Mika @ French radio RTL.fr Laissez-vous tenter 20/09/2012

Here's the podcast:

 

http://www.rtl.fr/video/timeline/laissez-vous-tenter-du-20-septembre-2012-avec-mika-7752617013

 

I hope someone can translate. As far as I could understand it, there were some interesting pieces in this interview.

 

EDIT: translation on page 2 - thanks Camille!

Edited November 1, 2012 by mari62
adding info

Thanks a lot for opening the thread !

 

 

DIRECT link for Dailymotion

 

 

DOWNLOAD link 137MB

 

http://www.mediafire.com/?ddp7r7hc6l227ah

Thank you Eriko-the-magnificent

You guys are amazing with the threads, downloads, translations, etc. Thanks for your efforts in keeping everyone up to speed.

Thanks a lot for opening the thread !

 

 

DIRECT link for Dailymotion

 

 

DOWNLOAD link 137MB

 

http://www.mediafire.com/?ddp7r7hc6l227ah

 

My boarding school's blocked youtube, thank you for uploading it

I have nothign to do now, I'll try to translate it

 

EDIT : I'm doing it but given teh length of the whole thing, it'll take some time

 

 

PART 1: TRANSLATION - until 6'30

 

And we’re also on with Mika, who’s our guest this morning, and who has a remarquable sense of timing as he has just sat on his seat… Welcome, we’ll listen with you your new CD, TOOL, which has just been released with Anthony Martin,… Well, I mean, we’ll talk about it with A. Martin (Mika= Yeah, together).

*They talk about a movie about Grace Kelly & listen to interviews of the people involved in the project*

 

- CELEBRATE is PLAYED

Do you like it Mika ?

Oh yeah, I like it! (laugh)

You’d better like it, it’s yours.

Yeah, it’s mine (laugh)

I’ve just seen you listening to it with a lot of attention… Do singers always listen to their work with such an attention when it’s being aired on the radio?

Yeah, because it’s completely different on the radio…It takes a different tonality and the context is different so it becomes something special, something other than what I was working on in the studio, for sure.

You somehow discover the way people will perceive the song…

Yes, in some way, exactly.

Why “The Origin of Love”? Have you discovered love ?

Eee (smile/laugh), no, it’s not because I have discovered love it’s because … at 28-19 years old, it was pretty interesting title for me. I was looking for things, I was looking for happiness, for a feeling…, for joy too…

Were you looking for yourself?

In some way, yes, I was looking for myself…

We had the feeling that you were… MIka : But we're constantly looking for ourselves... I was told that this CD came after that your sister had had a serious accident, you couldn't write anymore and suddenly after this accident, you could keep going with your album.

Yeah, my sister Paloma had an accident and it was a triggering event for this album. It’s funny that some as full of joy as this new CD might come from something pretty horrible .. but I don’t know… *interrupted* /But your sister is better now../ Yes, thank you.. But I think it’s more an affirmation than.. In this CD, I’m not really looking for myself, I know what I am and I know how I feel, it’s rather an affirmation.

An affirmation, A self-affirmation that’s it. It is often said that this CD is less sugar-made as the previous ones.

 

Yes. Mika, you’ll be 30 next year, you’re leaving childhood and adolescence, topics with which you were pretty busy on your previous albums. You also leave your bubble-gum florescent universe, I’d say, your cartoon Mika and your eccentric costumes, you settle in a more electro sound with this CD – electro sound which remains soft, we hear real instruments- but we can say that your fantasy has taken to the washin machine but your feelings aren’t coming any bleached out of it, though, it's even the contrary.

We read in your lyrics more personal comments and more realistic & grown-ups point of views, about humanity, for exemple.

Proof that love has changed you, one week after having fallen in love, you wrote a song, the 1st one in months, the song has even given its title to the CD. We’re listening to it now, it’s called “The Origin of Love” !

*The Origin of Love is being played*

So it’s a love song and the current trend’d rather like that * I know you hate trends ‘cause people tried to put you in a box at some point, asking you to be “like this or like that” * a love song’d be a ballad played on its own with the piano.

For a a love song can be a kind of “crazy love song”. I felt really good, I had .. how do you say it.. “ a crush”.. (Yeah) I had a crush, I passed out * I think that’s how you say it* and I wanted to take this feeling and bottle it.. And with this song, it’s exactly what I intended to do. Like a kind of perfume or magic potion.

Yeah, we hear hear it… You’ve been making music since you were 11, when you were a kid, you mother told you “write a song that moves people and your life’ll change”, you’ve sold 8 billion CDs in a 5 year time, have you thanked your mom ?

I haven’t had time to (laugh), no …actually, she didn’t tell me to write a “happy song” but “write a song that makes people smile”.

So, the “Elle” (she) of “Elle me dit (She tells me), is it your mom ?

Yeah, it’s my mother.

*Elle me dit is being played*

Edited September 20, 2012 by Kaito

Kaito , thanks for the translation!

I appreciate the work of writing the whole interview!. Thank you so much!:wub2::wub2:

Kaito , thanks for the translation!

I appreciate the work of writing the whole interview!. Thank you so much!:wub2::wub2:

Yes, thank you! I do so appreciate all of our wonderful translators on MFC.

Qui sont les enfoires????

Qui sont les enfoires????

This is a group composed of personalities from cinema, music and television each year toured throughout France to raise fund for the association "Les resto du coeur". They sing on stage covers and often very badly.

Great interview, thanks for the links:thumb_yello:

naww.. hes cute there..

he talks about religion and Lebanon... The hosts are visibly suprised by how much culture he has

They all love the french song Soleil mal luné.

He talks about Lola, says its a real person, like Carolina in LT.

 

And he says he wont do Dancing with the Stars

I like the woman. She looks quite serious and professional, but the moment Mika's music starts playing, she's totally into it!

I watched this last night and really enjoyed it, thanks for posting.

 

I might translate the rest later (it is on my list of many interviews still to translate )

 

I like that he knows les Enfoirés now. 3 years ago on a radio interview they chose my question about them and asked it to Mika, he had no idea who they were. Happy he still remembers who they are.

Translation from 6.30

 

-Elle Me Dit, song from The Origin of Love, this is a happy song (chanson contente)

 

M - Apparently we can't say 'contente'.. I speak a bit like Jane Birkin there (imitates her accent)

 

- This song was covered by Les Enfoirés for their show at the beginning of the year, are you aware that les Enfoirés sung this song?

 

M - No.

 

- For the association 'Les Restos du Coeur'

 

M - Cool. I wasn't aware of this.

 

- Have you ever thought of joining them on their campaign for Les Restos du Coeur?

 

M - Joining campaigns like this.. I like it. I'd like doing something like that. This is probably just a timing problem because after a year and a half in the studio everyday, it was quite intense.

 

- It looks like you're chilling out only just now

 

M - Now I'm chilling out.

 

 

(After the break, Mika talks when he's not supposed to )

 

- We're with our guest Mika

 

M - Who doesn't stop talking

 

- No, it's good, you're here for that. You are getting connected again to the news, because you've just spent a year and a half in the studio, you're in a rush for your promo and so we were talking together during the music break about news; this American film which provoked violence in the Middle East, and Mahomet caricatures published by the magazine Charlie Hebdo. One word from you, you were born in Beirut in Lebanon where different religions lived well together for a long time

 

M - For a very long time, for hundreds of years

 

- And then really badly, then a little bit better now... Do you care about this, do you think we can joke with the prophet Mahomet or with religion?

 

M - Oh this is hard, can we joke about religion... It's clear that you're asking this to someone who often talks about religion in his albums, his songs. I think there are limits. We are in a very sensitive time when people are finding ways to fan the fire.

 

- To add oil to the fire?

 

M - Yes exactly. They add oil to the fire and I don't know, I think there are moments and ways to do this but there are limits too, because... who does it hurt? That's the problem. But at the same time, the reactions on this film... I haven't seen the film. Have you?

 

- American film that we can watch on the Internet

 

M - Reactions are huge, I saw pictures from Sydney, from so many cities...

 

- What we understand from what you're saying is 'As someone coming from a country where religious topics are extremely sensitive, I know that sometimes there are moments to be careful not to fan the fire', this is what you just said in a way. Let's go back to your album.

 

- Another song from the album, it's called Lola. In this song you talk with tenderness about the oldest job in the world, why?

 

M - I don't know, I also did it on Love Today, talking about a woman called Carolina, who I used to see in Miami in the night when I was coming back home from the studio at 3am, I would always see her working at the corner of the I-95, the big highway in Florida, in the US. She was like 45 or 50, she was often on her own, looking quite miserable, and I was obsessed with her character.

