"GOLDEN BOY MIKA IS BACK"- The Flintshire Chronicle Sept 21 2009

[mari62]

Golden boy Mika is back

 

Sep 21 2009 By Andy Welch

 

Multi award-winner singer Mika releases his second album The Boy Who Knew Too Much today (September 21). The Lebanon-born singer tells us about his album and his difficult adolescence which inspired it.

 

Born in Beirut 25 years ago, he and his family fled the war-torn city when he was just a year old for the altogether more bohemian metropolis of Paris.

After almost 10 years in the French capital, they relocated a second time.

 

"We came over to London then, so I went to this French school, (the Lycee Francais Charles de Gaulle in Kensington) but got kicked out," he begins matter-of-factly.

 

For a short time afterwards, Mika, or Michael Holbrook Penniman, as he was known then, was schooled at home by his mother.

 

"She didn't tell the council I wasn't going to school. So for nine or 10 months I studied music at home, and then I started getting jobs, and then when I got good, and I got good quite quickly as I had nothing else to do, I thought 'Ooooh, this is good'," he says, his mischievous side coming through.

 

He was "about 11 or 12" at this time, and in many ways - and with the least offence intended - it seems Mika never really grew up.

 

He fidgets around during our chat, has a wonderfully juvenile sense of humour and is totally wrapped up in pop music.

 

"I listen to music like an eight-year-old girl," he says later. "That's not to say I like everything, I don't, but I'm obsessed with pop. From Disney to Harry Nilsson," he says.

 

If he's had a colourful life so far, it's nothing compared to the Technicolor music he makes, and with those two names he's really touched upon something.

If you had to describe Mika's music, the songs of Harry Nilsson, his idol and main inspiration, sung by the cast of High School Musical wouldn't be a bad place to start.

 

After his brief stint at home honing his musical skills, he returned to school; first St Phillip's in south west London, and later Westminster School, one of the leading independent schools in the country.

 

"I was having quite a nice time at school before, but then when you become a teenager people are meaner to each other, less accepting and people start to judge you," he reflects of his adolescent years.

 

"People who were my friends started to not be my friend anymore, and started to call me a 'fag' and things like that, so I quickly realised the landscape was changing.

 

"When I was 14, I thought to myself 'I can do this' and I thought that if I was a freak, I was going to become a beautiful freak. If I was going to write insults to people who were mean to me, I was going to do it in a pop song because then it'd be stuck in their head. Writing songs was all about empowerment."

 

As he admits, Mika's six-million-selling debut, Life In Cartoon Motion - the world's fifth biggest-selling album of 2007 - was all about childhood. It was joyous, uplifting and garishly bright.

 

The impending follow-up The Boy Who Knew Too Much, which didn't have a confirmed title at the time of our interview - an indicator of the frantic, impulsive way Mika seems to work - is very much about the years that followed.

 

It centres on his unhappy teenage years in education, the dreams and ambitions that drove him to become such a success and the realisation of that plan.

 

"I wanted to write from the perspective of where I first started writing songs from. I wanted to go into it and embrace the darkness and the toughness of that period of my life, too," he says of the album which was written in London, but finished off in LA.

 

"It's so hard being 16. Or 15 even," he says. "It's hard looking at yourself naked in the mirror and thinking 'Who the hell's ever going to want to sleep with this?' But that's the truth.

 

"It's hard not having money, it's hard wondering what you're going to do with your life. It's hard being picked on, it's hard being screamed at for a million different reasons. All those things are terrible. But then there's so much joy in realising it all, coming home when you're 14 from that first night out when you've snuck out and it's like 'Oh my God! I have potential and power'.

 

"Back then my music was me saying to the world 'I know you laugh at me, but I can do something you can't do. I'm making my home-made bomb and I'm going to launch it in your face one day'."

 

That incendiary duly exploded the day Mika hit No 1 in January 2007 with his debut single Grace Kelly. Written as a bitter riposte to a record label executive - once thought to be Simon Cowell - who rejected him after an audition, it sums up what Mika's about; acerbic lyrics, wrapped up in an audacious, bubble-gum melody.

 

If Grace Kelly was a two-fingered salute to his doubters, current single We Are Golden is a rallying cry for all Mika's fellow outsiders.

 

"I wanted to write something that symbolises that feeling, so I thought about what I would I write on the wall of a toilet as a message," he explains.

"And it was 'I am not what you think I am, I am made of gold.' So I wrote that in my little scrapbook and I knew it was going to be the pivot for the album. It's a mantra for life, that's where I anchored it all from," he says of the line, which has ended up, slightly altered, as We Are Golden's refrain 'We are not what you think we are, we are golden'.

 

"When I was younger I used to tell myself I'd got value, that I could be rich or I could be poor, but it didn't matter because I felt all right with myself.'

"That was a really powerful thing growing up."

 

Of course, such joie de vivre, combined with bombastic, camp music, dripping in falsetto vocals, was always going to divide music fans.

Look at reviews of Mika's debut album and you'll find glowing four- and five-star ratings alongside other articles proclaiming his music to be devil-born.

"People have such polarised opinions of what I do," he says, in such a care-free way, it's as if he's glad some people don't get it.

 

"It kind of fuels my attitude," he continues. "I've got nothing to lose."

Talking of losses, however, and there is one that pains Mika. The theft of his beloved sketchbook from backstage at one of his gigs.

