Mika in US & Canadian Press - 2013/2014

WASHINGTON BLADE

Stripped-down Mika By Joey DiGuglielmo on April 4, 2013

http://www.washingtonblade.com/2013/04/04/stripped-down-mika/

Gay pop singer Mika was in Vancouver when we spoke by phone two weeks ago. He was in tour rehearsals for a stripped-down 17-date mini tour behind his latest album “The Origin of Love,” which dropped in October.

There’s good news and bad — he is coming to Washington but the show is sold out. He’s slated to be here Wednesday night for a show at the Historic Sixth & I Synagogue. A review of his March 27 show at Los Angeles’s El Rey Theatre drew raves. A blogger (Neon Tommy) said he spent much of the evening at the piano and, “as great as his voice may sound in recordings, it is unbelievably smooth live” and “beyond impressive.”

WASHINGTON BLADE: What kind of instrumentation will you bring?

MIKA: You take it back to the way it was written, to its most essential things. Things start out very basically, like maybe just piano and bass, and then build and build until you get the more dance stuff. But there’s loads of different ways to do it. It almost sounds more tribal on stage. It’s kind of like you’re getting people up and dancing and singing without all the bleeps and blowups.

BLADE: Is this where you are musically now or is it just a way to contrast it with the touring you did last fall?

MIKA: It definitely will affect the sound of my next record. We’re testing new songs and it’s already happening. The new stuff is a lot more sparse.

BLADE: The transition in your vocals from your natural range into falsetto is so seamless. With many singers it’s so much more pronounced. Was that just always the way it was or have you worked to develop and refine that?

MIKA: It’s really the result of growing up being trained by Russian classical musicians. It was like really serious professional singing. I can flip really effortlessly because I’ve been doing it since I was about 11. At the same time, my full voice range is actually quite limited. I’m technically a baritone, so pop just doesn’t work for that kind of voice and I had to develop a way to have more range. If you listen to Freddie Mercury or Prince, you see how we try to stretch it as far as you can and make it so it’s almost unnoticeable.

BLADE: Now that you’ve been out a while, what differences have you noticed career-wise?

MIKA: There’s been no change whatsoever in the people coming to the shows. It’s exactly the same demographics … I have always had this very crazy mix. Press wise, people talk about it, but it’s only one question that comes and goes because I’ve never lied or pretended to be anything I wasn’t. I refused to label myself. And the music hasn’t changed. Beyond that, I think there’s definitely a different sort of person now who comes up and talks to me on the street. That happens in a very different way. I think it’s made me slightly more approachable to some people.

BLADE: Are you in a relationship now?

MIKA: Yes I am but it’s hard. Beyond the traveling, this desire to constantly be creating … I think takes its toll on a relationship. … Relationships are about stability and that isn’t necessarily the most conducive thing to the creative process.

BLADE: You have such great hair — any tips?

MIKA: Wow, relationships to hair — that’s quite a change.

BLADE: Well, I’m trying to move fast.

MIKA: The hair thing, I don’t know. I hate washing it. I feel like you lose a bit of your brain or something every time you wash it.

BLADE: How often do you wash it?

MIKA: Maybe like once a week or something. It’s kind of skanky.

BLADE: How easily do the hooks come? Is there a large discard pile of songs that just aren’t hooky enough or can you make the hooks tighter as you write and tweak?

MIKA? With the last record I think I wrote 16 or 17 songs and I put out 15 so no, there’s not a lot of waste. It’s a very efficient writing process. I try to write like a child, to write as someone who’s allowing himself to be a child. I don’t really chase hooks, but I try to capture that feeling of being an 8- or 9-year-old girl or boy on a holiday. … I’m obsessed with the craft of thrill building.

Thank you for sharing!

BLADE: Are you in a relationship now?

MIKA: Yes I am but it’s hard. Beyond the traveling, this desire to constantly be creating … I think takes its toll on a relationship. … Relationships are about stability and that isn’t necessarily the most conducive thing to the creative process.

