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Mika Interview - October 2006 -Digital Spy


FREDDIESDOUBLE

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  • 14 years later...
On 1/10/2008 at 5:07 PM, FREDDIESDOUBLE said:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/a37640/mika.html

 

A great article , kinda old but I cant remember it ever being on the MFC ....:thumb_yello:

 

Just in case, copy and paste this interview.

 

Digital Spy UK

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/a37640/mika.html

 

Mika

DS chats to new pop sensation Mika about his musical heritage and his plans to conquer the UK.
 
13 Oct 2006
 

Fast-rising pop artiste Mika comes from a truly eclectic background, and it shows in his music. With influences from every genre possible, and a voice that reaches the dizzy heights of Freddie Mercury whilst still incorporating his own sarcastic asides, his fame is set to shoot through the roof as soon as he gets around to releasing a debut single! We chat to Mika about his plans for the UK market and ask what he thinks makes him unique.

 

Tell us a little bit about your musical background.


"Sure, my musical background is actually classical and started from a very young age, really because I'd left school after coming to London, I went to a stage school and when I left I was out of school for half a year, so I just needed something I could do - I ended up doing music. My first gig was at the Royal Opera House, and from there I was doing session work for classical recordings all over Europe. Then I basically went onto the Royal College of Music, which I left about a year and a bit ago, so a year and a bit ago I was doing Mendelssohn and now I'm doing pop music!"

 

Do you find that a strange transition?


"To me it's been completely organic. I was writing from a really young age - I don't know how to play the piano, so I wanted to play the piano, and the only way for me to do it was to come up with my own tunes, so I did that. I think my music generally transcends a lot of genres. I've always listened to - if you listen to a mixtape of mine it'll have Shostakovich and then some Hot Chip, or something. It goes really well together, it's different forms of the same thing. So to me, it's never been an issue, but some people find it interesting. I think it makes it more fun."

 

What's your USP? Do you think you have one?


"I think that I've definitely stuck to my guns all my life in terms of what my interpretation of what pop music should be. I've never thought of selling points - if I had, I'd probably not even have a chance at a career. I'd probably try and go onto Pop Idol or something. A selling point's not something I'm really aware of. I was always told that I was too strange or that I was too cheesy by different groups of people, like the record companies said I was way too weird and the indie people wouldn't even let me in their band. I've never really been part of a band, because I was never really let into them, from school up until two years ago. I stuck to my guns, and found a lot of comfort and solace in records from the '80s and '90s where you really had artists who made their own one-man band circus master vision. That's what I delved into as far as rock and pop are concerned. So I don't - it would be a lie if I said I didn't feel slightly different, because I've always felt slightly different, but I've come to embrace that and use it to my advantage. When you're not part of a club you have to find another way of surviving. Musically, socially and in every respect of my life, that's kind of been the case, and I've been able to embrace it."

 

Obviously your most recent success came from the track 'Grace Kelly'. Can you explain the song to us - it's quite an unusual song to play your friends as your first exposure to Mika!


"It's quite funny, it's the most arrogant pop song you could ever imagine writing, but at the same time it's the most approachable and endearing thing. It came out of a time where I was working with people who really didn't understand where I was going or what I wanted to be. I was really angry, they wanted to turn me into something I wasn't. I came home, wrote this song - I had had to try and write a whole bunch of Craig David songs that made me want to top myself. I wrote it, and it gave me an insight into where I wanted to go with the records I was dreaming up in my head. I typed up the lyrics, which were sort of almost evil towards these people, and I sent them to them, and I sent them the CD, and they never called me back, and about a year and a half later that was the song that helped me get signed. So it was a bit of a statement, you know."

 
Why release 'Relax - Take It Easy' over 'Grace Kelly', then?

"We're only releasing 'Relax' as 500 copies on 7-inch, it's actually not coming out on CD, which is why we're so surprised we've gotten the support from Radio 1 and all the regional radio stations and press and everything, because it was never meant to be...it was just meant to be a little introduction to everyone - 'this is Mika'. The first real single is 'Grace Kelly', and it comes out on January 29th. This was meant to get the ball rolling, it's just a little faster than we thought!"
 

Well, that's good for you, then, because unexpected success is always nice!


"You know, I never thought of 'Relax' as being commercial, it was kind of like - how do you introduce yourself to people? A lot of it came from me, not the record company. I was like 'well, I don't want to be tied down to any genre, so I'd like to release 'Relax', but let's put 'Billy Brown' on there as well.' That's never really going to be a single, but it's a great song, and it completely breaks down the stereotype that I may be stuck into. I'm not really the next Scissor Sisters in terms of sound, and even though there are similarities. A song like 'Relax', which is a dance song, and a song like 'Billy Brown' really fit together well. That's the reasoning behind the 7-inch vinyl that we're doing."

 

You've been working away for ages at music - what influenced your decision to put 'Grace Kelly', 'Billy Brown' and 'Relax' on your Myspace as opposed to other tracks?


"'Grace Kelly' was a really important song for the record, because it's a flagpole for the record in terms of lyrical content and the whole pop vision I wanted to get across. Again, 'Relax and 'Billy Brown' just complemented. We never really overthought it. It was far too organic and artist-driven for the record company to go too mad on it. That's one of the charming things about the whole project. Most artists don't get the freedom to make the records that I make, with the support that I got, and very few artists get to do their own album art and illustrations on their website. I do them with my sister and a company called Airisde. So from the art to the records and the way that they sound, it's organic and it hasn't been overthought. Money has been spent on it, but we are the anti-X-Factor.

"Imagine one thing, right? Imagine if I got up in front of Sharon Osbourne and started singing 'Grace Kelly' to her face. That would be excruciating and it would probably be a horrific thing. But you know what, if they didn't say the most horrific things I would be disappointed in myself! Let's put Prince in front of them, see what they see, if they didn't know who Prince was, or Cyndi Lauper or something. It's karaoke-style!"

 

As an artist that I imagine must have been working at this for a long while, how do you feel about television shows like the X Factor or Pop Idol?


"The thing about anything instant is that it disappears very quickly. I think it's fine if you're up for that, and you want to have a good time. It kind of satisfies a certain section of the market. I have no hard feelings towards it, but I really do see it for what it is. I kind of enjoy Big Brother, actually, and I look at Pop Idol in the same way. It's kind of cruel and I always feel slightly guilty, because I feel like I'm getting pleasure out of someone else's dreams. They should do another Pop Idol show like Pop Idol: The Breakdown, and they should follow these people around, the fall after they rise so quickly. I always wondered if those people were aware of what they were going into."

 

Surely after the shows having been on for so long you imagine they would be?


"Do you know what, I really don't think people do, and that's the one thing that irritates me - apart from the presenters who quite frankly make my skin crawl - backwards! But, I just wonder...they should have X Factor: Rehab. They could make money."

 
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