 

"I write everything down in sketchbooks, and the one from this album was stolen - it had drawings in there, ideas for costumes, lyrics for things I might use again, everything.

 

"I prowl the internet looking for it, but it's not shown up, not that anyone would be stupid enough to sell it on eBay. It has everything in it, all the original lyrics, drawings, Grace Kelly, the whole of the last album and other things.

 

"I'm still looking for it, but it's all right; there's plenty more where that came from."

 

Extra time - Mika

 

:: Mika is the third of five children born to his Lebanese mum and American dad. He has a brother and three sisters.

 

:: In 2007, Mika was named at the top of the taste-making BBC Sound Of 2007 poll. Two weeks later his debut single had gone to No 1.

 

:: Mika's sister Yasmine is an artist under the name Dawack, and provided the illustration on the cover of Life In Cartoon Motion.

 

:: Mika recently invited his Twitter followers to the pub to thank them for their continued support. True to his word, he bought them all a drink and ended up with a bar bill of £25,000.

 

:: He won a Brit award in 2008 for Best Breakthrough Act, and was nominated for a further three.

 

http://www.flintshirechronicle.co.uk/entertainment-flintshire/2009/09/21/golden-boy-mika-is-back-59067-24743944/

Edited September 22, 2009 by mari62

[racinghorse83]

Talking of losses, however, and there is one that pains Mika. The theft of his beloved sketchbook from backstage at one of his gigs.

 

"I write everything down in sketchbooks, and the one from this album was stolen - it had drawings in there, ideas for costumes, lyrics for things I might use again, everything.

 

"I prowl the internet looking for it, but it's not shown up, not that anyone would be stupid enough to sell it on eBay. It has everything in it, all the original lyrics, drawings, Grace Kelly, the whole of the last album and other things.

 

I C A N T believe someone has taken something that precious to Mika?! I'd never heard about this before!!

 

This is just stupid! Cant we do something about it?

 

I'm sure if the MFC tried hard enough, we may be able to dig it up, somehow..

 

[mari62]

I C A N T believe someone has taken something that precious to Mika?! I'd never heard about this before!!

 

This is just stupid! Cant we do something about it?

 

I'm sure if the MFC tried hard enough, we may be able to dig it up, somehow..

 

i knew that from a French interview

[racinghorse83]

i knew that from a French interview

 

i dont speak french

[Fmbm]

 

 

"I write everything down in sketchbooks, and the one from this album was stolen - it had drawings in there, ideas for costumes, lyrics for things I might use again, everything.

 

"I prowl the internet looking for it, but it's not shown up, not that anyone would be stupid enough to sell it on eBay. It has everything in it, all the original lyrics, drawings, Grace Kelly, the whole of the last album and other things.

 

"I'm still looking for it, but it's all right; there's plenty more where that came from."

 

 

 

That completely sucks!

 

 

I thought I lost my phone today and freaked out because I save all of my songs into my phone. Then my friend found it right where I left it

[racinghorse83]

That completely sucks!

 

 

I thought I lost my phone today and freaked out because I save all of my songs into my phone. Then my friend found it right where I left it

 

yeah, its really horrible! I wonder if the person who took it realised its value to Mika, and would return it if they knew how much he wants it back?

[AnnaMariaPetra]

I didn't know that either, the stolen sketchbook!

 

I'm curious how it got stolen: did Mika take it with him or was there a break-in or smt?

 

How dare people do such things?! Always makes me mad:sneaky2:

[robertina]

so why stealing it?

if you are a real fan and you had a moment of black out in your brain and stole it, then you would give it back! you simply could not keep it!

and if you are not a fan...how can you sell it on ebay? they will track you! and mika will be able to sue you!

 

so i really cannot understand who could do that and for which purpose.

someone very insane in his brain.

 

i feel so sorry for Mika, all his ideas and memories violated...it's a sort of rape.

[chickadee]

:shocked:

Do I need to say more?

[FOUCHONNERET]

thanks

[Louiza]

great article! t4p marina!!

 

these are my fave parts of the article

 

"Back then my music was me saying to the world 'I know you laugh at me, but I can do something you can't do. I'm making my home-made bomb and I'm going to launch it in your face one day'."

 

 

If Grace Kelly was a two-fingered salute to his doubters, current single We Are Golden is a rallying cry for all Mika's fellow outsiders.

 

"I wanted to write something that symbolises that feeling, so I thought about what I would I write on the wall of a toilet as a message," he explains.

"And it was 'I am not what you think I am, I am made of gold.' So I wrote that in my little scrapbook and I knew it was going to be the pivot for the album. It's a mantra for life, that's where I anchored it all from," he says of the line, which has ended up, slightly altered, as We Are Golden's refrain 'We are not what you think we are, we are golden'.

 

"When I was younger I used to tell myself I'd got value, that I could be rich or I could be poor, but it didn't matter because I felt all right with myself.'

"That was a really powerful thing growing up."

[Guest]

Thanks for posting

[Marilyn Mastin]

That is disgracefull doing that to Mika who we know is obsessive about things like that! If I got my hands on whomever took it, they'd give it back to him PDQ!

[FREDDIESDOUBLE]

"I write everything down in sketchbooks, and the one from this album was stolen - it had drawings in there, ideas for costumes, lyrics for things I might use again, everything"

 

:shocked::shocked:

[Kodes100]

Thank you mari62!

I can't believe some creep stole Mika's sketchbook!.

I hope karma gets him/her.

Great interview!:thumb_yello: