNAU-record in the meantime, too…

Haha, and of course the Elton John remix CD! I stole him, from Elton, and from Luke! Which caused problems indeed!

But it's okay - and he did the Cirque de Soleil as well, but he was fed up so much with that. That's probably why he was so good in my sessions, so excited - because he could do something which wasn't this ****ed circus.

But he was the key! Regardless of whether I was working with other people. Even the songs that I made together with Benni Benassi I brought back to Nick! And Nick so: Ah, that's quite cool. What are we doing now, in order that it sounds, well, more human? Are we taking everything that is cool from this shining, electronic dance stuff that Bennis Benassi makes, and are we giving it a little bit of heart? Again and again I brought back my stuff to him and asked: What are we doing with it now? I mean, "Love you when I'm Drunk", that one I wrote with my old writing partner, Jodi Marr, from my fist album. Some procedures of the first album we picked up again. So, I'm bringing "Love you when I'm drunk" to Nick and ask: Okay, what's the next step? And he so: "Sparks. ELO, Jeff Lynne… let's make it feel like it's always climbing up and up. Like this weaving is weaved always upwards". Everything very visual.

He really used the word "weaving"?

Yes, exactly, like algae, like ivy, like something organic. It's only keyboards. But it doesn't sound like keyboards. It sounds like ELO or ABBA.

I'm not a musician myself. That's why I like it if there are people like Michael Stipe who can't read music like me and who are saying something like "Let's make it sound like clouds" to their band in the studio.

I can't read notes as well! I'm going into the studio and I say: "Imagine, you are 17. It's summer, and you are in Norway. You don't have enough money to leave from that place, so you are hanging around out there. And you are lying on a meadow, and your head is in the grass, and the grass is slightly yellow, because it didn't rain for two weeks."

Well, that's really accurate!

But it's exactly how I describe it! Because I just can't read music everything is like a film for me. That is the reason why I want to start to shoot my own music videos, too. I'm getting ANGRY if I'm making a video, and the film that they are making isn't the one I had in my head!

I'm often thinking that, too, while I'm watching videos. There are some directors who choose the obvious way.

Believe me, I know that. But there is the time pressure - everything that happens aside when a video is filmed, it's ridiculous. Especially if you are supposed to work with different countries at the same time. [Even in the German answer I don't know what he really wanted to say here, I don't see the connection between these different statements]

I'm still astonished - you said that you started at the age of eleven, right? You were at music schools. I thought you are surely trained at so and so many instruments.

I'm playing NOTHING except the piano - and that badly! I'm an extreme dyslectic, too - even at the age of eleven I couldn't read nor write! Even today I can't spell properly. I'm listening to audio books - because then I can memorize EVERYTHING. If I'm hearing it, than I'm remembering. But: I can't write properly.

Hui. That's interesting.

I think you are simply using different parts of your brain more often.

Probably. Apparently! You wouldn't be sitting in front of me if you wouldn't have talents that are extraordinary.

I think it's more because of my limited talents. Limited talents are forcing you to tell a story in a more original way. It's strange - do you know the song writer Paul Anka?

Of course, yes.

A legendary song writer. He wrote a couple of fantastic songs, even for the Bratpack! (for the younger ones of you: the "bratpack" were Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin). But a couple of bad ones, too. Lately his stuff was really cheesy.

He has a Las Vegas Show now, right?

Sadly he got old, and the myth is destroyed. But when I met him, it was on a fundraiser party, where I was invited to. So, Paul Anka is sitting next to me. And he asks: "Can you play piano?" And I so: "Yes, but I'm crap". And he at that: "Oh, so you must be a good writer" I: "Why?" He: "If you are too good at the piano you are telling your story with the piano. But if you are bad you are telling the story with the melody". I thought it was really interesting and think that he is right.


I have a question that I'm often asking musicians, but I think your answer could be more extreme: What is the most common or biggest misjudgement that you are confronted with?

That my music is written by other people. When I'm walking one of my shoulders is hanging down, because I carried a hard drive all this years with my arm! I'm carrying my records - literally - from studio to studio. I'm writing my songs, day by day - it's the only thing that I'm able to do [in a "have talent for something"/"be good at something" sense] at all. And I think it's bizarre that pop music nowadays… in the 70s and 80s, you could be a pop musician and it was considered as honourable! But today, if you are making shining pop music, or shimmering, even proud pop music - than people are thinking that it has to be from the assembly belt somehow, that you are a marionette and that there is a machinery behind it! But I think that this impression that people have of me will collapse, especially with this record. But it was a big problem for me for a very long time. And it was really annoying. I mean, in the beginning I didn't get a record deal for years because our music was considered as NOT COMMERCIAL ENOUGH! Then again - today it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter for me what people are thinking! I can make records that I really love! And I think I wouldn't have been able to record this third record with such enthusiasm if I wouldn't have approached it with the attitude that I wanted to do it as if I hadn't done a record beforehand. That destroyed my ego, in the best way. Because of that I knocked at doors which were closed for me beforehand - and I knocked a second time, and again, I fight my way through. I wasn't particularly proud, I didn't felt like a musician.

I think that high-quality pop indeed came back into fashion again during the last years, and that it is indeed highly rated every now and again. Robyn would be a prime example.

Yes!

What she is doing is definitely pop, but nevertheless she a favourite of Pitchfork.

