2012 - Audio: EQ Music Interview

Thanks for the link.

 

I'm not sure why there is a discussion going on here in Portuguese. Can we please switch to English?

Sorry, C, I started it as i normally talk to Bia in portuguese...

i was just asking her what was the purpose of the title as i haven't heard the whole interview yet and was finding it a little weird...

A screencapture from this video.

There is absolutely nothing I like more in this world than to listen to Mika talking about his music:thumb_yello:

Can't wait to hear the album:wink2:

There is absolutely nothing I like more in this world than to listen to Mika talking about his music:thumb_yello:

 

Can't wait to hear the album:wink2:

My thoughts exactly! So good to hear him talking about his music. And he is doing it quite a lot now, I feel we are spoiled

My thoughts exactly! So good to hear him talking about his music. And he is doing it quite a lot now, I feel we are spoiled

Yes! I want more

thank you a lot for posting!

I really like the interview. just him talking about his music:wub2: lovely

I had trouble with the audio as well ...maybe it´s just me but I think the music in the back is pretty loud and I had difficulties getting it all

The interviewer speaks really low

He actually sounds kinda like mika to me! Good interview; nothing much new said though.

And I still don't like MYH or it's 'short film'.

t4p! i think the reason why it's hard to understand some bits is the background music, and also i have problems understanding them if they talk at the same time. xD the sound quality is fine though, and i could understand most of it. :-)

love what he says about lovebox but wait, why only from the 2nd song, so that means for the 1st song he thought we were half-interested, faded middle-aged people who know only 1 song?!

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to sit down with Mika in the studio to talk about the recording process for his new album "The Origin Of Love".

 

During this exclusive EQ Music interview, the number one international hitmaker opens up about why he feels "The Origin Of Love" is truly his second album versus his last album "The Boy Who Knew Too Much". Mika also talks about working with Pharell on his new single "Celebrate" and what it's like to make adult pop music just for fun and he shares the story of how a writing session for "Gang Bang" by Madonna being turned into something completly different.

 

Mika is a great guy - it was the first time I've got to meet him and he is just as warm, welcoming and charming as you would expect him to be. After the inteview, he played the title track "The Origin Of Love" for me and it was outstandingly epic - a true pop masterpiece that you will fall in love with the first time you hear it - I promise that.

 

Look out for Mika's new album "The Origin Of Love" when it drops this fall and get a glimpse into the whole recording process by checking out our EQ Music interview below.

 

 

 

Source: http://www.eqmusicblog.com/2012/07/eq-interview-with-mika-when-you-dont-feel-like-a-slut-you-feel-great.html

 

 

Thanks to @vanessa-love-mika for RTing

That's another great interview! T4P!

Here is the transcript:

I. So here I am with Mr. Mika himself. Welcome to EQ.

M. Thank you.

I. And we're in the studio. What are we doing in the studio today.

M. Fixes mostly and also just kind of like playbacks. So in between I'm checking mixes with the mixer who is in West Virginia, in Virginia Beach. So we do that through an ISDN link.

I. I (you?) actually know what that is.

M. And so you kind of hear him changing (his name is?) he's kinda changing things and you hear it in real time. In high quality. And then I'm doing kinda playbacks.

I: So just tweaks on the new album.

M: Yeah tweaks and just kinda finishing this f*cker. It was such a quick process to record it and write it. And then finishing it is such a bitch. It's just like...

I: It's just not creative anymore.

M: No it's like housekeeping. You know, it's kinda like...

I: You don't wanna do it.

M: Yeah it's like housekeeping. Yeah it definitely is like housekeeping.

I: So this is your third album.

M: It is the third.

I: And how is it different from Life in Cartoon Motion and The Boy Who Knew Too Much

M: It's um, it's very different. It's kinda like... Actually you know what, it's very different to TBWKTM. Um, very different. And it has a lot of parallels in its intention as LICM. So if that makes sense. LICM was a very bizarre record made with the sole intention of making myself happy.

I: Which resonated quite well.

M: Well, yeah but at first it didn't. It wasn't. It wasn't this resonating thing. It was just this thing. This bizarre piece of alternative music. With this second - I call it the second record a lot, but it's actually with the third. With this third album it's like the kind of slate-cleaning and the total neutrality in my approach was very much the same as when I was approaching my first album. It was literally like I don't want to be isolated like the second album, I don't want to be miserable. I want to be Joy chasing, I want to be collaborative and I want to make music that just makes me happy in a kind of, without thinking of the current pop climate in any way whatsoever. And just kind of embracing the talented people around me and kind of having them join in.

