mari62 Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 (edited) Bernard Zuel September 18, 2009 - 3:19PM MIKA PENNIMAN is tall and slender, with limbs like independent machines that fold and unfold themselves. In a reverse of the usual order, he is larger in person than he appears on stage, where his hyperactivity, enthusiasm for every aspect of being a pop star and penchant for almost cartoonish colours give the 25-year-old a childlike quality. It's something only enhanced by the DayGlo melodies and unabashed bounce of his first hits, Grace Kelly and the even more Romper Room-ish Lollipop. The ubiquity of these tracks made 2007 a Mika (pronounced mee-ka) year, with some 6 million albums sold and progressively larger and more elaborate concerts, from Sydney to Paris. Today his narrow hips are holding up a pair of orange jeans worn with bright white trainers and his big, brown eyes stare back intently beneath a shock of wavy brown hair. Like his music, which freely recalls the 1970s, '80s and sometimes a generation or two earlier, you can't quite pin him down. The accent is mostly English, though there's often a hint of something continental there. The face is indeterminately Mediterranean, while he can switch from American confidence to English diffidence within a sentence. And, if required, he could answer all questions in fluent French. That melange is crucial to the make-up of Mika Penniman, part-Lebanese, part-American and almost wholly the perennial outsider. Born in Lebanon as one of five children, he spent the early part of his childhood in France before the collapse of his father's business led the family to move to London much worse off. "I feel boundary-less," he says. "There is a part of me that wishes I had come from one particular place but then again that's probably why I do music. I travel around the world; I don't really live anywhere in particular. Music attracts people who don't know where they belong, is what I'm saying." It's certainly true in an American context. It's very common to find American musicians who come from a military background, constantly moving through their childhood as their parents shifted from base to base. They become the kind of people who either make friends very easily or retreat into their music as an alternative to making friends, becoming emotionally self-sufficient. "That self-sufficiency is a good way to put it,” Penniman says. “And also, you add a family into that and it explains a lot of the reasons why I work with my family." They are the only ones he trusts? "Exactly. I have a few friends that I can trust but they are kind of adopted family." Bullied at school to the point where he all but withdrew into himself, and home-schooled for a while, he is simultaneously open and reluctant to trust easily, full of grand plans but insistent that his family, which he calls "the constant" of his peripatetic life, remains around him. One sister helps him design his artwork and stage shows and another sister is his stylist, while his mother still makes many of his stage clothes. They all live in a large home in central London and he seems in no hurry to move out or move on. Indeed, it is while talking about the family that Penniman is at his most Lebanese. "My household is most definitely a Lebanese one. It's full of Lebanese people, full of food and that kind of atmosphere, that happy-sad thing that I think has found its way into what I do musically," he says. "It's very much a Lebanese trait. We're crying and then we are laughing two seconds later or we are dancing on top of tables while things are going down around us. It's that kind of survival instinct." The night before, at a playback of tracks from his second album, The Boy Who Knew Too Much, Penniman described a new song called Rain as "a happy-sad disco song”, both upbeat and troubled. It's typical of an album that continues the vibrant melodies and beaming exterior but harbours within a number of songs more complicated feelings whose roots go back to some of his darkest times. If Life in Cartoon Motion was about his childhood, both musically and lyrically, then this new one focuses on his teenage years. And as such it brings up one of the vulnerable sides of a man who affects an impervious-to-carping attitude that is never wholly believable. While sometimes he can brush off the regular questions about his sexuality – he cites both Prince and David Bowie as inspirations because they “played with gender to the point of confusion” – and laugh about the media's obsession with the topic, he has spoken before about how his otherness as a teenager proved difficult. “The sexuality thing is really important at that point because you realise it's part of your personality,” he told The Guardian. “And it brings on a terrific sense of opportunity but it also adds to the roller-coaster, the fragility of those years.” Today he says one of the best things about pop music as an adult is the freedom to shape his own sexual identity. “Although I won't label myself, I certainly embrace openness and I think there's a lot of people my age who feel exactly like I do." Given all that, adolescence would have been hard enough but he says the challenges were magnified by not having the solidity of roots in his new home. "We lost our furniture to debt collectors. We went back to square zero. We moved to London, stayed in a B&B for about eight months, started up again, finding odd jobs as a family to get through. Those were the things that really upset us as we were kids, really big issues like money.” The money they had was spent on education. Penniman attended the upmarket Westminster School, a decision driven by their mother, who was just as focused on driving her children to achieve. It was discipline at home and his outsider status at school that put him on the songwriting path. "It could have ended up going towards drinking but it ended up in writing songs. Which is lucky, more than anything." He could have ended up being someone who internalised everything – the escapist rather than the doer. "I was a coward because I was bullied and every time I tried to be stronger, I was knocked down again, so I gave up,” Penniman says. “I didn't give up totally, just focused all my attention on music. If I can't say something to someone's face, I can say it in a song and if I can make it catchy then it will stick in their head before they even know what it's about. That was my mentality." There's a hint of revenge against his doubters in these comments, which is at odds with his genial manner. It also comes out when the topic of how he can polarise opinion, and how he is happy to do so, arises. Was he thinking, then and now: “I will show them”? "Yes. Always,” he says firmly, his gaze unwavering. “I'm worth something. That's what Golden [the first song on the new album with the line "we are not what you think we are/we are golden”] is about." For all the reconstruction of classic pop, Penniman makes little effort to confine his lyrics to the standard pop generalisations, freely offering the bitter as well as positive pills amid these bright, bouncing tunes. "That's exactly it, the combination of brutal honesty or a quite painful lyric with this empowering music, populist music. Shock horror, it's actually catchy, it doesn't mind being stuck in someone's head,” he says mockingly. “It's doing that on purpose. That's why I think it's fascinating and whether it is taken seriously or not, who gives a ****? “It's that Noel Coward mentality. I'd rather be absolutely reviled or totally adored, nothing in between. I'll do everything to provoke that and I do it almost instinctively. It's another form of 'f--- you' to the world." The Boy Who Knew Too Much is out now. http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/music/id-rather-be-absolutely-reviled-or-totally-adored-nothing-inbetween/2009/09/18/1253208992126.