mellody Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 (edited) here's part 1 of an interview mika did with the german online-magazine "fast forward": http://fastforward-magazine.de/?p=16142 i think they'll post the next parts of the interview in the next days. it's quite an interesting interview, not the usual questions and answers. it's in german, but i *might* get the original transcript from the editor for this one - if not, i'll translate. while i check whether i can get the transcript, feel free to use google translate for a first idea of what he says. edit: original transcript of the interview, thanks to gabi from fastforward magazine! part 1: http://www.mikafanclub.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3834946&postcount=28 part 2: http://www.mikafanclub.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3834947&postcount=29 Edited November 12, 2012 by mellody Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krysady Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 Thank you! *waiting for translation* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerMoment1608 Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 Would be great if you would get the original. It's an interesting interview so far - mostly because the interviewer clearly likes him and creates a very comfortable atmosphere for him therefore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnnaMariaPetra Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 I like the interview! Was disappointed that I have to wait for the rest:aah: T4P:thumb_yello: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Statue_of_Liberty Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 (edited) I tried a translation. Please forgive me all mistakes and typos! Interview with Mika - Part 1 It's the thing with Mika - you either like him or you don't. The combination of sickly-sweet pop songs, confetti, falsetto and glitter-glamour costumes is not everyone's cup of tea. I personally have to thank the 29-year-old popstar for a few pleasureable concert memories and thus am happy to meet him and talk about his third album "The Origin of Love" copiously. That day Mika appears how you imagine Mika to appear: Fuzzy-headed, in a striped shirt an hour late. After his first appointment we meet in a kitchenette where he begs me for a bag of gummi bears ("Is this empty bag yours? Do you have another one?") then he personally accompanies me into the conference room in the 8th floor. He leans back and looks at me interrogatorily. Interviewer: I thought I'd tell you something for a change. Mika: I hope it's something nice. Yes. I thought I told you about how I found out about you. I have a thing for popstars. I'm a little older than you... How old are you? Mika estimates my age. In his chivalric way of being he makes me six years younger than I am without hesitation and watches pictures of my kids on my mobile. So I grew up when there were basically three popstars: Prince, Madonna and Michael Jackson. A time of which I talk a lot. I always say that we won't have such icons again. A friend of mine told me about you when I was quite bored with the current music industry. I was annoyed with all those depressive looking Indie Bans in their wishy-washy shirts... Exactly those bands were the reason why no record label wanted me back then! However, that friend asked me if I knew Mika and said: You would like him, he is like a popstar in the classical way. So I looked up Mika and watched your performance at Jools Holland how you sat on the piano all alone and sang "Grace Kelly". My first performance on tv ever! >> Video << And I thought: This guy is totally crazy! (Mika laughs) But I love it! A little later, in 2007, I saw you live for the first time. And finally someone did all that fuss again: Balloons, Confetti, Animal costumes... Those giant balloons and the confettis was based on a nightclub in London that I used to go to secretly when I was 15 or 16. It was situated in an old theatre, the Astoria. Today, it doesn't exist anymore. There were balloons and confetti and the people there literally went crazy when the ballons and the confetti fell down on them. And I always thought that this as childish and hysterical it was had such a huge impact on those people. So in the end, that's why I went into that direction. But I never thought of what I was doing, I just did it because it felt like it had to be done. I felt good with it. And until now I haven't changed when it comes to that kind of stuff. My creative processes are still the same, my performances go their own direction. However, it's nice that you found out about me that way and not through some random press release. Before I got here I re-watched that performance again. And I wondered how you feel when watching those old recordings. I feel as if it was yesterday! It's all a part of the same process. My intention today, especially when singing a song like Grace Kelly, is exactly the same as back then. Because it's something that I created! I think this is the thing - if something really is yours and you believe in it in every possible way you never get annoyed with it. And you won't ever lie to yourself. If that isn't the case, though, and everyone love you for it bad associations can establish around it. So yes, I still feel the same. I think this is a fantastic snapshot of what I am, of what I have created and where my career had started. I don't think of anything