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French video interview @ Crazyweek Nice 17.7.2012

mari62

By mari62
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Louiza

Louiza

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another great interview from france!!! thanks for posting:flowers2:

He says that when he finishes the promo for this album he wants to do a concert at Châtelet in Paris! That would be super amazing:wub2:

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crazyaboutmika

crazyaboutmika

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[YOUTUBE]rfz-g6ae57s[/YOUTUBE]

Translation of the Nice interview into English :

 

Question: Your new album "The Origin Of love" is different. Where did you find your inspiration?

Mika: Yes, it is different but at the same time I think it's still easy to recognize me in the choruses and the tunes and the production of course, I have developped textures , I've tried to push them a lot more. How did I find inspiration, now that's ...the truth is I went very fast from the first album to the second one , after that I didn't feel like being on the road and tour for four years and a half . With the second album came two years of touring , four times round the world distance and it was huge in a sense because we started in clubs in Asia and now we sing in arenas , now we can have several days of the show in big theaters in America which are dreams for me because I make pop music that's a bit..I didn't have any wish to write a song after the tour. I didn't know how to start so for a year and a hald I didn't write anything , not even one song, For the first time I was out of school, out of uni, not working as a waiter is a restaurant, not touring, not in a studio. I had nothing to do. So I told myself, this is huge, I did so many things, but now what do I do? If I don't know what to write, what can I do? Because I don't know anything else that I could do. So I waited and suddenly my life changed very fast. Two things happened and I left for Montreal to work with someone and on that same night I wrote "The Origin Of Love" which gives its name to the album and I didn't come back home until six months passed. Suddenly I fell in love and i wrote a kind a diary ? For the first time I was writing about life or love of other people, I was takling about my own life during a rather intense period of time. This is what inspired this album.

Question: Your songs are based on lots of contrasts. Is is the same in your third album?

Mika Yes, very much. There's still this duality and the contrast between the lyrics which are rather serious and rather depressing (Mika laughs and touches his neck ) and the music which is makes you smile and danse. I don't know why. Maybe this is my Lebanese side, we scream and we cry at the same time and maybe also because I realized that the melody and the happiness in music gives power and strengh and if you take a happy joyful sticky melody and mix it with something depressing , sad or daily basic events , the mix becomes something that is very powerful.

Question: What were your artistic influences for "The Origin Of Love"?

Mika There were several artistic influences for me. It was a time period when pop was rather perfect, at the time of Feetwood Mac and the Bee Gees , for me that was genuine personal pop from the artist . Those artists' music came from their lives and hearts and you hear it when you listen to their songs. Beck is that way as well, or Elton John in the seventees. That's the golden age of pop. At the same time , electronic music was taking its first steps (being experienced ) Some of my songs in that album sound electronic but I didn't want all of them to sound that way in "The Origin Of Love" , that would have been sillly because I want to stick to my origins too.

Question: When you sing into festivals as "Crazy Week" , is this a good time to test your new songs?

Mika: Of course it is perfect to test nex songs and to warm up because it is a bit like Jeckill and Hyde when I'm in a studio , I forget about the stage, I'm a very different person , then comes this strange transition when I 'm on stage again and I become someone else, I need to take a new shape and I'm right into that transition period now.

Question In the song "The Origin Of Love" you say that love is a drug. Is music a drug too?

Mika: It is a love song, but it is a rather , totally crazy love song and it opens with the words "L'amour est une drogue et toi tu es ma cigarette, l'amour est une drogue donc toi tu es ma nicorette, si l'amour est une drogue , comme le chocolat, comme les cigarettes, je me sens malade et donc je vais aller me soigner" Love is a drug and you are my cigarette, love is a drug like chocolate like cigarettes, I'm feeling sick, I've got to medicate myself ) and music is a bit the same yes. Music can be considered that way too, you can both love a music or hate it sometimes depending on what event is is related to for you. One one side I'm like a slave to music and what I do but on the other side I love what I do. I don't know, I think that's the same for everyone isn't it?

Question: Your songs are very successful in France. Are there also songs in French in your new album?

Mika: There are song in French, like Karen , l'amour dans le mauvais temps ( Blame it on the weather? ) , Elle Me Dit and also a song called "Un soleil mal luné" ( A sun in a bad mood /moony? ) I've had the wish to sing songs in French for a very long time but as I speak English rather well, but not totally fluently, it's very hard for me to write in French so I waited till I met Dorian who is now a friend of mine and who writes lyrics in French and who undertands my sensitivity and my sense of humor. We got together in a small studio in the south of France in St Rémy de Provence . The first song we wrote was Karen, then many others and two hours before I took the train to London , we were wondering what to do and he said to me "I've had enough of writing depressing songs "and I replied to him "You are like my mother when I was little. I was writing sad songs and she was teling me "Why can't you write a happy song? (chanson contente) and Dorian said to me "You don't say chanson contente in French" and I said "I do". And I started singing to him with a disco tune "Elle me dit "écris une chanson contente" (She tells me "can't you write a happy song?" and he added "Pas une chanson déprimante" (not a depressing song) . We both burst out laughing , then we looked at each other and thought maybe it could really be a song. We wrote the whole song very fast and I love Karen and Elle Me Dit.

Question: What sort of relashionship do you have with your public?

Mika: It goes really fantastically well. I am very lucky . I used to have stage fright always before a concert in France and in England because those are the countries where I spent my childood and grew up in so I want everything to go well and it does. Since the begining it is very important for me to do shows in France and I do a lot of shows there.

Title: My fans represent my motivation

Mika: We all know that fans are the best. To spread my music, and what I'm doing now, I owe it all to them, I'm here thanks to them. But when I write my music I get lost into another world and I think that's important. I write my music for me first and then I share it with my fans or else I would get lost. This is what's important. Write for yourself and share it afterwards.

Question: When you were younger you spent lots of time in the south of France. Do you have a good feeling with Nice inhabitants?

Mika:I know the audience in Nice , this is not my first concert here , the south of France is part of my life , it is always a pleasure as it is a beautiful place. And now it is the begining of the holidays which means it is the best part of it. Concerts at the end of the holidays are daft.

Question: What will you surprise Nice inhabitants with tonight? And how is a concert different from a festival?

Mika: I think people who have come to see my shows before know that for example there's a whole concept around my shows like in theater . I started with opera, so I think it is a responsability to carry the audience into a whome experience for one or two hours. In a festival ist is diffferent , it is more centered on the music and playing with the audience's reactions. There must be surprises and magic at work each time of course, sparkles everywhere. I like the idea to start in black and while and end with colors. It freshens up things.

Question : Do you have a dream that you want to see coming true on stage?

Mika: I would like to have a very visual and theatrical show that would last two hours that would be sophisticated enough to create a whole world. I would like to have this show in Le Chatelet, one night in Le Chatelet and I'm sure I'm going to lose lots of money because I'm used to lose a lot of money when I have a one night show in a place like this, but I believe if you can't organize such beautiful night , what's the use of it all? We need beauty that surprises us and takes us into another universe .

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