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1 Edited September 18, 2009 by mari62 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inbar_assaf Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 brill- very nice interview... I love the beggining- the great description they give of him... nice thanks for posting Mari! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melgo Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 Thanks for posting!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lollipop_monkey Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 (edited) Thanks for sharing! Man, it's a press buffet these days! I think this may be one of only a couple articles that refer to him by his surname. Interesting. I don't get this whole "we were so poor we lost our furniture" thing, though. Was this really at the same time they had these kids at Westminster? I'd love to know more about that. Was Mama P really that keen on education that she prioritized putting her kids in a crazy-expensive school over paying the bills? If so, I don't know whether that's brilliant, or totally insane. Interesting indeed. Edited September 18, 2009 by lollipop_monkey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanessa Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 It was very interesting to read .I loved the parted where he describes the Lebanese atmosphere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 Thanks for posting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alice.loves.mika Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 Thanks! I really enjoyed reading this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veroMica Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 T4P!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laura* Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 Penniman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunshineGirl Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 (edited) Thanks for sharing! Man, it's a press buffet these days! I think this may be one of only a couple articles that refer to him by his surname. Interesting. I don't get this whole "we were so poor we lost our furniture" thing, though. Was this really at the same time they had these kids at Westminster? I'd love to know more about that. Was Mama P really that keen on education that she prioritized putting her kids in a crazy-expensive school over paying the bills? If so, I don't know whether that's brilliant, or totally insane. Interesting indeed. I agree - something odd here about being very down-on-their-luck and yet being able to pay very expensive school fees! Anyway, other than that apparent discrepancy, it's a great article! Thanks for posting! Edited September 18, 2009 by SunshineGirl Spelling correction! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelcakes Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 Great article, really interesting. Thanks for posting. The description of him also made me smile Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkly1 Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 Thanks for sharing! Man, it's a press buffet these days! I think this may be one of only a couple articles that refer to him by his surname. Interesting. I don't get this whole "we were so poor we lost our furniture" thing, though. Was this really at the same time they had these kids at Westminster? I'd love to know more about that. Was Mama P really that keen on education that she prioritized putting her kids in a crazy-expensive school over paying the bills? If so, I don't know whether that's brilliant, or totally insane. Interesting indeed. yes I was confused by that too, maybe HIS idea of poor and mine are totally different, when I was a kid my family were poor, we couldn't/& chose not pay bills (using any money on cigarettes, bingo and the pub, so we often had the power supply cut off, we got bullied for being poor, we wore each others clothes and I was 3rd in line for them so they were pretty shabby by the time I got them lol. we had holes in our shoes often, didn't always have hot water for baths, and lived on toast a lot of the time. We also did not go to s****y public schools either, so I guess it's what your used to but I can't see Mika and family being as poor as that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CazGirl Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 He's 26... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickadee Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 I actually found some aspects of this interview disturbing. Unsettling might be a better word. And I don't know why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Sky Posted September 19, 2009 Share Posted September 19, 2009 Interesting article, especially because it is from the Australian press, the second big one in two days. It means the machine is starting to roll down under again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willywonka Posted September 19, 2009 Share Posted September 19, 2009 Penniman What was wrong with using Mika instead? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalicoSkies Posted September 19, 2009 Share Posted September 19, 2009 His home life does not sound odd to me. But then again it's all a matter of perspective. I've known families who've done similar. one of my mama's best friends taught at a private school just to get her kids out of public. Everyone's got their own brand of peculiar anyway. I liked the article thoguh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marlau_20zr Posted September 19, 2009 Share Posted September 19, 2009 really interesting! Thanks for posting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louiza Posted September 19, 2009 Share Posted September 19, 2009 really nice article! t4p marina!! "music attracts people who dont know where they belong" love this quote, totally agree with that:wub2: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pideh Posted September 19, 2009 Share Posted September 19, 2009 Thanks for posting! it's a nice article! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoodleMaster Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 "Today his narrow hips are holding up a pair of orange jeans worn with bright white trainers and his big, brown eyes stare back intently beneath a shock of wavy brown hair. " Hehe, am i the only one who thinks that before that got edited, it said: his incredibly sexy bum? That is SUCH a good description! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikjass Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 Thanks for posting! Narrow hips?? Lost his grandma's hips eh? Mika should be happy. Anyway, about being poor & living in a B&B.. perhaps it did happen, but not as long as he says it was for.. we all know what he's like.. Mrs P and my mum have similar spirit.. my mum would do anything for our education and well being.. even beyond her means at times.. so I can understand that part.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Angel Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 Interesting read. Thx for posting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertina Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 Penniman yes...wtf??? he's MIKA! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laura* Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 Actually, Penniman...narrow hips...it wasn't him! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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