I read cheating, re-read it 3 times and wondered for almost a minute why someone would say in an interview he had the desire to constantly be cheating.

http://www.washingtonblade.com/2013/04/04/stripped-down-mika/

very interesting interview, thank you! i like what he says about his singing and his writing. and lol about the hair question, and his answer to it! so does he think then that everyone else has a lot less brain than him because they wash their hair a lot more often than once a week?

about the relationship thing, i don't really get what his problem is. sure, the travelling is a problem, but why would being creative in your job stand against having a stable relationship? i think everyone needs a certain stability in at least one part of their life. my career life is also very unstable and i want it that way - but a stable relationship gives me the strength i need to deal with this constantly changing job world. i guess mika is afraid that feeling too "at home" in his relationship will make him lazy and losing the "drive" he needs to be creative... but it's a shame really that he thinks this way, makes me feel a bit sorry for his bf.

Thank you for sharing!

 

 

BLADE: Are you in a relationship now?

 

MIKA: Yes I am but it’s hard. Beyond the traveling, this desire to constantly be creating … I think takes its toll on a relationship. … Relationships are about stability and that isn’t necessarily the most conducive thing to the creative process.

 

 

I read cheating, re-read it 3 times and wondered for almost a minute why someone would say in an interview he had the desire to constantly be cheating.

I read it as cheating too, at first.

I had exactly the same reaction as Mika did to the hair question so when I read what he said I laughed out loud.

I find these hair washing stories impossible to believe especially when he's touring.

why would being creative in your job stand against having a stable relationship?

The self absorption that seems to be required for Mika to create annoys ME. I can't even imagine what it's like for his partner.

I mean look what he keeps saying about the album. How they fell in love again and Mika just took off to Montreal (and a million other places). He has also given the very strong impression that Paloma felt abandoned too but it was necessary for him to do this to break the writer's block.

i think everyone needs a certain stability in at least one part of their life.

I think that stability has always come from his family and maybe it's difficult for him to put that same level of faith in an outsider. Or maybe for some people getting that kind of unconditional love from a partner breeds the same kind of complacency (and a little bit of contempt) that one has for their family relationships that is not conducive to a passionate relationship especially if you're 27 years old and have a million options open to you.

I was with someone who needed drama to feel alive and in love and it doesn't work for me. I get that kind of stimulation from work, hobbies, travelling, etc. but I need routine and stability in my house to be happy. But people are different.

http://curtainsup.tv/pop-phenom-mika-on-new-album-and-tour-his-idol-freddie-mercury-and-the-showbiz-closet/

 

Pop phenom Mika on new album and tour, his idol Freddie Mercury and the showbiz closet

 

British pop star Mika came out as a gay man in an interview with Instinct magazine last autumn.

 

“If you ask me am I gay, I say yeah. Are these [new] songs about my relationship with a man? I say yeah. And it’s only through my music that I’ve found the strength to come to terms with my sexuality beyond the context of just my lyrics,” said the 28-year-old singer who headlines Montreal’s Virgin Mobile Corona Theatre on April 6.

 

“This is my real life,” Mika then said about the songs on his current album The Origin of Love.

 

But I remember the handsome pop phenom played coy when I met him at the Auberge Le St-Gabriel in Old Montreal a couple of years ago. Mika turned to me, legs crossed, pretending to hold a cigarette, and did his finest imitation of Freddie Mercury.

 

“Yes, dahling,” Mika said à la Mercury. “Hello, dear!”

 

On this day Mika was very playful. “And he holds his beer like this,” he continued, imitating Mercury from the famous backstage British TV interview on the Queen – We Will Rock You: Live in Montreal 1981 DVD. “And he hardly drinks it!”

 

“You must get a lot of comparisons with Freddie,” I said.

 

“For being condescending?” Mika asked.

 

“No, for being fabulous!”

 

Not to mention dodging questions about his sexuality, a subject that – like Mercury before him – had dogged the singer since he first rose to fame. But when I asked Mika the pop star why he thought his private life wasn’t public property, he stared at me and replied, “Because I don’t offer it up for sale.”

 

Now that he has come out, Mika acknowledges the songs on his current album The Origin of Love are indeed about his relationship with a man. Fans can expect the pop star to sing many of his new songs at his April 6 concert at the Virgin Mobile Corona Theatre.

