mari62 Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 (edited) Press Conference in French @ Parc Eana Normandie France 20.7.2012 Lors de son concert évènement à Gruchet-le-Valasse le 20 juillet 2012 au Parc Eana nous avons eu le privilège de filmer la conférence de presse. Un très bon moment passé avec un artiste des plus sympathique. L’interview est menée par Luc Foubert (radio Résonance) Translation on page 1 and 2 thanks Camille!! Thank you skiwi and Camille! Long interview in Normandie http://www.cauxseine.tv/?p=1195 Wow thanks going to watch now! EDIT : Great interview! 25min of Mika talking To those who have been at the Vienne gig coming from US, South Korea, Russia, Spain, Italy, UK, Mika mentioned you again at the end of this interview Shall we create a thread for this long and lovely interview? I will try to take some time to translate [YOUTUBE]GJoaBaxHGT0&[/YOUTUBE] Edited July 29, 2012 by mari62 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camille* Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Thank you Mari As I said I'm translating now, not sure how long it will take me though as Mika just keeps talking and talking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mari62 Posted July 27, 2012 Author Share Posted July 27, 2012 Thank you Mari As I said I'm translating now, not sure how long it will take me though as Mika just keeps talking and talking Thank you very much Camille!Take your time, it's much work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzie Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Thank you Mari As I said I'm translating now, not sure how long it will take me though as Mika just keeps talking and talking thank you! Perhaps first you can tell us if he has said anything interesting or new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camille* Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 I'll divide the translation into several parts otherwise you'll have to wait for hours Journalist : Mika, welcome to Normandy. It's not the first time you are here, you came here not so long ago for the Festival Beauregard in Caen, under the sun Mika : Under the sun, it was very nice I remember, it was very beautiful. And tonight also is a magnificent place, I didn't know what to expect. From my hotel room I could see Le Havre's harbour, I wondered where we were going to play, they hadn't told me yet, they had told me it was beautiful but I was wondering 'is it in the harbour, where is it?' And then I arrived here and was like 'wow'! My dressing room is like a Marie Antoinette lounge, it's beautiful, I even put it on Twitter. I was like 'it will do!'. It's beautiful, and the weather's nice. J : Does this weather inspire you? Is it important when you go on stage? M : Yes of course because when the weather's nice it's easier for fans. When they are waiting, or when they come and they want to dance or have a walk, they can do it. And also I saw in front of the stage when I was doing soundcheck, if it's raining there will clearly be a lot of mud, but at the moment it's ok. But it helps for everything, it helps for the crew, they are nicer when it's not raining and it's not too cold. J : To be here before the album release in September, what is it exactly? A rehearsal? Is it a way to see if songs are working? We used to do that a lot in the 70s and 80s M :It's absolutely the same concept. It's funny, when I started we would never have thought I was a kind of artist who would tour out of the album cycle. And now we can tour out of album cycles, even in the US or in Asia, things like that. And it helps us a lot. It helps me a lot because it means that I can always keep my performer's muscles. So it's a kind of preparation for what we are going to do. We are starting now, and then we will have a whole French and European tour in Autumn, the US afterwards, I think something in South America, then Asia, then we tour Europe again. It's good to make the most of Summer time, have summery shows, which have a different feeling than theatre or arena shows.We have to focus on music and much less on theatrical elements. And this is good. J : Tonight we will be the first to hear some songs, amongst them there are 3 French songs, and one of them is Lola M : Yes I will sing 'Lola' but 'Lola' is in English. I hope tonight I will not make any mistake, that would be a first.. And I'll also sing a song called 'Underwater', which is a beautiful ballad in English, and of course I'll sing the song that gives the title of the album 'The Origin of Love' and a song that is called 'Karen du 82', it's a song in French. I mix things, it gives me a lot of flexibility because now I have more songs to choose from. I used to have only one album and I was asked to perform for 75 or 90 min and I was wondering 'how the **** am I going to do that?' 90 min of music when I have only one album? So I was doing covers, which were rubbish. I tried everything, I didn't know what to do, so I was talking more. Then I had 2 albums and now a third one and it's a kind of luxury when you can choose from more than 11 or 12 songs. @suzie I can't even remember Too much info kills info Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camille* Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Don't you have some nerve calling your album The Origin of Love? (I think the question might sound rude in English but it may not be a good translation, he meant something like cheeky) No not at all because it's