 

- And Lola, have you met her too?

 

M - Yes. Lola is not her real name, Carolina wasn't her real name either but yes it's another person with the same situation.

 

- Your album is also released as a deluxe edition with a 2nd CD containing 3 songs in French

 

M - 4 ! (3 on the 2nd CD, I think the journalist is right there )

 

- 4, sorry, you're right, there's also EMD. And just as if our language inspired you another kind of atmosphere, here you are on your own at the piano in this song 'Un Soleil Mal Luné'

 

- This is another Mika, I'm sorry to say that but it's true

 

M - But it's good to have another...

 

- Not 'sorry', but really, superb presence, not that you are retiring in the other songs, where there's a lot of surrounding music, here it's...

 

M - It's just me.

 

- Are you thinking about making a whole album in French?

 

M - Maybe one day. I wrote all my French songs with my collaborator, Doriand

 

- You say you make mistakes when you write in French.

 

M - I always make mistakes, and Doriand who's actually there looking through the window always tries to correct me but I don't let him do it, I think that it's my hand, it's the little thing I can do, small mistakes in French. It's Birkinism.

 

- Mika, you've just said 'this is just me'. A piano, a voice, 'just me'

 

M - This is how I write all my songs.

 

- Why not one day 'just you', on a whole album?

 

M - Oh yes, yes, that's for sure. I'm touring France and Europe in beautiful venues, for example the Casino de Paris and it starts with a piano and me on my own, and little by little it becomes a bigger show. But, yes, making a whole album like that tempts me very much.

 

- We're ready to receive it.

 

(They talk about the film on Grace Kelly, with Nicole Kidman chosen to play her role)

 

- One question for you Mika, you have sung 'Grace Kelly', in the EMD video there is Fanny Ardant, so cinema and you, as an actor or a soundtrack writer, is it something you are thinking about doing?

 

M - I'm a fan, visually I'm completely a fan.

 

- And as an actor?

 

M - Actor? Me? No, I'm too goofy.

 

- Too what? 'Goofy?' Too clumsy?

 

M - Awkward.

 

- Clumsy, is that it?

 

M - I'm not at ease with the proximity of the camera.

 

- But you dance so well on stage!

 

M - With some distance! You don't see the flaws, you can't see the details. On stage it's completely different, we can exaggerate. But the choice of Nicole Kidman for the role is interesting in my opinion, simply because first of all she's beautiful, and she's a very good actress, in Dogville she was amazing. At the same time, everybody knows her. That's the problem. When you want to discover a character, an icon like Grace Kelly, the advantage often is that you choose an actress who's not really well known. For example Marion Cotillard when she played Edith Piaf. Most people in the world; I know that in France we knew her quite well, but most people across the world didn't know her at all. So there was some sort of ignorance, of discovery, we discovered the character of Piaf with Cotillard.

 

(Just before the break they say Mika is staying now that he got served a coffee... And that he likes it with cardamom)

 

(Then it's a literary review of an American book about historical facts, Japanese women getting to the US during the war and being mistreated)

 

- Did you know this part of history Mika?

 

M - It's real?

 

- Yes everything is real.

 

M - No I didn't know about it at all.

 

- We are offering you the book.

 

M - It's in French it will be complicated.

 

- We need to find the original version.

 

- If you want to make an album like you said, French and piano on your own, you'll have to read in French.

 

- Thanks a lot.

 

(Now review about the show 'Danse avec les stars')

 

- Mika would you like to be in that show?

 

M - It's not my thing.

 

- You have the right silhouette though.

 

- Too goofy?

 

M - I've got friends dancing on the show. But it's not my thing.

 

- Your thing is music and the album that just got released 'The Origin Of Love'

 

(Then at the end he just asks for the recording of EMD by Les Enfoirés, and the host thanks him for his kindness and his culture that goes way beyond music culture, which seems to embarrass Mika )

- Why not one day 'just you', on a whole album?

 

M - Oh yes, yes, that's for sure. I'm touring France and Europe in beautiful venues, for example the Casino de Paris and it starts with a piano and me on my own, and little by little it becomes a bigger show. But, yes, making a whole album like that tempts me very much.

 

Sounds promising