Yes, exactly! Klas Åhlund, who made "Hand With Me" and a lot of other songs from her, is on my record! We did "Overrated" together! And "Elle me dit" - or the English version, "Emily".

Well, of course I'm a fan of him. Because of the Caesars *

Oh, yeah, okay!

He was a member of the Caesars, and the Teddybears STHLM, he is doing all these things!

It's funny, because we are getting along well. I think we have a similar humour, I think he is very, very funny. Because he is sitting there, with his long beard, and he… is wasting few energy. But he is doing all this different things, so much different kind of music, I love that! But you are right about this new pop wave - but most people in this wave are women… and a lot of bands. (He is thinking shortly, wants to stop.) Whatever - why giving interviews if you aren't allowed to bitch. My thing is: There aren't any goddamn men in pop! Then again, I don't want other men! I don't want that! I mean, whereto disappeared Beck? He wants to release his new record as a music book! But secretly I don't even want that Beck comes back! Although I'm the biggest Beck fan on the earth.

So you are considering Beck as you biggest competitor?

No, no no! For me he is... an inspiration! There are some men as well who are making amazing music. Sufjan Stevens makes astonishing music - the new Miike Snow record it ab-so-lu-te-ly crazy!

Oh yeah, this is my record of the year, too!

SO good!

SO MUCH is happening on this record!

So much happens! Do you know the song "Vase"? Song number four.

I know it! The strong thing about Miike Snow is: If you aren't paying attention, if it is only background music for you, you would think: Good pop songs. But if you pay attention!! What is TAKING PLACE there!

All of them are part of one crew. The went to school together. The are close friends with Klas Åhlund, too.

Yes, together they have started a new label, "Ingrid".

Really? I didn't kow!

Miike Snow, Klas Åhlund, Peter Björn & John, Lykke Li - all part of the team.

Really? Lykke Li, too? She is great! And do you know who is great as well? Right now, the most impressing person in the world of pop: Sia.

Seal?

Sia! Please not Seal!! And I'm so happy that she now has success in mainstream, too. She makes these records for years, and some of them are so INCREDIBLE good! Recently I dug out the Magnetic Zeroes, too, and I rediscovered them, I got enthusiastic about them again.

I have to admit, it's a band... I know they are there, but they didn't enthralled me yet.

You should give them a chance! Really infectious stuff!

I always thought that it is a little bit strange that Edward Sharpe is doing Ima Robot simultaneously. In Ima Robot he his this 80s guy, but in the Magnetic Zeroes he suddenly is… barefooted Jesus? Quite odd, right? I mean, somehow it's strong, too, that he makes more than one thing. But on the other hand: How should I believe your obsession with the 80s if I know you are portraying the hippie, too?

I understand. Do you know the actor who played in "The Madness of Kind George"? An Englishman, he died.

I have to look it up later. **

Look it up, his name won't come to my mind right now. But there is a quote about him, I've read it in his obituary. His partner, his long time boyfriend, was speaking about him. And he said: "He had this special attribute of character: I never met someone in my life who contradicted himself more often. On one day he said, that he adores a thing. The next day he insisted that he hated the very same thing beyond belief. Even that he never liked it! In order to say on the following day: That's the best thing, do you know it already? He even forgot that he was contradicting himself already!" The funny thing is, I find myself in him. Anyway, what his partner was saying, was the following: "Firstly that made me furious. But than I realized: That was what made him so extremely interesting! That he never stood still!" That was, I thought, great.

And you can transfer that to music, too. You can ask: "What's going on now, what are you really meaning? What should I believe in now?" But if you are seeing it the other way: Isn't it more special, isn't it a lot more better, to follow somebody, who is challenging himself and who is contradicting himself, even before you yourself are able to question him? It is something that you can see in classical music, you can see it in cinema. You saw it in the arts, although… today not very often anymore. Because today it is like that: Once a painter has figured out with which kind of painting he is successful on the art market, the art galleries will force him to do the same thing over and over again.

Did you contradict yourself once before? Have you done things on this record that are totally contradicting the first album for example?

Totally! In the past I always said: I HATE this goddamn computer! And now I'm saying: I totally have a thing for computers! Hahaha! Or: I never talk about myself! My lyrics are never about myself, but about other people! And now? I'm singing ONLY about myself! All my songs are about my life! Even a thing like sexuality! In the past I said: I'm never using catchwords [? - I think it's more the German translation that is strange here, not what Mika actually said], I'm not letting anyone label me as anything. Now I'm saying: Sure, I'm gay. So what? Some may see a contradiction in it - but I'm seeing it like that: I am alive!

I'm getting gesticulated that we have to stop, the time is over. Too bad! Thank you very much, it was very interesting!

Thank you! Very much!

* FAIL! It wasn't Klas Åhlund who is part of the Caesars, but his brother Jocke. But at least both are part of the Teddybears STHLM.
** The actor we talked about is Sig Nigel Hasthorne.

[cathouzouf]

Thank you for the translation, very interesting interview

[krjsantos]

Derment Very many thanks for your translation very interesting. They have a broad knowledge of music, I loved it

[Louiza]

Thanks so much for the translation
That was a very interesting interview. All this talk about music is really fascinating!

[Dreamy_Queen]

DerMoment1608 Thank you for your huge work! Such a big and interesting interview - not only cliches that we used to, but a lot of other info. This interview feels more alive than most others.
A lot of subtleties that help to discover Mika from other perspective.