AnnaMariaPetra Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 I guess this is new: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/music/general/view/20091014mikas_worldview_in_perfect_harmony_with_pop_stars_of_the_past/srvc=home&position=also Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mari62 Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Thanks!! Mika’s worldview in perfect harmony with pop stars of the past By Jed Gottlieb | Wednesday, October 14, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Music News Originality is overrated. Want to write a great new pop song? Steal from the past. Lift an Elton John melody and dress it in the Beatles’ production. Tone down Queen’s heavy metal edge and spike it with a George Michael groove. Add some glittery Bee Gees’ disco to a ’40s show tune. Mika - the English singer-songwriter-piano pixie who plays the Orpheum on Thursday - is a cat burglar who does just this before adding his own personality to the music. On his new release, “The Boy Who Knew Too Much,” he nicks ideas from the last 60 years only to hide them in plain sight on his modern pop opera. “As a kid, I was fascinated by melody,” Mika said by phone while traveling to a Toronto show. “I didn’t really know the difference between pop music and less-popular music but I knew melody. It gave me this feeling that was unquantifiable. It existed above money. It existed above authority. It just had a power of its own, and I was seduced by that at a young age.” When the Beirut-born Mika moved from France to England as an 8-year-old he struggled emotionally and academically. He developed what he calls “severe dyslexia” and lost his precocious ability to sight-read music. But his obsession with melody remained. “I’m still not able to sight-read music,” he said. “But losing this talent got me writing songs. I wanted to continue to play the piano so I had no alternative but to start dreaming up my own songs.” It took years for Mika to work up to the his 2007 worldwide smash “Grace Kelly” or the more-intricate compositions on his new album. But even as a kid, the nuggets were there. “Those early songs were a bit undefined,” he said. “But they had charm and they were very direct. I still know the songs and can sing them at the piano and they were very, very direct and that’s something that continues with my music.“ There’s a straightforward shamelessness to both Mika and his music. And the 26-year-old, born Michael Penniman, knows it. Many of his tunes have a wide-eyed whimsy to them. “We Are Golden,” his new record’s standout, has the joie de vivre of a children’s choir discovering punk rock. He’s cartoonish and cute down to his effervescent album art. “To me, pop music exists like comic books or illustrations do,” Mika said. “It’s not a lesser form of art even though it can be easily pinned as one. Pop music, comic books and illustrations are distilled forms of art. That’s why they work in similar ways. They’re populist, they’re direct, they rely on a black outline. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have depth. It’s just a depth that’s more implied than explained.” While other pop thieves steal stupidly or indiscriminately (Lenny Kravitz, John Mayer, Joss Stone), Mika constantly ponders the implications of his music. Like the Beatles, Elton John and Freddie Mercury (whom he seems able to channel at will), Mika wants to elevate pop from “Afternoon Delight” to art. On occasion, his juvenile style can run away with the music (“Toy Boy” sounds like something cut from “Les Miserables”). But, two albums in, Mika’s improving as a composer (even if the second album’s sales have been flat in the States). He says he drew a lot of inspiration from film for the second disc, specifically Alfred Hitchcock and Tim Burton flicks. At first, that seems ridiculous. “We Are Golden” is bright and beautiful; Hitchcock’s “The Birds” is, well, about birds that flip out and kill people. But the parallel is that Mika and his favorite directors are auteurs. They construct detailed landscapes that are uniquely theirs, unmistakably stamped with their artistic personality. Proud and surprisingly wise, Mika wasn’t worried about a sophomore slump as he pushed his specific vision. “The first time around I was surrounded by a lot of people who made me feel things weren’t good enough comercially,” he said. “That attitude is a very negative one. Without celebrating anything you keep an artist in a position where they feel that they have to keep on working so someone can make more money off them. That kind of ticker-tape counting can get you into a negative place. “This whole process of making a second record has made me realized the reality, the sometimes dirty reality, of putting albums out,” he said. “But I’m in a very good place right now. This second album is different, but it’s still been created very much through my lens. It all goes back to this fascination I have with world building and how if you create a world, people will come to it.” Even if your world is built out of bits and hooks from the Beatles, Queen and George Michael. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gracekelly85 Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 T4P! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 It's a good article actually - bears closer reading T4P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FREDDIESDOUBLE Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Ohh nice! I always think the 2nd album is make or break , many artists are the next best thing and then crash crap 2nd album So many mention toy boy , it so doesnt fit on the album .. I think anyways Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Wicky~ Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Ohh nice! I always think the 2nd album is make or break , many artists are the next best thing and then crash crap 2nd album So many mention toy boy , it so doesnt fit on the album .. I think anyways Thank you for posting Anneke. I have the same thoughts about 'Toy Boy': I like the melody and especcialy the lyrics, but it doesn't fit really well into the album. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzie Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 ...as if Queen and George Michael were 'original' from the start... Pop art is about recycling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertina Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 makes me feel like wanting to support him even more if there's something wrong in the outcome of all music business connected with this album, i feel the need to be more supportive than ever. cause he's true, and his true colours need to shine, no matter what. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickadee Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 I think it's kind of sad that he has some art that is in storage cos it's too expensive to put on the wall. I mean, sure, it's probably a great investment, but if no-one is actually getting to enjoy it... Well, it just seems sad, that's all. I do understand it, but particularly considering what a visual person Mika is, if I can anthropomorphise the artwork for a moment, I can imagine it saying "Mika, you love art, you love visual things. Please look at me. Hang me somewhere you can see me and let me inspire you!" LOL Am I nuts or what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyn Mastin Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 It could be worse! I hear lots of songs that seem like other songs, but those people don't get the same sarcastic comments Mika gets. I actually think HIS songs are more original than most other artists songs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatagordinha Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 It could be worse! I hear lots of songs that seem like other songs, but those people don't get the same sarcastic comments Mika gets. I actually think HIS songs are more original than most other artists songs! Absolutely true, and something that annoys the heck out of me to be honest . Why is it that critics always focus on the few melodies of Mika's that sound a little bit like old songs, rather than celebrating the fact that he is a master of mixing old genres even sometimes within a song, and managing to come up with something that actually sounds uniquely Mika?? I think this journalist is hinting at that but doesn't go far enough towards acknowledging it. T4P OP (sorry I have momentarily forgotten who posted the article ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnnaMariaPetra Posted October 14, 2009 Author Share Posted October 14, 2009 Absolutely true, and something that annoys the heck out of me to be honest . Why is it that critics always focus on the few melodies of Mika's that sound a little bit like old songs, rather than celebrating the fact that he is a master of mixing old genres even sometimes within a song, and managing to come up with something that actually sounds uniquely Mika?? I think this journalist is hinting at that but doesn't go far enough towards acknowledging it. T4P OP (sorry I have momentarily forgotten who posted the article ) Doesn't matter: I know how an OldlingBrain works...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sienna Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 ...as if Queen and George Michael were 'original' from the start... Pop art is about recycling. But the Beatles were new and fresh and absolutely original at their time! And I'm so happy to be able to say that! Oh and thanks for posting AMP! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kodes100 Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 (edited) Thank you AnnamariaPetra & Mari62 for posting. "Cat Burglar Mika" Hahahaha!:roftl: Mika didn't steal "melodies" as much as he took familair rifts & expanded & created them to his very own unique sound & melodies. Actually I more interested in what Mika has to say in this article then what Jed Gottlieb thinks of Mika. But hey that's just me. I will give Jed credit for including as much as Mika said & explained. All in all still a good article. Also Mia is not flat on the billboard music charts. He is currently 77 on the top 200. He is also on some other charts there too. LICM didn't hit that high at anytime during it's release. Edited October 14, 2009 by Kodes100 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laura* Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKateisaKate Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 I'm not a fan of the Herald, but I'll look out for an artcle in the Globe after tomorrow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now