I: I really like how I read that you found some collaborators online and you had Pharrell in and just sort of random people that you wanted to collaborate with.

M: That's it. It was that. It wasn't you know, some of it was effortless. Pharrell called me and I was like yeah I'll do it and I brought this guy along that I found in North London on the internet. Those collaborations worked great because no one had an ego and everyone had the same intention. Grown men, kind of, some of us were 22, some of us were older. But you know it doesn't matter. It's like grown men making pop music for themselves. That's the difference. So often - there's a lot of great pop music that's being made and a lot of incredible - it's like the Brill Building era is back again. You've got these amazing polished, stunning pop records that are being sung by singers and performers created by writers and producers. When you get a bunch of adults making pop music for themselves, to make themselves kind of like happy or jump around or smile it's a very different process. It's a very different intention. And it's very, sincerely what has happened on this last album.

I: We've heard Celebrate and Make You Happy. Is there a few other tracks on the album that you're excited about?

M: The Origin of Love. The album is called TOOL but there's a song and that is the kind of, that is the mothership of...

I: The epicentre.

M: Well yeah it's the concept. The intention is so clear. It's so embracive. It just, it makes you happy. It makes you feel taller. It makes you feel like things are slightly sunnier. It's like the ultimate love message.

I: I can't wait to hear it.

M: I'll play it to you after this. There's the Origin of Love and then there's also a song called Lola which I adore. Which is kind of like a mixture of Fleetwood Mac mixed with the Bee Gees and again it just brings a smile. And then there's a song called Stardust which is kind of shimmery pop.

I: You're checking all the boxes here.

M: The influences are, there's everything from like... For instance there's a lot of, there's a mixture of organic and electronic on this record and my intention was you know what? Why not make electronic music have a pulsing heart? Make it have a pulse again. So my reference was like the 1960s when electronic music was art because it wasn't in the mainstream yet. It was so fresh and so vibrant. Like Laurie Anderson's O Superman and Steve Reich with It's Gonna Rain. These things were so, like you know, in Make You Happy you've got the fundamental statement which is very emotional. "All I want to do is make you happy" is being said to you by a robot and it's this distance. It actually makes the message even more impactful. It's not about autotune for me. It's about using the manipulation of a voice to kind of drive home a message. Then there's Kraftwerk and all that. So there was that side of it. Then at the same time the golden pop tradition of things like Abba are still at the epicentre of what I do. Beck, The Eels.

I: There's a name we haven't heard in awhile.

M: Oh Beck is probably like, he's a massive artistic influence. Even if he's not a sonic one, on my record. But he's inspiring you know. A man who makes pop music for himself. And sometimes it's shimmering and brilliant and sometimes it's more introspective. But it always has the same intention.

I: Saw your set at Lovebox on Sunday. I was there.

M: You did? Cool. I was so nervous.

I: Really?

M: I was f*cking sh*tting myself.

I: First show in 3 years here. Afterwards how did it feel?

M: It felt like I was playing to real people. Like to real fans. Not like some kind of half interested, jaded, you know middle-aged "I know one song and I'll stick around for a bit of it". By the second song I had a real audience in front of me that was engaging, that was listening. It felt amazing to have that kind of rapport back instantly after 3 years. It felt really good. Make You Happy was hard to do live under those conditions. Especially the first time ever. But Celebrate was the first time we ever really did it in front of a real audience ever and it was surprising to have it come back at us. It didn't just get lost like a pebble. It actually got reacted to and it was really cool to see that happen.

I: I really love your co-singer on that.

M: Joy. She's kinda cool.

I: She made that performance.

M: She saves it. She likes, you know I don't have Pharrell. I don't want to use a voiceover. She's kinda like... And I like how she's a girl. Although Pharrell's, you know, pretty metrosexual.

I: A lot of Mika records, especially the ones on the radio, are very happy, very joyful. And I was surprised to learn that you contributed to Madonna's Gang Bang song. Which is quite aggressive, for lack of a better word. But it's kind of what I wouldn't expect from a Mika writing collaboration. How did that come about?