 

Meanwhile, Mika told me he himself prefers female singers. “When you’re a woman singing, you can evoke so many [poses],” he said. “You can be sexy, authoritative and ballsy. You can be motherly and confident, strong or weak, in need. Traditionally male singers don’t show vulnerability. Think of Sinatra, Mel Tormé, all the great singers [and] all the great [male] rock singers – they’re never really vulnerable.”

 

Then Mika copped another Freddie Mercury pose and said, “Unless they’re playing with gender.”

 

Mika headlines the Virgin Mobile Corona Theatre (2490 Notre-Dame West) on April 6 at 8 pm. Click here for tickets and more info. Click here for the official Mika website.

ah yes! i saw this on the internet, he's from Montreal Canada though... not the USA

i remember his first interview a few years back, when Mika came to Montreal & had journalists listen to TBWKTM

thanks for posting! )

Thank you for sharing!

 

 

BLADE: Are you in a relationship now?

 

MIKA: Yes I am but it’s hard. Beyond the traveling, this desire to constantly be creating … I think takes its toll on a relationship. … Relationships are about stability and that isn’t necessarily the most conducive thing to the creative process.

 

 

I read cheating, re-read it 3 times and wondered for almost a minute why someone would say in an interview he had the desire to constantly be cheating.

Some people are whores

The hair question was pretty awkward. Awkward timing .

I'm quoting you, Christine, because it's easier than quoting the whole interview...

I had exactly the same reaction as Mika did to the hair question so when I read what he said I laughed out loud.

 

I find these hair washing stories impossible to believe especially when he's touring.

 

The self absorption that seems to be required for Mika to create annoys ME. I can't even imagine what it's like for his partner.

 

I mean look what he keeps saying about the album. How they fell in love again and Mika just took off to Montreal (and a million other places). He has also given the very strong impression that Paloma felt abandoned too but it was necessary for him to do this to break the writer's block.

Lol, his hair is always wet after shows, and I can't believe it's just sweat! This must be one of those "I can't cook", "I'm a bad driver" things. "I wash my hair only once a week not to lose my brains"

I've always thought his self absorption is something that so often comes with high (higher than average) talent, neurobiological issue. I just hope he happy in his relationship...

An interesting little interview, thanks for posting!

This is an article from College Magazine: The Many Origins of Love, Music and Everything In Between: CM Interviews Pop Singer MIKA http://www.collegemagazine.com/editorial/3496/The-Many-Origins-of-Love-CM-Interviews-Pop-Star-MIKA

 

More Articles in this thread:

March 20: http://www.theprovince.com/entertainment/story.html?id=8127241 (MFC post)

March 21: http://www.thebaybridged.com/2013/03/21/interview-mika-feels-the-love-on-newest-album-intimate-us-club-tour/ (MFC post)

March 22: http://www.neontommy.com/news/2013/03/exclusive-interview-mika-opens-about-origin-love (MFC post)

March 24: http://www.sfexaminer.com/entertainment/music/2013/03/mika-moves-movies#ixzz2OWbnWyLo (MFC post)

March 25: http://www.sfchronicle.com/music/popquiz/article/Mika-s-back-from-latest-midlife-crisis-4382536.php#ixzz2ObxayVm9 (MFC post)

March 27: http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Magic-Mika-Singer-talks-Twitter-bullying-and-drinks/42139.html (MFC post)

March 28: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsburger/56073775-53/mika-american-lake-pop.html.csp (MFC post)

March 31: http://www.neontommy.com/news/2013/03/mika-returns-los-angeles-his-origin-love-tour#.UVm9-R8wzrz.twitter (MFC post)

i like all very much Tks for post . I adore mybaybridge....

Thanks for articles:wink2:

Lol, his hair is always wet after shows, and I can't believe it's just sweat!

Well I guess what he is saying is that he doesn't use shampoo. And his hair was looking a bit crazy there when he claimed to be on a no shampoo routine but I'm sure that was over a long time ago. He always looks so clean.

I've always thought his self absorption is something that so often comes with high (higher than average) talent, neurobiological issue. I just hope he happy in his relationship...

i've always thought it was something that comes along with being a man and you put two of them together and you've got twice the problem.