else... (thinks for a long time) I don't know, I don't think. I don't have to think of things like that. I try to evolve and to challenge myself. And I think that I'm very thankful for not resenting myself anything. Everything happened out of frustration back then. I was forced to be very lonely and independent when I was looking for my own way just because I had no other choice. So yes - I think it's cool! (grins) And now your third album will be released already. Oh yes! The magic third. I find it especially interesting to talk about your third album. Many musicians I had met told me that the first one was the most exciting one. The secon album... ...is the one when you are in a change the most. 100 %, yes. And the third really has something magical. You survived the first and the second one and now you're still here. I wish more people would get that. You can see it so clearly and it's true! A magic fairy dust seems to be sparkling over the third album if the conditions under which it was made were good. It's weird because now that I'm done with it - I only finished it a few weeks ago - I sometimes sit down and don't know if it will ever be like it was with this album. If you have the strengh - and that's only my personal opinion - to fight through it and break your own habits if you risk the jump with your third album then you can get to a point where it appears if you will be the artist you fought your whole life to be or if you won't be that artist. I have made a wonderful second album but it was a continuation of the first. It still was about that identity story that I had started with the first. It was darker and more isolated and had the concept of a dark fairytale. Even the cover. I consciously decided to use blue version of the first one. With the third one I walked in the studio every day and literally said to myself: Use the tools that were given to you through the first two records. But destroy your ego and bring out your own self without resistance. It was difficult to get there because I didn't know where to start. But when I finally had started it was the most liberating experience I've ever done. So you're completely right, the third album can be quite exciting. Interestingly enough, you don't even have to listen to the record to find out that you've done a step forward. After all, it's the first time you're prominently... ...that I'm on the cover, yes. But you still see that it's something iconic, something nice but at the same time it's devilish with a weird sense of humour. I wear this weird alien-hat that shows my name at the same time. It's beatiful and ridiculous at the same time - I'm the crazy one who's stepping away from the comic version of his own.And it's weird that when you listen to the album you might find out that it sounds like a beginning, a departure. But it's no first time, it's my third album after all. It says a lot about the mood in which I was when I was doing the album. Tell me how it was. You were on tour for a long time after "The Boy who knew too much". For two years. It was an awful lot of work. I sold insanely many records of the first album so I knew it would become tough with the second one. I knew I had to work very hard because I had to sell two million copies of it - which I managed to do only just. On the one handside it was great because you've got to be honest two millions are damn many. But it was a real drudgery at the same time. The tour was a possibility to show myself, to establlish, to explain the auidience the world from which I come and to show them how I work as a musician. It all got brought to life when I went on stage. So I toured like a maniac. Then it was over and for the first time of my life I wasn't on tour, I wasn't studying, not recording an album and not working as a waiter or in summer holiday - I just was out of work and confused. And the least I felt like was a songwriter, more like a live artist. It was a complete break-down! and I blamed everybody. My partner, my family... I had a terrible break-up, went through the terrible accident of my sister and had to be there for her. That all shocked my very foundations and was the first step to break with my ego - an ego that I didn't know it was even existing! This patina that had kept me from writing. And yet writing is my life. It is what I've done since I was nine. So I had to run away. As chance would have it, the first person I met was Nick Littlemore who was really eager to start a new project. Six hours after I had talked to him I bought myself a ticket to Montreal. I hadn't written a song in 1.5 years, not a good one in at least 2.5 years. So I walk into his studio, and he lend me about 23 keyboards, six basses and six samplers. I feel how much I gasp for a restart, and in that night I wrote "The Origin of Love", in one hour. There it began with the new album. Suddenly, everything simply there. I didn't go home for seven month and made the album. The young lady from Universal who is in charge of the interviews comes into the room quietly and tells us that our time of five minutes is over. Mika sends her back outside. Oh no, we need a bit more time! And what Mika told me in the second part of our talk, you will learn soon! Interview: Gabi Rudolph Edited October 2, 2012 by Statue_of_Liberty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mellody Posted October 2, 2012 Author Share Posted October 2, 2012 thanks saskia! since i haven't heard back from the editor