the opposite. I want people to think 'The Origin of Love? What is it? Is it him, what is it?' And then we discover it's not that at all, it's the opposite of cheeky as an album and as a title. It's a love letter. I'm saying 'I tear up history, I tear up religion, I tear up the Bible, for I finally realise that the origin of love is you. You are the origin of love and I forget everything around me' This is not cheeky, it's the opposite. It disintegrates the world around us. How do you work on your albums? We have a feeling from what we have heard that first of all it's a group work. It's kind of how we can characterize you, there's a group, there's family.. It's a collective. And the link between everybody who helps me is myself. The link between all the songs, between all the shows, all the artwork, is me. But it's a collective, absolutely. I've always started like that and I'll continue like that. From time to time I isolate myself and when I isolate myself I know it's not a good sign. When I stay on my own, it means I'm frustrated or I'm hiding myself. Even in my family, they know that when I isolate myself, it means something's wrong. And when I'm with other people, I take inspiration, energy from people around me, that's when I feel the best about myself. In a way I need people around me, but I think because I'm a solo artist and when you're in a band you have a group around you, when you're alone you need to find collaborators. With the kind of music I make, it works. It's not like I'm losing my identity or I'm entering a studio and I say 'I want to buy a song'. It's often like that in pop music. We buy songs, we buy a sound; I don't do that at all. What I do is I start something with someone, I tear it up, I reconstruct it, I put something else around it, I make blocks, it's like Lego. I make a patchwork and at the end we can see my face. That's how I make my artwork, that's how I make everything. That's how you worked with Doriand for example That's exactly how I worked with Doriand. We go together in a room, he takes inspiration from me, I take inspiration from him, there are things we write together, there are things we write separately. And then for production I went to see a Swedish producer who speaks some English but no French at all, and he heard the song and said 'oh it's cool' but for him the song means something completely different. So he put his interpretation on the song like Elle Me Dit, he didn't understand one single word. The masterised version for the single was spelt on our system as 'Ellmudet'. That's how he wrote the title of the song. And then Greg Wells added something else, a more organic sound, Klas Ahlund was more on electronic sounds, in the mixing I then choose a bit more, and at the end we have this product. But this kind of collaborations work only when we say it's only music that counts, it's not the system, everybody is the same, there's no selfishness, if somebody tells me 'what you're doing is rubbish' I'll tell them 'ok, can you do it better' 'yes' 'ok do it then'. I think that's why when I have collaborators, they stay with me. On this album I worked with Greg Wells, amongst others, but also I wrote a lot with a woman called Jodi Marr. She discovered me with the first album. She was the one to find me in an office in New York, I was in the waiting room, I was almost crying because I had been rejected for the 720th time. And she told me 'I write songs for Latino artists, I have a lot of hits but most of my hits' (she's American, not Spanish, not from Mexico) 'most of my hits are in Mexico and they never pay me so it would be good to have something in English' I said ok, I will show you my demos, she looked at me she said 'ok, come with me, I'll surround you with people who will help you, just for love, who will love what you do because in Miami there isn't a lot of you. There's urban and latino music. So come and everybody will help you simply because it's different.' So I went with her, I didn't know that she didn't have any money, I had taken all my student loan, instead of spending it on my education I had spent it on my demos. So she knew I didn't have any money left, and I didn't know she didn't have any money left, and the thing is she secretly mortgaged her house in order to make my demos. And now on this album we write a lot together again. So I stay with people. And they stay with me, and we find other people. It's strange because most of the time people don't talk about this collective element but it's completely clear that it's part of how I work on my music, my artwork, my shows, on everything. ( This is the first time I actually want Mika to stop talking, how long was that answer?? ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mari62 Posted July 27, 2012 Author Share Posted July 27, 2012 He was in a chatty mood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camille* Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Elle Me Dit is the song that was a big success recently, it's in French, it was a surprise for everybody, Fanny Ardant is in the video, it really surprised everybody. We say that it surprised everybody and I can assure you it's true. Because I was doing press and reactions were so negative at the beginning for this song 'what do you think you're doing singing in French', this kind of things, and I told myself 'this is strange, when did we start having rules, it's music, it's where we don't have rules, why are you being jerks?' We are musicians so we can break rules. And it took time, but with the video, and with the fact that it's people who decided they liked the song and nobody else, it had another life, it was great. I had always wanted, I wanted to sing something in French for a very long time, but I hadn't met somebody I could work with the same way I work in English. And when I met Doriand, I thought 'well, he's cool, it will be good'. And Fanny Ardant in the video... I met her at a dinner, I was very nervous sitting in front of her, she didn't know me or what I do, she had a sort of presence and authority, I had already worked on the song, and at the end of the dinner she started talking about her daughters, I think she has 2, or maybe more I don't know, she was talking about her daughters who are quite young, around my age, and I thought 'it's strange to be such a diva, to be so strong but so soft at the same time, I wonder what it's like to be her daughter or her son.' When I thought about the video I thought 'it's perfect, it's her. It's an independent strong woman who loves her son but is not scared of telling him to **** off, because she has her own life, and there's tension between the two and I thought it's perfect to illustrate this feeling' So I called her, very formally, 'Hello Fanny Ardant, I want to present you something' and finally we did it, but it was not easy. But she did it for free. Simply because she liked the idea. Will the song be on the new album? Yes it will. With 'Karen', 'L'Amour dans le Mauvais Temps' and also 'Un Soleil Mal Luné', another French song. At the moment we can hear 'Celebrate', with Pharrell Williams, how did you meet and how did you make this song? I had found a studio in Miami with not too much commitment, so they gave me a great deal, and I thought it's perfect, it's a luxury to be in such a good studio at a very reasonable price. In Summer it's very hot in Miami so nobody wants to be there. It was in Summer. And he lives there, he heard everywhere that there was this rather weird artist that Americans don't really understand working with a lot of people in a studio in a hotel in Miami. He knew my work very well, he called me saying I want to be in the studio with you, tell me when, so we started and there was another unknown artist there, I found him on the Internet, he was 22, and I said 'let's do it together'. So there was Pharrell Williams, a big star with diamonds on his hand.. And I'll always remember, there was a moment when he threw assistants out of the studio, at the beginning there were a lot, and after 2 hours, without the assistants there was me, him and the sound engineer and the other young artist Ben, and he took off his diamond ring and put it in his bag and continued working and I thought 'Ok now he's connected, he knows why he's here' That was a nice little moment. We also wrote another song together called 'Tah Dah'. I think it will be.. I don't know for now if it's on the album or on a bonus version or something like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaraMay Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Wow Thanks Can't wait to hear Tah Dah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mellody Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 thank you a lot camille for the translations! it's a very interesting interview, i wish he had done it in english (camille i bet you think the same after having to translate it all... ) - would be nice to actually *watch* him say all of that, in a language i can understand. i especially love how he talks about how he has met jodi marr, this whole story... and all the other details he tells about collaborations, it's fab to have an insight into how he works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camille* Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 (edited) My Imaginarium Tour started in 2010 but lasted until the end of 2011 (are you sure Mika ) We finished it in Brazil. I didn't know what to expect in Brazil frankly. It was the tour that was never ending. Which is good but also.. it freaks me out a bit when you're on a tour like this. And now the show is different. I've got new musicians, it's a different feeling. Musically there are a lot of colours, new musicians have groove, I thought at the moment it was really important to start festivals and think that with all the other bands in the festival around me, on stage before and after me, my band and me, musically, we can compete against each other. I really wanted musicians who could bring me to another level. Do you have stage fright, today for example? Of course! Otherwise we're dead. Otherwise it's over. You always have to have stage fright. Not always but.. you have to feel it. You say France and England are the 2 countries where you have the most stage fright Because they are my childhood countries. These are the countries I live in. I don't live in France anymore but I used to live in Paris and this is where it matters. In England and in France. And I've always.. yes and I don't know why, it's unfair to all other countries but at the start of an album I think, this is where I have this feeling, I want it to work. I'm sorry I'll have to stop there for tonight Lost some time watching BBC2 I'm only at 17min I can only continue on Sunday night or Monday... Edited July 27, 2012 by camille* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yuna Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 Thanks for the translation!! Wow I'm thinking of re-translate all to Korean but it's too much! How did you do that :shocked: I love the 'une fan de Seoul' part he remembered my presence at least till next morning Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mellody Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 And I've always.. yes and I don't know why, it's unfair to all other countries but at the start of an album I think, this is where I have this feeling, I want it to work. ah, so that's why in germany there hasn't even been the slightest article about the single or anything. well, as long as he comes on tour here even if the album's not doing well, i'll forgive him. (i don't mind small venues... at all... ) thank you for the translation so far, looking forward to the rest! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerMoment1608 Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 Thanks for your incredible work, camille! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louiza Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 Really enjoyed watching this interview, it's really interesting! Cant wait to hear 'L'Amour dans le Mauvais Temps' and 'Un Soleil Mal Luné' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 Thank you Camille, your translations are perfect. I appreciate all your work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camille* Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 I love the 'une fan de Seoul' part he remembered my presence at least till next morning Yes I loved that too. I guess I'll have to go to Seoul for him to remember me thank you for the translation so far, looking forward to the rest! Thanks for your incredible work, camille! Thank you Camille, your translations are perfect. I appreciate all your work. You're welcome (and thank you) End of the translation is here: There are 3 artists in France who are references to you at completely different levels, Jane Birkin, Emilie Simon and France Gall, with whom you'd like to have a duet. We know that she is preparing a new album and show for 2014, would you like to take your phone and call her? It's a strange question, because when we have idols... well I don't really have idols, because it's not about marketing or image, the artist's look, press about this artist; it's just about music so when we have musical icons in mind from time to time, we shouldn't revisit it. For example, I'm completely a fan of Bjork, but I don't ever want to meet her, I'll never want to be in a studio with her, I'll never want to be in the same room as her, I don't want her to destroy what I have in my mind about her. Maybe she's great but I don't know about it. And so, with someone like France Gall, or Françoise Hardy the same way, or Barbara if she was still alive, wow I would never be in the same building as her, I would be somewhere else. It's always like that. With Emilie Simon it's different, we know each other, we met thanks to our music, there was an exchange, right from the start. We are colleagues in a way. It's different. So my answer is probably not, but it doesn't mean that I'm not an absolutely huge fan. It has nothing to do with it. What will you do on August 18th 2013? Oh you're a bastard! I've just realised why you said that. It's because I will be 30. Idiot! Yes I'll be 30. I don't know.. I'll probably work. I'll probably have a gig. Why not. I always say I don't have any complex becoming 30, I didn't have any complex becoming 25 or 20, for me it was nothing, and when I was filming my video in New York, there was my cousin, I was talking, he looked at me and he said with his very abrupt way 'you know for someone who's not obsessed about becoming 30 at all, you talk about it a lot'. I don't know, I think that normally when you're 30 you have a sort of personal crisis, and I saw it happen with my friends or sisters, and I think I have this crisis every 2 years. Honestly I think I have this crisis every 2 years, I think I had this crisis when I lost my voice when I was a little boy; usually you don't have a career crisis at 15, but when I was 15 I lost my voice, I lost my career. Boom, it was over. I couldn't sing anymore, I couldn't earn any money, and one night I was singing contemporary music in Warsaw, doing very interesting and beautiful things and 3 months later, I was a waiter, earning money, serving champagne, pretending I was 18 when I was 16. Because I wanted to earn money but couldn't sing anymore. This was a small crisis. It wasn't a big one but I have small ones, everytime I make a new album, one more time I have this crisis again. So maybe this replaces the 30s crisis. But it's clear that it exists. But you still haven't answered about what you will be doing that day Probably a show. I don't know. I've never had a birthday party. Ever. Is it something that causes anguish? No, actually, I don't really like celebrating my birthday, I prefer Christmas. I prefer the pub on a Friday or Monday evening. I prefer when we are not supposed to celebrate anything. At Christmas we are supposed to celebrate, do you do it with your family? Yes, I don't know, birthdays are... I've had gigs on almost all my birthdays, for 6 years now, this is my life, it's good, I'm lucky. Is the fact of having your statue at the Musée Grévin complicated? No because it's wax and wax can melt. Wax can melt very easily. I found it quite absurd in a good way, absurd in a beautiful way. I don't think about it a lot. When I saw it it made