Videos: Mika about the songs from the album The Origin Of Love track by track

Lol! I just listened to a video over 8 minutes long in French, and I don't speak French. Still a nice voice to listen to even if I don't understand most of what the voice is saying!

damnit Mika! WHY WHY WHY is the Karen making of in French?

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH since the ****ing song is in French, i was hoping at least the making of would be in English i really wanted to hear (and understand him) explain it *rips HIS hair out*

can someone pretty please add English captions to it?

damnit Mika! WHY WHY WHY is the Karen making of in French?

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH since the ****ing song is in French, i was hoping at least the making of would be in English i really wanted to hear (and understand him) explain it *rips HIS hair out*

 

can someone pretty please add English captions to it?

I still haven't watched the video (busy Mika day) but I'll translate as soon as I can, possibly in the next hours

I still haven't watched the video (busy Mika day) but I'll translate as soon as I can, possibly in the next hours

aww, thanks in advance!

i think he says that after origin of love, karen is his 2nd fave song on the album. ?

Strange he has other favourites outside France...

why did he exchange the piano for guitar, does he say it?

He did not change it, they are layered on top of each other on the record.

any chance for a translation? or at least a transcript, so i can copy it into google translate.

i think he says that after origin of love, karen is his 2nd fave song on the album. i don't understand though why he wanted to change it from the original version - he says something to the sound engineer girl about making it work, and then he played the guitar sound... why did he exchange the piano for guitar, does he say it?

You'll see, waiting is worth it~ I LOVE Karen & I LOVE this video !

damnit Mika! WHY WHY WHY is the Karen making of in French?

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH since the ****ing song is in French, i was hoping at least the making of would be in English i really wanted to hear (and understand him) explain it *rips HIS hair out*

 

can someone pretty please add English captions to it?

+ one million -.-

Translation as promised

Hi, it's Mika, we're in a studio in London, in the middle of East London, I'm here with my sound engineer, Angie, who doesn't speak French. Yes? A little bit? Ok, I'm going to explain to you a little bit about the song Karen which is on the album how I wrote it with the writer Doriand and also how I recorded it and produced it. And the transitions that the versions made. And so I'm going to start with the demo I made in the South of France in a studio called 'La Fabrique'. And I'm going to show you how it evolved. So the song Karen... it all started because I write with a songwriter Doriand, he's a friend of mine, we had started working together one year and a half ago, and one night we went out together, and we were at the Musée Grévin, because they had put up my statue at the Musée Grévin, and Doriand came to see the 2 versions of me, the real version and the wax one, and after that we thought 'ok it's a bit ridiculous what's happening...', we found it very funny, we went to have some drinks after the ceremony in a small bar 'Le Bistrot 82'. It still exists of course, it was just one year ago, it's on the Rue des Martyrs in Montmartre and it's next door to another bar 'Chez Michou'. We went there it was 1 or 1.30am, we sat down, it was almost empty, and suddenly people started coming in, it's really a night bar that closes very early in the morning. There's a girl who came in, she was called Karen, she was very nice, quite funny, and she started talking to me, and suddenly she started drinking, and drank more and more and more... One hour later she was leaving the bar completely drunk. And in the 60 minutes we spent together she told me her whole story, her life from beginning to that point where I met her. She had a son I think, a whole drama, she was quite astonishing. And Doriand and I looked at each other and thought 'ok it's clear her life is a song', we're going to take this experience and translate it into a melody which I wrote. I wrote the melody with lyrics in English, I sent it to Doriand and Doriand wrote the lyrics, then we went to La Fabrique in South of France and we made this demo. It's the first demo. (Music playing) And now there are keyboards entering, in a Supertramp way... And of course it's made with a piano in a very simple way in just one or two takes. And there's no rhythm, there's nothing because it was just me and Doriand in a room recording ideas. It's really a demo. What I find funny too is that most of this demo is very slow, because it was really the first time, before recording Elle Me Dit, it was the very first time that I was singing something in French. From beginning to end. And that I was recording something in French. And so, I had to slow the song down because I couldn't sing the lyrics in a good way without making mistakes. This song is really a story, we can see Karen at 20 years old, Karen at 30 years old, Karen at 50 years old, and we see her dying. It's Karen's life. But she's saying 'I'll be free, I'll be free one day I'll be free' and unfortunately in our story she only finds her freedom in death. And after this version I've been to many places, I went working with Nick Littlemore from Empire of the Sun, with whom I worked a lot for this album, and also we worked with Greg Wells, but most of the time it was Angie and me, we were in New York, and I thought I love this song, it's almost my favourite song in the whole album, apart from the song 'The Origin of Love', the second one is Karen. So I told her we need to find a way for this song to have its place on the album. So we called a guitarist, and instead of the piano that you've just heard, we transformed the song, it became a bit like that, in the same way as Fred Neil or Harry Nilsson, like an American pop album from the 60s (music playing) For example there, we forget the piano, and for example if I add the voice, that's the result. Now it's not too slow anymore. And it's starting to move much more. And there are a lot of details, for example if you listen there are trumpets, violins... And now it's starting to move, so it's a sad song but it has rhythm. So you can see how I start a demo, how I add things, and I try to create something, a sort of, a song that... Honestly for me, the song, if it's in French or in English, it doesn't matter, it's exactly the same intention. It must sound like a song that would be in English. It must have a place on the album just like other songs in English. For me there's no difference at all. But of course I like it that it's in French, because I don't know, when you sing in French it's very beautiful, it's very nice and even if it's hard, it's worth it.