yet, and with my cold i feel more like lying in bed than translating interviews, i'm very happy that you had the time to do it! will add your translation to the first post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 That's a great translation Saskia. It sounds like Mika in his own words. I felt the same as the interviewer when I discovered Mika as I also grew up in the Madonna/Prince/MJ era. I guess the Gummi Bears are part of his low-carb diet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mellody Posted October 2, 2012 Author Share Posted October 2, 2012 ok, we *will* get the original english transcript from the editor, but only next week, as she's very busy atm. so it's great that we have saskia's translation for now!! the 2nd part of the interview will only be online in a few days, friday if we're lucky. as the interview was quite long, we might even get a few extra parts that she cut out for the magazine version. so for now, enjoy saskia's translation, but you can check back next week for the full original transcript. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokesignal Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 ok, we *will* get the original english transcript from the editor, but only next week, as she's very busy atm. so it's great that we have saskia's translation for now!! the 2nd part of the interview will only be online in a few days, friday if we're lucky.as the interview was quite long, we might even get a few extra parts that she cut out for the magazine version. so for now, enjoy saskia's translation, but you can check back next week for the full original transcript. Wow mellody! You know you're amazing, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mellody Posted October 2, 2012 Author Share Posted October 2, 2012 Wow mellody! You know you're amazing, right? don't thank me, but the editor gabi who'll do it for us. btw there was a little mistake in the interview, mika made gabi 6 years younger, not older when estimating her age. she changed it now, statue maybe you could adapt your translation? thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mari62 Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 Thank you very much Karin and Saskia!! I think I'll wait and read the original Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Statue_of_Liberty Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 btw there was a little mistake in the interview, mika made gabi 6 years younger, not older when estimating her age. she changed it now, statue maybe you could adapt your translation? thanks. done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 Really nice interview - thanks for posting and translating Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louiza Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Thanks for posting and translating:thumb_yello: It's a really good interview. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreamy_Queen Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Thank you girls for posting and translating! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Menthe Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Thank you for the translation. We rarely get as interesting interviews to read as this one. Mika doesn't often talk about the album sales and I wonder if this was the goal set by Universal or by himself ("I sold insanely many records of the first album so I knew it would become tough with the second one. I knew I had to work very hard because I had to sell two million copies of it - which I managed to do only just.") It must be very stressful for him even with TOOL if he has to think about the album sales all the time. I just hope that the enourmous touring he did for TBWKTM gave him more hard core fans who will buy the album instead of downloading it illegally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mellody Posted October 4, 2012 Author Share Posted October 4, 2012 Thank you for the translation. We rarely get as interesting interviews to read as this one. Mika doesn't often talk about the album sales and I wonder if this was the goal set by Universal or by himself ("I sold insanely many records of the first album so I knew it would become tough with the second one. I knew I had to work very hard because I had to sell two million copies of it - which I managed to do only just.") It must be very stressful for him even with TOOL if he has to think about the album sales all the time. I just hope that the enourmous touring he did for TBWKTM gave him more hard core fans who will buy the album instead of downloading it illegally. i think it was the record company who told him he had to sell 2 mio. copies. probably such things are part of the contracts... he did a lot of touring for the first album as well, and it didn't help him with the 2nd... actually i think he's less known now (at least if i look at germany) than he was before the release of tbwktm. his big hits GK and relax were just too long ago, and many people don't even know that he had a 2nd album at all. and the number of hard core fans, well, there are new ones now, but others aren't there anymore, so i don't know. i think the new album is doing quite well in france and italy, but i'm really curious how it'll be in the uk and germany. both are big and important music markets in europe... but at least here in germany i don't see much success of the promotion yet. it's only celebrate so far though, the album is only out tomorrow, so we'll see... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Menthe Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Unfortunately having a really big hit is the only thing that seems to work nowadays (= Gotye). I hope, however, that he was sufficiently well known now in Europe and in Asia thanks to his gigs and previous hits that he could reach at least 2 millions albums sold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mellody Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 (edited) part 2 is online now: http://fastforward-magazine.de/?p=16348 can't read or translate atm as i'm busy getting #TheOriginOfLove to trend on twitter, sorry... edit: i'll translate now. Edited October 5, 2012 by mellody Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mellody Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 Interview part 2: http://fastforward-magazine.de/?p=16348 translation Interview with Mika - Part 2 05th October 2012 "The Origin Of Love" is Mika's third album, which is freshly released in Germany. In the first part of our conversation Mika has described to me the euphoria that caught him, after some initial difficulties, of returning to songwriting and to the studio. Listening to the album it becomes tangible - it is determined by electronic, driven rhythms. Bit of a shame that these sometimes push the sensitive side of Mika's songwriting, that makes him so special as a pop artist, a little to the background. But fortunately the deluxe version of the album provides a set of acoustic versions, in which the emotional depth of the songs has more impact, even in the uptempo songs. And it is this side of Mika that interests me, so I dig a little deeper... What were you most afraid of when you finally started to work? The problem was that every time I started writing, or only thought about it, i always immediately asked myself, what will people think. You think about something like that? That surprises me. Usually never! I have never thought about these things. Never, never, never, not in a million years! Therefore, I could not write, that was my blockade. What kind of album should I make? Never in my life I've tried to define my music stylistically. This is the reason why my music even exists. So I had to witness a horrible accident and I had to fall in love, to regain this selfish, almost reckless indifference that I needed to make an album that is veritable. That's what I was afraid of. I was afraid of becoming just like the artists that I can't stand. Those who think about what kind of record they should make before they even make it (laughs). After all, who the hell does that? It just needs to happen. Even if an entire industry is based on it, it's a very odd thing to make an album. And you know what, you make the best records when you have the feeling that you steal them from somewhere. Often when I write a song, it feels like it just happens. I throw it up and wonder where I got it from, and then I suddenly feel bad because I feel like I stole it from someone. As if it had been in the air and I would have only just caught it quickly before someone else did. That is totally crazy! I know (smiles). Therefore, the alien hat on my cover. Those are in fact antennas to protect myself against aliens. In this whole process, you remained faithful to your record label. They have remained faithful to me! True, or that way round. What am I getting at is that you are still with a major label and at the same time you have preserved your freedom. 100 percent. They have given it to me. It is a mixture of both. First and foremost, I'm lucky because I sell records all over the world. This way with my label the focus isn't on power. There is no market for which they can say: "We have the power, because we are the ones who invest in you." That's the first thing. I also think that it makes a difference that my contract is with England and not with the U.S.. Island is the major label in the UK where you can have the most freedom. But I also fight. If I feel someone takes the piss out of me, I walk into a room and shout. This is my life, I have to fight. What is the worst thing they can do to me? I don't shout to be an idiot, I'm just saying it if I think that they have to support me when I need help. But up to this moment I have been very lucky with my label. Many people are amazed that I have the possibility to make the records that I'm making on a major label. Again, the point is: They have not made me. I was always me, and they decided to help me. That's the big difference. You said earlier that you are selling records all around the world. It is also striking that you have very devoted fans all around the world. And not only that, they also travel anywhere you go to, no matter where in the world you're playing! Everywhere, wherever we are. They are all part of a movement ... I can not describe it. But isn't it weird when no matter where you play, you see always the same people in the front row? (Mika thinks for a moment, then laughs loudly) Or do you not want to talk about it? No, no, it's great! I don't know, it must somehow be related to the music that I make. I think it's because it exists outside a fashion or style. This means that I don't attract people who follow a trend, and once that is gone, they're gone. The music and the live experience exists for itself, and I think that helps the fans. They even get tattoos. My cartoon characters, quotes, autographs. Not all of them, but many. Is there anyone for whom you turn into a fan? Me? Yes, there are a few ... (thinks) But it's funny, I think I have no icons that stand for something. But I can be somewhere in the audience, and at the end of a song, even if everyone else is seated, I jump up and clap and cheer. Even at classical concerts. I can become very awestruck towards someone's creativity, it sometimes hits me so hard that in that moment I become a screaming fan. But just at that moment during the concert. Afterwards it suddenly dissolves. You hear a lot of music privately? Yes, a lot. But I can not go to shows often enough. And I do not like to see people at festivals. It's just not the same. Do you also feel that if you're playing at festivals yourself? Is it more difficult than playing your own show where people come just because of you? It's different, just a different kind of show. You have less control. In a closed arena or even in a club you can do very small things. You can stamp on the floor, and in a closed room you will feel the effect. At a festival, there are so many distractions. I don't want to be crude, but at festivals you always feel the tension between trying to make money and to present a good musical experience. I don't care what people say, but if you set up a series of beer stands and stalls selling Asian food on each side of the stage, this surely doesn't help for a great musical experience (laughs). Therefore, it is simply not the same. In the fall you play your next tour. Why don't you come to Berlin this time? I don't know! It is just a very small tour with small venues. And they are almost sold out. Something like this sharpens my senses. It changes me. It... I don't know. It feels good to do such a tour, and it's important for me. The last time I played in Paris, we were in the Bercy arena, but before that we were playing at the Cirque d'Hiver, a tiny circus from the 19th Century. I never would have felt comfortable at the Bercy shows if I had not been playing at the Cirque d'Hiver before. Moreover, it is a good way to start over again. As an artist, with me you never know what will come next. I think it's nice that you keep this. That you take the opportunity to go back to small venues again and again. Exactly! But that's also because in Denmark, for example, I would never be able to fill an arena! This is the career that I have. I can fill a big venue in Munich and the one in Cologne is much smaller. When we select the locations in which we play, this automatically brings me to specific locations. As the artist that I am, it is more important to me that I have some form of presence in many countries than a major one in only a few countries. I want to play in as many places as possible and also have the opportunity to return to as many as possible. That's what I do! I don't say, get me a specific venue, and if we sold enough tickets, I come. This helps if you make the music that I make and have a career like mine. That's the thing with this strange alternative-pop thing, it runs in a zigzag pattern (laughs). We chat a little. Among other things about the fact that my daughter, when she was only 1 ½ years old went through a phase in which she was fully possessed of Mika's debut album "Life In Cartoon Motion". And I tell him that I would find it nice if he simply goes on like he is, so that my newly born son also has the opportunity to grow up with his music. In the end, we stand up together and Mika brings me to the door. Just before we say goodbye, he pauses for a moment. "This is really a nice compliment. Continue, so that your children can grow up to my music. " We shake hands and I take the elevator down, a smile on my lips. Sometimes Mika accomplishes things like that completely without balloons and confetti. Interview: Gabi Rudolph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokesignal Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Thank you mellody! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Just before we say goodbye, he pauses for a moment. "This is really a nice compliment. Continue, so that your children can grow up to my music. " We shake hands and I take the elevator down, a smile on my lips. Sometimes Mika accomplishes things like that completely without balloons and confetti. That is a lovely compliment. Many of the best Mika interviews are written/given by people who really like him or click with him immediately. Thanks for the translation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathouzouf Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 Thanks for taking the time to translate, it was very interesting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louiza Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 Thanks for translating Karin:flowers2: "But I also fight. If I feel someone takes the piss out of me, I walk into a room and shout. This is my life, I have to fight." It feels great reading something like this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaito Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 Would be great if you would get the original. It's an interesting interview so far - mostly because the interviewer clearly likes him and creates a very comfortable atmosphere for him therefore. Indeed It's great he can sometimes be interviewed by people that really enjoy his music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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