I hope he is happy too. At minimum it sounds like he was unhappy outside the relationship so I guess that's a big incentive to make it work. It can't be easy to find someone you can trust, etc. if you're in Mika's position.

but it's a shame really that he thinks this way, makes me feel a bit sorry for his bf.

The self absorption that seems to be required for Mika to create annoys ME. I can't even imagine what it's like for his partner.

 

I mean look what he keeps saying about the album. How they fell in love again and Mika just took off to Montreal (and a million other places). He has also given the very strong impression that Paloma felt abandoned too but it was necessary for him to do this to break the writer's block.

I feel extremely sorry for his boyfriend, but somehow I have my doubts about how much truth there is to Mika saying he's bad at relationships or finds them difficult. The fact that he realises he has to put some work in makes him quite a bit better than most (men). Which brings me to the next comment, which really only could have come from Christine:

i've always thought it was something that comes along with being a man and you put two of them together and you've got twice the problem.

Ever thought about creating a 'why all men are evil' thread?

Ever thought about creating a 'why all men are evil' thread?

I've already written a doctoral dissertation on it. I don't need a thread.

I've already written a doctoral dissertation on it. I don't need a thread.

Is it online somewhere?

Is it online somewhere?

No. Not in public anyway.

I think that stability has always come from his family and maybe it's difficult for him to put that same level of faith in an outsider. Or maybe for some people getting that kind of unconditional love from a partner breeds the same kind of complacency (and a little bit of contempt) that one has for their family relationships that is not conducive to a passionate relationship especially if you're 27 years old and have a million options open to you.

 

I was with someone who needed drama to feel alive and in love and it doesn't work for me. I get that kind of stimulation from work, hobbies, travelling, etc. but I need routine and stability in my house to be happy. But people are different.

Agree with you about this thing. I guess that for now he only trusts his family so it's hard to open up completely to someone else...especially when you have had bullying! Or at least, I behave in this way after what I went through....

He is still very young and I believe that in the future he will be able to find the right person with whom to have the stability that, for now, he can not find.

I don't know, he's always contradictory about almost everything, and his private life above all.. in this other interview, just one week ago, he answered a really different thing about it

http://www.mikafanclub.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3891682&postcount=61

I don't know, he's always contradictory about almost everything, and his private life above all.. in this other interview, just one week ago, he answered a really different thing about it

 

http://www.mikafanclub.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3891682&postcount=61

Thanks, I hadn't seen that one

Q: A lot of the songs on the new record are about relationships. Is it difficult maintaining them with your lifestyle?

 

A: Well, I don't think it's very difficult. I'm reclusive unless I'm working. I don't talk about my life to anybody. My friends know nothing.

 

I'm like that, very strange to hear Mika saying this.

He said himself that he's pretty contradictory and moody, while his bf is patient and tolerant... we just hope that they are happy...!

He said himself that he's pretty contradictory and moody, while his bf is patient and tolerant... we just hope that they are happy...!

Agree with you! I really hope that he already found whom he needs, and there is no need to go on searching. There are always some issues that overshadow ANY relationships, and in many cases the best way is not to rush searching something other, but learn to be wise and stay together.

As for his family, I don't believe that his mother was so blind while his teenage years (according to what I've read all these years in his interviews), she might knew the truth earlier that Mika himself, so

Well, finally, Mika in the mainstream press (as opposed to the gay press)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/singer-mika-balances-the-sweet-with-the-sour/2013/04/03/a8ee9080-971d-11e2-b68f-dc5c4b47e519_story.html

Singer Mika balances the sweet with the sour

By Geoffrey Himes, Thursday, April 4, 2:51 PM

Mika worries that melody comes too easily for him. The 29-year-old Lebanese singer can write pop choruses as catchy as anything performed by his heroes Elton John, the Bee Gees, Michael Jackson and Queen. And though Mika has never scored a top-50 pop single in the United States, he’s a huge star in Europe, with four top-10 singles in France, five in England and six in Italy.

The tall, slender songwriter is apprehensive nonetheless. Mika (ne Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr.) knows that pop hooks are like sugar — if the doses aren’t just right, they can easily go from tasty to cloying. On his latest album, “The Origin of Love,” he deliberately tries to balance the sweet with the sour.