If I see Mika in a bar somewhere I would act like I'm not his fan and sit next to him, talk about my life then get drunk. Hopefully my life would be interesting enough to be a song Thanks for the translation Camielle, great work!

It must sound like a song that would be in English. It must have a place on the album just like other songs in English. For me there's no difference at all.

I don't think he's accomplished that with Karen. It happened with Elle Me Dit but not this song. I guess it's debatable what sounds like a song in English but it really does not fit with the main tracks on the album at all, regardless of language.

I have tried to give this song every chance but "elle est libre" just sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me and his performance in Montreal fell flat. Oh well at least there are plenty of other songs on the album and he's not likely to sing Karen at most of the gigs I go to in any case.

Anyway thanks for the translation Camille. You're so good at it!

Is there a transcription for Lola around here???

Thank you so much for the translation I guess I understod

More than I thought

I don't think he's accomplished that with Karen. It happened with Elle Me Dit but not this song. I guess it's debatable what sounds like a song in English but it really does not fit with the main tracks on the album at all, regardless of language.

 

I have tried to give this song every chance but "elle est libre" just sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me and his performance in Montreal fell flat. Oh well at least there are plenty of other songs on the album and he's not likely to sing Karen at most of the gigs I go to in any case.

 

Anyway thanks for the translation Camille. You're so good at it!

So that's what he sings All I can hear is: "let it eeeat her"

Thank you so much Camille !!! Very happy to have this track by track clip for Karen, it's one of my favorite songs and I love the album version, because it really fits with the other songs so much better this way.

So that's what he sings All I can hear is: "let it eeeat her"

Oh dear

Thank you for the translation Camille! I'd love to hear Karen in English. I love the song and wish it was on the UK album. I hope he does an English version sometime.