M: You see fundamentally I'm a writer and that's really like, that's what propels me as an artist. Not a singer. I'm a singer of course, but what propels me is being a writer. So this, kind of like, of course I have my perversions and my darknesses and stuff like that. I didn't call the song Gang Bang. For me Bang Bang was a much better title. But it was interesting. I wrote it with a friend of mine called Priscilla Renea who is an amazing LA-based young songwriter and singer. And we wrote it as Bang Bang and a lot of the lyrics are sayings that my grandfather used to say like "You think it's you I like the most but I'm keeping my enemies close." All those kind of things. It's very bizarre to hear, in the mutation that the song went through, to hear those lyrics being sung back through her kind of like distinctive speaktone. It's kind of great. It's really great to hear Madonna singing something that you were involved in writing. I didn't really have that much more to do with it apart from the original writing session that I had with Priscilla. And it landed on her desk because of William Orbit.

I: Who you've been working with on this album too?

M: Um, no, not on this album. But we were working together on stuff but it never really kind of went on to my album. As a result of that this Madonna thing happened. It was, it's great. It's my favourite song off that album.

I: I think it's a lot of people's favourite song off that album.

M: Because there's a sincerity to it. There's a kind of like "oh no you didn't". There's a kind of validity and you could almost imagine that. Well there's a truth to it. You can really imagine her saying those things to somebody or to a few people. And I think that that resonated. I was walking by in NY when I was in between mixes and stuff like that and I saw a spin class and they were spinning. My grandfather was an immigrant from Syria who ended up at Ellis Island and made his life in NY and they were spinning to Bang Bang - to Gang Bang (I still call it Bang Bang). I was looking at this spin class through the window and I could hear this song coming through and I was like oh my god if my grandfather could hear his sayings being cycled through by a bunch of exhausted sweaty people with Madonna kind of like gyrating around. He would roll over in his f*cking grave.

I: That's a really cool story. Thank you for sharing that.

M: My pleasure.

I: Well we're really excited about the new album. What we've heard so far is great. Celebrate is quite the anthem.

M: Thanks. A lot of love has gone into it. A lot of like, it's just been a very breezy process. Really hard but when something's done sincerely, it's easy. Do you know what I mean? When you don't feel like a slut you feel great. You don't feel like you're dying or pushing, it just happens.

I: You've just given me the headline. Mika thank you so much for spending time with us today. Any closing words for EQ readers?

M: Sorry we didn't get to the ferret racing.

I: I'll push you on that afterwards.

Thanks Christine!

Thank you very much!!

Here is the transcript:

 

Thanks a million !!

OOOH thank you a lot Christine, this time I was in trouble...

but, it seems he denies his second album.

On my opinion it was even more refined than the first, full of

theatricalism, poetry, characters, stories, cultured reminiscences.

Less pop, popular, perhaps...

And I am someone who really like the soud of Anderson or Eno or the

challenging provocative Nina Hagen, or the today sond of Bjork. So the

problem is not the " technique" but, maybe, I do not understand the

concept...

...perhaps I am only a " you know middle-aged" fan...

Yeah, his negativity towards his second album kind of makes me feel sad . . . because it's my favorite one.

Maybe he meant that the second album felt similar to the first one since he didn't collaborate with as many people on it as he did on this one?

Christine, thank you very much

I think it makes sense to align this album with LICM in order to give the message that he is getting back to what works for him (and his audience). I also love TBWKTM and that whole time period holds amazing memories for me but I think you could feel the negativity from him even at that time. All that moaning about miserable teen years, hints of suicide, etc. I like a bit of twisted darkness in music, but the message that went along with it when he discussed the songs was a far cry from the euphoria and escapism of LICM. Back then a breakup = rain/hate, now a breakup = celebrate/it will be ok. He's in a totally different frame of mind.

I think it makes sense to align this album with LICM in order to give the message that he is getting back to what works for him (and his audience). I also love TBWKTM and that whole time period holds amazing memories for me but I think you could feel the negativity from him even at that time. All that moaning about miserable teen years, hints of suicide, etc. I like a bit of twisted darkness in music, but the message that went along with it when he discussed the songs was a far cry from the euphoria and escapism of LICM. Back then a breakup = rain/hate, now a breakup = celebrate/it will be ok. He's in a totally different frame of mind.

I don't know, I see plenty of negativity on LICM. But as I'm more drawn to TBWKTM, I suppose it's more negative. I consider hints of suicide relateable.

I don't know, I see plenty of negativity on LICM. But as I'm more drawn to TBWKTM, I suppose it's more negative. I consider hints of suicide relateable.