“How can you get away with a love song nowadays?” Mika says by phone from Vancouver, where his band was rehearsing for its North American tour. “You’re saying the same thing as Lionel Richie’s ‘Hello,’ and if you’re not careful, it will become the same thing, and that won’t work in 2013.

“It’s very easy for melody to sound contrived if it resolves too quickly. . . . So it’s all about tempering melody, about not letting the chords or the lyrics follow the melody too closely. You need that tension. It’s all about teasing without satisfying too quickly, and when you do satisfy, you want to go back to the teasing right away.”

“Popular Song,” the first American single from Mika’s new album, marries its singalong chorus so perfectly to its clapalong beat that it could be one of those earworm advertising jingles. But listen closely to the words that Mika is singing in his buoyant tenor, and you’ll realize that this is a vicious revenge song.

The track opens with a cheerleader calling Mika names over a catchy piano riff. “Standing on the field with your pretty pompoms,” he retorts, “now you’re working at the movies selling popular corn. . . . You were singing all the songs I don’t know / Now you’re in the front row, ’cause my song is popular.” The payoff is delayed by the edge in his voice and by the stripped-down production in the early verses, making the eventual climax all the more satisfying.

It’s not surprising to learn that the song is semi-autobiographical.

There weren’t any cheerleaders at Mika’s English boarding school, but there were bullies who singled him out as a foreigner and as gay.

“I was a loner,” Mika recalls, “and I hated the reality that was presented to me. It’s that rejection of something that they’re afraid of. . . .

“So what do you do when you hate the reality presented to you? You create your own reality. I didn’t choose classical music and abstract art; I chose cartoons and pop songs, because that’s what people like. It’s weird, but coming from that kind of rejection, I really felt that I could justify myself by making something that people would like. Just listen to what I was singing on ‘Grace Kelly.’ ”

“Grace Kelly” was Mika’s breakthrough single in 2007, going top five in nine European countries on the strength of its giddy falsetto chorus warbling over a piano-pounding momentum worthy of Sir Elton.

What saves the song from a bubble-gum sugar overdose is Mika’s knowing exaggeration of his own neediness. There’s a satiric provocation to such lines as “Do I attract you? Do I repulse you with my queasy smile? Am I too dirty? Am I too flirty?”

All three of Mika’s albums are filled with tracks like that: love songs with a confectionary frosting and a tart filling, an infectious first impression and a subversive aftertaste. An especially sophisticated example is his new album’s title track, which pursues the commonplace equation of love and an addictive drug to its most disturbing implications. But these ideas are hidden within a pop production so contagious that you’re drawn in before you realize what’s going on.

“It’s a spin on a love song,” Mika says, “but it includes as much that’s ugly as happy. It’s like when you compare a love story in a [Roman] Polanski movie or a [Francois] Truffaut film to a love story shown on a Hallmark channel. . . . The song talks about my life right now. But at the end of the day, it’s just a pop song. It’s all about a melody, a rhythm that pops out at you before you notice all these other things.”

Himes is a freelance writer.

MIKA

Wednesday at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.

Show starts at 8 p.m. 202-408-3100. http://www.sixthandi.org. $30.

Mika will be performing in the Washington, DC area. Image provided by Girlie Action Media.

Mika

Details: 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 10

Sixth and I Historic Synagogue

600 I St. NW, Washington, DC 20001

Price: $30

Information: 202-408-3100

Thanks Deb!!

It's an interesting article! I like when he talks about what there's behind his music

Well, finally, Mika in the mainstream press (as opposed to the gay press)

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/singer-mika-balances-the-sweet-with-the-sour/2013/04/03/a8ee9080-971d-11e2-b68f-dc5c4b47e519_story.html

 

Singer Mika balances the sweet with the sour

 

By Geoffrey Himes, Thursday, April 4, 2:51 PM

 

Mika worries that melody comes too easily for him. The 29-year-old Lebanese singer can write pop choruses as catchy as anything performed by his heroes Elton John, the Bee Gees, Michael Jackson and Queen. And though Mika has never scored a top-50 pop single in the United States, he’s a huge star in Europe, with four top-10 singles in France, five in England and six in Italy.