me laugh. I burst out laughing. Because there was a resemblance, but also it looks like (watch Mika's face from 23.32 ) Like my stomach hurts, or like I'm about to say something. When they took the picture I probably had something to say. My last question now as we've been talking for 25 min, there will be a French tour this Autumn, there are some shows all along this Summer, and you will play at the Casino de Paris. Is it a different moment when you have a show in Paris like this one? Yes it's a different moment simply because for example when I played at the Cirque d'Hiver, it was a different moment too, I was presenting something new, Cirque d'Hiver was beautiful, they were my favourite shows, I hadn't had a gig I loved like that for a very long time and I don't want to play at the Cirque d'Hiver again, I want to do something new and I think that the Casino de Paris is perfect. We'll see. I like having the same show everywhere, but this tour will be a nice one, we'll play beautiful venues, venues where people can sit, it's a big difference when people can sit down comfortably and listen and there will be acoustic versions, then suddenly there will be completely dancing versions, but when people can sit comfortably, I find that, I don't know why, we can have a bigger range of emotions, of speed; we can really slow down, become very small and then boom, explode with something more dancing. This is good. I'd like to have a word from you for your fans who arrived very early here this morning, they were waiting impatiently, do you really have a special relationship with them, for example, do you often tweet? I tweet a lot more than before, and I try to keep things less personal on my Twitter account, because it's better this way and also I think that, I don't know, I have fans travelling the world, we had a gig in Vienne the day before yesterday and there were fans from Michigan, a fan from Seoul, a whole group from Russia, from Spain, Italy, England it's clear there was a whole group from there, but yes it's huge. So to keep contact this way on Twitter, or Instagram, I love Instagram, this is the best, Instagram is great. And fans know they are part of the show too, for example right now there is someone choosing people to come and dance with us on stage, and this is cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BiaIchihara Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 big thanks for translating camille :huglove: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyn Mastin Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 Yes, thank you Camille. You've done an awesome job! God bless you for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yuna Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 Yes I loved that too. I guess I'll have to go to Seoul for him to remember me this winter... tempting? I tweet a lot more than before, and I try to keep things less personal on my Twitter account, because it's better this way and also I think that, I don't know, I have fans travelling the world, we had a gig in Vienne the day before yesterday and there were fans from Michigan, a fan from Seoul, a whole group from Russia, from Spain, Italy, England it's clear there was a whole group from there, but yes it's huge. So to keep contact this way on Twitter, or Instagram, I love Instagram, this is the best, Instagram is great. And fans know they are part of the show too, for example right now there is someone choosing people to come and dance with us on stage, and this is cool. the day before yesterday? he remembered that for 2 days! incredible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mari62 Posted August 2, 2012 Author Share Posted August 2, 2012 (edited) Is it me, or he speaks French more fluently than in the past? It's really a pleasure listening to him talking about music and I love his enthusiasm and passion about the upcoming album He gestures like Italians do Edited August 2, 2012 by mari62 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAK1 Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 (edited) From what I remember, he's never done a gig ON his birthday. The closest he came, was Sardinia the day before, and Cattolica the day after 2 years ago. Though he might have done V Festival on his birthday, back in 2007. Edited August 2, 2012 by RAK1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Yes I think he did a VFestival on his birthday one year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaraMay Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Is the fact of having your statue at the Musée Grévin complicated? No because it's wax and wax can melt. Wax can melt very easily. I found it quite absurd in a good way, absurd in a beautiful way. I don't think about it a lot. When I saw it it made me laugh. I burst out laughing. Because there was a resemblance, but also it looks like (watch Mika's face from 23.32 ) Like my stomach hurts, or like I'm about to say something. When they took the picture I probably had something to say. I thought he was just doing his typical apple pose? Thanks again for the translations! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mari62 Posted August 2, 2012 Author Share Posted August 2, 2012 this winter... tempting? the day before yesterday? he remembered that for 2 days! incredible I think he'll remember that for a loong time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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