Perhaps, but I don't think Mika projected that when he was promoting the album. He was all about fun and bright colours and celebrating individuality.

I think we can all relate to many of the things he discusses in TBWKTM but it's just the wallowing in it that I find offputting. There were times when I felt anxious, upset, rejected, etc. as a teen but overall it was a really exciting time in my life and I enjoyed it. And if I didn't, I think I'd probably rather just completely forget about it and not want to be reliving it again 10 years after the fact.

I think it makes sense to align this album with LICM in order to give the message that he is getting back to what works for him (and his audience). I also love TBWKTM and that whole time period holds amazing memories for me but I think you could feel the negativity from him even at that time. All that moaning about miserable teen years, hints of suicide, etc. I like a bit of twisted darkness in music, but the message that went along with it when he discussed the songs was a far cry from the euphoria and escapism of LICM. Back then a breakup = rain/hate, now a breakup = celebrate/it will be ok. He's in a totally different frame of mind.

Yes, he was never very happy when asked about TBWKTM. I remember he did some studio vlogs and there was something missing from Mika, I think. Yet he's been very enthusiastic about Origin, after that terrible period when Paloma was injured, he seemed like he dusted himself off and got going in a more possitive way. He became excited about the colabs, and talked about the 3rd album with much more enthusiasm.

Having heard some songs from the Origin album, I have to say, I agree with him, they are more like a follow-on from LICM, rather than from TBWKTM. Though I loved a lot of the 2nd album songs, I do feel this album is the one to get him back on top. It's just a feeling I have. I hope it's right.

My son says that he thinks (the song) The Origin Of Love sounds like a hit.

My hubby meanwhile, is blaming all the wet weather we're having on Mika. He did that before, when Mika wrote Rain, but now he reckons we're getting all this wet weather because we've all got to learn to breathe underwater!

Next time, I think Mika will need to write a song about sunshine!

.

And I am someone who really like the soud of Anderson or Eno or the

challenging provocative Nina Hagen, or the today sond of Bjork. So the

problem is not the " technique" but, maybe, I do not understand the

concept...

...perhaps I am only a " you know middle-aged" fan...

oh, I knew someone would bring this up. I think Mika meant the types of people who just stand still at gigs, being unable to enjoy themselves. :rolls_eyes: Occasionally you find these people front row as well but I have a feeling he has performed at too many 'private gigs' lately where the audience is clearly different, so he obviously has had some bad experience with non-reacting audiences. At Lovebox he was performing at the Circus stage that had pretty much a gay audience and they liked him but I must add that I have seen way more enthusiastic audiences and especially bigger ones. To be honest, I felt a bit sorry for him for having had to perform at such a small stage and so early, too. That was way different from the huge festivals in the UK he was invited to perform at in 2007.

Concerning the album, we have heard recorded versions of 2 songs only so you may actually still like the end result

I think it makes sense to align this album with LICM in order to give the message that he is getting back to what works for him (and his audience).

yes, I think he wants to make a mark with the third album like he did with the first. LICM was different and fresh in 2007.

I also love TBWKTM and that whole time period holds amazing memories for me but I think you could feel the negativity from him even at that time.

Maybe, but I think he was simply lost and without direction. Does anyone remember the album launch party for the second album? I can only remember some aging designers attending, which is fine by me but reflects where his mind was that time. It seemed to me that he almost forgot he wrote songs to the drawings, too. Music seemed secondary in any case, in terms of his mindset, and you could actually feel that on the album. Well, I could. Like someone mentioned it on another thread, there was no cohesion between songs on the album. I loved most songs on it but as an album it didn't have a 'wow' effect on me like LICM had and some of the songs sounded like the half-hearted replicates of some other ones. I felt he should have had some people listen to it and ask them for their honest opinion about it.

Yes, he was never very happy when asked about TBWKTM.

Thanks for posting... enjoyed reading everyone's comments too... good discussion. I think every album will be different with Mika & I hope they are... LICM drew me in, TBWKTM locked me in... I honestly LOVE both differently, am a lil nervous for the Origin of Love tho ... cause for the first time I heard stuff I didn't like instantly.. unlike everything else before.

It's a very interesting interview! Thanks Bia and Vanessa:thumb_yello:

It was so cool to hear him talk about the album and Lovebox! Also what he says about the things that are done sincerely in so true.