[YOUTUBE]tL1zSFNUEI8&sns=tw[/YOUTUBE]

OMG! better and better

Transcription for Underwater (Track By Track)

subject to be corrected

One of the first songs that I did was Origin, but in the same session, on that two-day session, I wrote another song called Underwater. It was inspired by many things. It was inspired by Elton John piano parts, because Nick Littlemore was talking a lot about Elton John at time because he had been writing a record with him and the Pnau vs Elton John album and he was just working on that at the same time as writing some songs for Cirque du Soleil with Elton John. So I was like, you know ,‘’Oh you’re going on all the time about Elton?’’ and it kinda was pissing me off, quite a lot. I didn’t really want Nick Littlemore to be talking about Elton John all the time, it’s not, it’s not, you know, that creative, in terms of... it just made me jealous. And, um, so I sat down and I was like, you know, ‘’What if I played something a little bit like that?’’ So I just started playing this riff and the riff that I played was this. And that was the riff that I started playing, with nice little changes in the pre... and into the chorus and then I was like, you know, ‘’what if…’’, you know, Nick started actually saying some words on top and Nick was actually doing something like this… and his typical kind of slightly jagged-headed way, and, um, I was ‘’Actually that’s pretty cool, 'cause we’re not going with the rhythm, we’re going across the rhythm’’ so I thought, ‘'Why not do that?’’ And it just felt right, so I started writing this thing and it happened again quite quickly, and I kept on saying to him, ‘’Look, I want the song to feel like that Michel Gondry Levi’s commercial that I remember when I was a teenager and had that underwater love (Could this be underwater love?)’’ It was a song that was driven to number one around the world, simply by the strength of the ad. Some sailor falls off his shipping boat and gets kinda of rescued by a bunch of topless mermaids who start making out with him and undressing him, and then it’s kinda to be continued, but you don’t see the rest of it. And I was like ‘’it would be great to have a pop song inspired by that.’’ And we’re back into the pre... And then we're just beating it, so it's a ballad but it still makes you move. It just builds...

It's "cirque du soleil" instead of "Circ Celeb"

Thanks for transcribing it, Bia! I do have a few little corrections for you, if you want them

One of the first songs that I did was Origin, but in the same session, on that two-day session, I wrote another song called Underwater. It was inspired by many things. It was inspired by Elton John piano parts, because Nick Littlemore was talking a lot about Elton John at the time because he had been writing a record with him and the Pnau vs Elton John album and he was just working on that at the same time as writing some songs for Cirque du Soleil with Elton John. So I was like, you know ,‘’Oh you’re going on all the time about Elton?’’ and it kinda was pissing me off, quite a lot. I didn’t really want Nick Littlemore to be talking about Elton John all the time, it’s not, it’s not, you know, that creative, in terms of... it just made me jealous. And, um, so I sat down and I was like, you know, ‘’What if I played something a little bit like that?’’ So I just started playing this riff and the riff that I played was this. And that was the riff that I started playing, with nice little changes in the pre... and into the chorus and then I was like, you know, ‘’what if…’’, you know, Nick started actually saying some words on top and Nick was actually doing something like this… and his typical kind of slightly jagged-headed way, and, um, I was ‘’Actually that’s pretty cool, 'cause we’re not going with the rhythm, we’re going across the rhythm’’ so I thought, ‘'Why not do that?’’ And it just felt right, so I started writing this thing and it happened again quite quickly, and I kept on saying to him, ‘’Look, I want the song to feel like that Michel Gondry Levi’s commercial that I remember when I was a teenager and had that underwater love (Could this be underwater love?)’’ It was a song that was driven to number one around the world, simply by the strength of the ad. Some sailor falls off his shipping boat and gets kinda rescued by a bunch of topless mermaids who start making out with him and undressing him, and then it’s kinda to be continued, but you don’t see the rest of it. And I was like ‘’it would be great to have a pop song inspired by that.’’ And we’re back into the pre... And then we're just beating it, so it's a ballad but it still makes you move. It just builds...

It's "cirque du soleil" instead of "Circ Celeb"

Thanks for transcribing it, Bia! I do have a few little corrections for you, if you want them

everything corrected thanks to Deb ^^

Levi's commercial with the mermaids:

oh I remember it well now!

Thanks AMP:thumb_yello:

oh I remember it well now!

Thanks AMP:thumb_yello:

You're welcome.

At first, when Mika mentioned the commercial I had no idea but after I found it on YT I remembered it too. Fun and smart commercial by Levi's!