 

The tall, slender songwriter is apprehensive nonetheless. Mika (ne Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr.) knows that pop hooks are like sugar — if the doses aren’t just right, they can easily go from tasty to cloying. On his latest album, “The Origin of Love,” he deliberately tries to balance the sweet with the sour.

 

“How can you get away with a love song nowadays?” Mika says by phone from Vancouver, where his band was rehearsing for its North American tour. “You’re saying the same thing as Lionel Richie’s ‘Hello,’ and if you’re not careful, it will become the same thing, and that won’t work in 2013.

 

“It’s very easy for melody to sound contrived if it resolves too quickly. . . . So it’s all about tempering melody, about not letting the chords or the lyrics follow the melody too closely. You need that tension. It’s all about teasing without satisfying too quickly, and when you do satisfy, you want to go back to the teasing right away.”

 

“Popular Song,” the first American single from Mika’s new album, marries its singalong chorus so perfectly to its clapalong beat that it could be one of those earworm advertising jingles. But listen closely to the words that Mika is singing in his buoyant tenor, and you’ll realize that this is a vicious revenge song.

 

The track opens with a cheerleader calling Mika names over a catchy piano riff. “Standing on the field with your pretty pompoms,” he retorts, “now you’re working at the movies selling popular corn. . . . You were singing all the songs I don’t know / Now you’re in the front row, ’cause my song is popular.” The payoff is delayed by the edge in his voice and by the stripped-down production in the early verses, making the eventual climax all the more satisfying.

 

It’s not surprising to learn that the song is semi-autobiographical.

 

There weren’t any cheerleaders at Mika’s English boarding school, but there were bullies who singled him out as a foreigner and as gay.

 

“I was a loner,” Mika recalls, “and I hated the reality that was presented to me. It’s that rejection of something that they’re afraid of. . . .

 

“So what do you do when you hate the reality presented to you? You create your own reality. I didn’t choose classical music and abstract art; I chose cartoons and pop songs, because that’s what people like. It’s weird, but coming from that kind of rejection, I really felt that I could justify myself by making something that people would like. Just listen to what I was singing on ‘Grace Kelly.’ ”

 

“Grace Kelly” was Mika’s breakthrough single in 2007, going top five in nine European countries on the strength of its giddy falsetto chorus warbling over a piano-pounding momentum worthy of Sir Elton.

 

What saves the song from a bubble-gum sugar overdose is Mika’s knowing exaggeration of his own neediness. There’s a satiric provocation to such lines as “Do I attract you? Do I repulse you with my queasy smile? Am I too dirty? Am I too flirty?”

 

All three of Mika’s albums are filled with tracks like that: love songs with a confectionary frosting and a tart filling, an infectious first impression and a subversive aftertaste. An especially sophisticated example is his new album’s title track, which pursues the commonplace equation of love and an addictive drug to its most disturbing implications. But these ideas are hidden within a pop production so contagious that you’re drawn in before you realize what’s going on.

 

“It’s a spin on a love song,” Mika says, “but it includes as much that’s ugly as happy. It’s like when you compare a love story in a [Roman] Polanski movie or a [Francois] Truffaut film to a love story shown on a Hallmark channel. . . . The song talks about my life right now. But at the end of the day, it’s just a pop song. It’s all about a melody, a rhythm that pops out at you before you notice all these other things.”

 

Himes is a freelance writer.

 

MIKA

 

Wednesday at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.

Show starts at 8 p.m. 202-408-3100. http://www.sixthandi.org. $30.

 

Mika will be performing in the Washington, DC area. Image provided by Girlie Action Media.

Mika

Details: 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 10

Sixth and I Historic Synagogue

600 I St. NW, Washington, DC 20001

Price: $30

Information: 202-408-3100

Oh wow! This writer really "gets" Mika! He's one of the only journalists who realises that Mika puts things that can be weird, or dark, or angry, and so on, with his catchy melodies. There's still reference to other artists, mostly Elton, but that is not given pride-of-place over Mika's own originality.

I also agree that it's great to see Mika mentioned somewhere other than the Gay Press.

Thanks,Deb! Those articles and interviews are getting better and better

Edit: updated the first page

And just because it's been six years since I've seen anything about Mika in my hometown newspaper: