New(???) German interview

[Statue_of_Liberty]

I don´t know if this has already been posted before. I didn´t find it...

It´s an interview from "Siegessäule" which is a little gay magazine in Berlin. Here you can read the original: http://www.siegessaeule.de/kultur/musik/besessen-von-der-buehne-mika.html

I tried to translate it, so there will probably be some mistakes. But I think, you´ll get an idea of what they talked about.

 

 

„Goldboy“

 

Mika again offers a colourful firework of pop-feelings on his new album „The Boy who Knew too Much“

 

Your first single of your new album is called „We Are Golden“, in the meaning of: we are something special! We have a value! Do you quote „Woodstock“, the big hymn of the Hippie time by Joni Mitchell? „We are stardust, we are golden. We are billion year old carbon.“

 

Mmmh, no, at least not consciously. Maybe unconsciously, because I´m a huge fan of Joni Mitchell. But apparently there is the same feeling behind it. We have the same value like gold or the stars, if you notice it or not. I was on the way to my studio, when this thought came up: if I was 16 years old now, what would I like to scribble on a wall with graffiti? And it was so simple: „I am not what you think I am“. It´s a story of old: the teenager who feels misunderstood. But then it became a little bit more precise: „I am made of gold“. It is not about money. It is about the self-perception. In my inside I knew I really was something special. Looked from the outside I was completely stamped, excluded by everybody who surrounded me at school. I was completely insecure, but I kept the imagination that I had. I was crazy enough to believe that my imagination would come true one day. At the age of 12 I was on stage for the first time. I did the Richard Strauss opera „Die Frau ohne Schatten“ at the Royal Opera House. For me it was like a box in the middle of London. The reality was excluded, that took place outside. On stage you create an illusion. From that moment on I was almost obsessed with being on stage. The feeling, the smell, the look, everything. There is a name for that kind of addiction, formed by Jean Cocteau. He spoke about the red-gold-syndrome. He said he would have been infected with the red-gold-syndrome during his adolescence. Now it´s a common term in the theatre world. This is part of the „We are Golden“-feeling as well.

 

You see your debut as a record about childhood´s innocence, while you wanted to catch the frame of mind of a teeanger with the new album. Will you concentrate on topics of your age afterwards?

 

No, never. (laughs) I saw an interview with Kate Bush recently in which she emphasized that she constantly falls back into her adolscence years during writing her songs, because that was a point in her life on which she was especially receptive, especially uncultivated. Everything was new then and because of that she was especially reactive. That´s why she tries to go back to her teenage time in her memories. I liked this thought, I got it right away.

 

Is there the danger that you drift off to Neverland, like Michael Jackson? In the world of a child, refusing the growing up...

 

Neverland is escaption. I´m not interested in reality escaption. I´m interested in picking up realtiy and combining it with naivety or with the perspective of a child. But without ignoring violence and bloodthirstiness. I love children´s songs and children´s rhymes not because of their naive Lalala-lala, because they´re colourful and sweet. I just wonder: „What does that mean?“ That means absolutely nothing to me. My song „Lollipop“ is a children´s song. But in the lyrics it´s about sex. It´s abput that your heart has been broken. And about, that you´re becoming a whore without even noticing it. That´s the topic of „Lollipop“. The facinating thing about children´s songs is that they are so violent. That just became clear to me when I was doing my second album. You are sung to sleep by a song about a dying baby. It´s about threatening dangers all the time. That´s why this naive perspective is just interesting if it is dealing with the dark side, the bloodthirstiness, the violence and the dangers. That´s what is fascinating. Neverland stands for rocking horses and fibre glass in my eyes. If they are chipped after a while, they are just poor and shabby.

 

On your new album there are many songs about boys. That´s not how you could avoid questions about your sexual orientation.

 

(laughing) So what?

 

And then there is the topic youth, the awakening of sexuality...

 

Of course, everything comes to that. When you´re a teenager you come into contact with so many things for the first time. Am I busy with these topics? Everytime when I write a song! I did this on my first album and I did it even more on my second one as well. But do I walk around and are talking about my private life? Do I reveal anything about my private life? No, because I don´t have the feeling to be forced to do so. At the same time the concept of sexuality and gender is a foundation pillars of my work.

 

You write about it but prefer not to talk about it?

 

No, I don´t have anything against talking about sexuality. But I don´t like labels. And I would never label myself. I was stamped all time, I had to bear that my whole life. In the meantime I have the feeling that I can do what I want.

 

Do you have a boyfriend right now?

 

No, I don´t.

 

Not even a toy-friend?

 

How do you mean that? Do you mean an inflatable toy-friend from the store just round the corner? That´s heavy, thanks. (laughs)

 

No, a toy boy like in your song „Toy Boy“.

 

Ah, a little toy doll. Then I think that the answer has to be yes.

 

In your song the mum is worried that the boy keeps sleeping with his toy boy while growing-up. In the adult´s world he should take a barbie girl. What was your mum´s reaction?

 

Oh no, this part is no part of the truth. I´m not to ge that easy, I´m not stupid. (laughs)

[CazGirl]

lol i've not seen it before, T4P!

[Droopsy]

Haha, loved it, thanks for posting and translating!

[katydid1994]

Wow, thanks!!!!!!

[Kodes100]

Thank you so much Statue_of_Liberty!

Another interesting article with more insight to the Pysche Of Mika! Haha!

[chickadee]

Enjoyed it. T4P.

[Foxxy]

That was interesting interview, thanks for posting

[DANI56]

thank you!

[sienna]

Thanks for posting and all the hard work with the translation!

[Gracekelly85]

Thank you very much por posting!

[Guest]

Thanks for posting

[AnnaMariaPetra]

T4P!

 

 

I just noticed it is gay&lesbian mag from Berlin.