Mika in Belgian Press 2 - 2009

[Sabine64]

Thank you for the translation - there are some lines I cannot repeat to read often enough. So that he need us, the audience for his new songs as the choir and that this singing sounds very great to him. I can imagine the sparkling in his eyes and his joy when he will hear us !!

 

You mean the same face like in your sigi

[Ruth]

Translation (or a start anyway ). I'm very bad btw .. so I just hope you understand what it's about Some parts are no literally translation, and some parts are too literally .. It's just too difficult

 

 

 

Worldstar in one fingerknip (? ), style icon in the next: in no time the Libanese-Britisch Mika has grown to a phenomenon. During an evening in Brussels it turns out that the idol is a regular boy: proud on what's ready, a little scared for what's ahead. "Playing in stadiums? It does not bear thinking of. " (?)

 

 

Let's rule out a mythe: journalists rarely get the opportunity to color outside the drawed lines. A lot of celebrities seem to be nice talkingpartners, but with endless interviewsessions they can't help it: the eyes start to get glazy, they give answers to questions that are not even asked .. The bigger the star, how longer the promotours, how more measured the reacions. Polite, usually. Banal, too much ...

Most of them stay there. Not Mika. The young man from Libanon that moved to London, because worldstar in one fingerknip in february 2007. His album Life In Cartoon Motion found 5 million buyers, songs like Relax, Grace Kelly, Big Girls, Love Today and Lollipop made Mike the most irresistible popsensation of the 21st century.

Over 2 years later Mika has a new mini-album. The cd follows in september. Time for interviews? No: Mika called his recordcompany, made them set op presentationdays in the European capitals, including hearingsession and dinner. So we find ourselfs in the good company of a talented, enthusiastic, charming and handsome worldstar.Before you ask: Mika looks more straight from man to man than on stage, where his shows have the allure of a musical gayparade. Also in his outfit the 25 year old is inconspicuous: he wears a dark shirt, a regular jeans and white Converse-shoes. The colorcircus for wich the artist loans from designers like Paul Smith is far away.

 

 

Oh I love these parts

 

I was going but I noticed this.

 

Our evening starts in the Brussels ICP-studio. Here he wants to let hear his new songs. "For these songs I've locked myself up since last summer", he'll tell us a little later during the aperitif. "This is the first time I'm getting between people again, it's strange. You look a little terrifying, man." He looks relieved that the hard work and difficult choices are mostly done. The past year he wrote 45 songs, from where 16 are finished. "I felt great in the studio. This time we added more layers, and removed half of them later one. When I know a song is ready? If I start moving along without asking myself questions."

We are a fan of the previous one Life In Cartoon Motion, and expect a lot of this session. "It's going to be a bomb", recordboss Patrick Busschots tells us. He says that with every cd-presentation, but now he's right.

Mika says his second album is a sequel to LICM. "That was an album about my childhood, this one's about my teener years." A few more months and you'll know the melody behind titles like Blame it on the girls and Rain. I see you is about "loving someone, but don't have the nerve to talk to that person". In Touches You the love becomes obessive. In We are golden teens scream their feeling of self esteem: "We are not what you think we are/We are golen". "It's my version of being young. The joy, but also all contradictions that come around the corner", Mika says.

Some songs were originally intented to be on the EP Songs for Sorrow, that's now available to buy as download. One of them is Toy Boy wich is about an older boy that throws away his doll. Later on his mother uses that doll as a voodoo-picture for the boy's father. "These are dark fairytales", Mika explaines. "You do recognize that fairytales suddenly seems to have cruel, vicious sides when you get older?". But the songs don't sound discouraged. "That's because in my family there are many Libanese woman. For them, sadness and laugh go hand in hand. Through the backdoor the joyfulness always enters."

Some new songs are full of little choirs. "Wonderful, isn't it? The fun part is that I don't have to take them on tour. The audience takes over their role. From on stage it sounds fantastic."

 

And this We do We do!!!!

[Moonlightchild]

Thank you Bienie,

Thanks to you I have the paper too.

I you hadn't post it, I would never knew it existed

[Moonlightchild]

It's in "Het belang van Limburg" and also in "Gazet van Antwerpen". Enjoy! I bought the newspaper myself a couple of minutes ago. I'm gonna read it know...

Thank you Katrien.

I asked Bienie about it in the dutch thread.She told me it was in "Het belang van limburg" but I didn't know it was in "gazet van Antwerpen" too

otherwise I had bought that one because I had to go to 3 bookstores for Belang.v.l.

It was sold out and there still where Gazetten van antwerpen.

If I only had waited a little more so I had seen your post here.

But i'm happy I have it and I'm happy because now I know Mika likes Westmalle beer.

I bought that one for him at Vorst national and I was afraid he wouldn't like it:naughty:

Since today I know it's his favorite,I'm happy like a little child now.

[guylainem123]

thank you for posting bienie!

and for the translation!

[sparkly1]

T4P Beinie, fabulous to read and thank you for the translation, it was huge and you did a great job (cos I would never be abloe to transalte a single thing) much appreciated :thumb_yello:especially this part/SIZE]

Some new songs are full of little choirs. "Wonderful, isn't it? The fun part is that I don't have to take them on tour. The audience takes over their role. From on stage it sounds fantastic."/QUOTE]

 

That makes me feel so much better about singing along to his songs now, and it's great to know he acctually DOES like us to

[Louiza]

thanks so much bienie for both the article and the translation

 

cant wait to read the rest of the translation

[Oakie Doke]

I love seeking out obscure reasons to not study.

 

It's striking how confident this 25-year-old sounds. It's almost unbelievable that his first album only appeared in 2007. Over the following packed-out years Mika was pulled from promos to concerts. Until it became too much. The cancelled concert at Rock Werchter 2007 was a result of the pressure, "I was all used up."

This time he is building in some buffers, like this strange presentation-tour. "The alternative is: endless interview days with always the same questions. Sometimes it's like the scenario is written out beforehand. What's the use?"

 

A bit later we're dining in a Brussels restaurant with Mika and his sister Yasmine, as smooth and charming as her brother and also part of the - if they exist - club of Natalie Portman-look-a-likes. "One day Mika came up with the idea for these promo-tours. 'Make it happen', he said to the record company." She laughs. "Some didn't know what to do with this question, because it's so different..."

 

Yasmine plays a part in the story of Mika. She works under the pseudonym DaWack as a graphic artist, and was responsible for the colourful cover of Mika's debut album. This time she proudly shows a folder full of proof-works. They are artworks from artists, designers and cartoonists that are now bundled in an art book with the EP Songs for Sorrow.

"I began personally ringing and emailing them all", Mika tells us an hour earlier. "Some didn't believe it was me, or had never heard of me." The question was the same for everyone: let yourself be inspired by the lyrics in this EP. "Walter Van Beirendonck immediately said yes, because it was the first time he'd done something like this. Meanwhile (?) I was allowed to borrow clothes out of his archives and he asked me to write a bit for a book about him."

Yasmine shows us the work by Van Beirendonck, a collage with a self protrait of the Antwerper hidden within it. The drawing from another artist is worrying: Two children walking next to a tree with a noose hanging from it. Yasmine laughs. "In the first version the two children were standing under that rope looking up, and there were no monkeys jumping around in the branches yet. Mika asked the artist to make it a bit less dark."

 

 

Umm, yeah that'll do for now

[Oakie Doke]

OMFG!!!!

 

Why did I choose to stop there? *is in love*

 

Like 2 paragraphs further on...

 

We are eating meat, Mika fish. "A long time ago I became vegetarian, after I saw a TV program about the handling of slaughter. But there was a time where I began to feel too tired, and since then I eat meat every now and then. My mother couldn't laugh over it at first. 'And by me you eat no meat!' (??) was her reaction. While she's such a good cook."

 

 

Okay, so I think I don't understand that quote from his mother properly, but awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:fangurl: :fangurl:

If he had a properly balanced vegetarian diet he shouldn't feel tired no matter how ridiculous a schedule he has, but that he tries is lovely, it's the thought that counts :cheerful_h4h:

*loves mika*

*rushes off to order his ep*

[Guest]

I love seeking out obscure reasons to not study.

 

It's striking how confident this 25-year-old sounds. It's almost unbelievable that his first album only appeared in 2007. Over the following packed-out years Mika was pulled from promos to concerts. Until it became too much. The cancelled concert at Rock Werchter 2007 was a result of the pressure, "I was all used up."

This time he is building in some buffers, like this strange presentation-tour. "The alternative is: endless interview days with always the same questions. Sometimes it's like the scenario is written out beforehand. What's the use?"

 

A bit later we're dining in a Brussels restaurant with Mika and his sister Yasmine, as smooth and charming as her brother and also part of the - if they exist - club of Natalie Portman-look-a-likes. "One day Mika came up with the idea for these promo-tours. 'Make it happen', he said to the record company." She laughs. "Some didn't know what to do with this question, because it's so different..."

 

Yasmine plays a part in the story of Mika. She works under the pseudonym DaWack as a graphic artist, and was responsible for the colourful cover of Mika's debut album. This time she proudly shows a folder full of proof-works. They are artworks from artists, designers and cartoonists that are now bundled in an art book with the EP Songs for Sorrow.

"I began personally ringing and emailing them all", Mika tells us an hour earlier. "Some didn't believe it was me, or had never heard of me." The question was the same for everyone: let yourself be inspired by the lyrics in this EP. "Walter Van Beirendonck immediately said yes, because it was the first time he'd done something like this. Meanwhile (?) I was allowed to borrow clothes out of his archives and he asked me to write a bit for a book about him."

Yasmine shows us the work by Van Beirendonck, a collage with a self protrait of the Antwerper hidden within it. The drawing from another artist is worrying: Two children walking next to a tree with a noose hanging from it. Yasmine laughs. "In the first version the two children were standing under that rope looking up, and there were no monkeys jumping around in the branches yet. Mika asked the artist to make it a bit less dark."

 

 

Umm, yeah that'll do for now

 

Thanks

I'll put it in the first post

[Marilyn Mastin]

That's a great article! Loved it! Loved also the part where he mentions his fans becoming his choir at the concerts!

[natmika]

Lovely article! And thank you girls for translating it.

And for a guy that claims to hate fish, he certainly eats a lot of it.

[Louiza]

I love seeking out obscure reasons to not study.

 

It's striking how confident this 25-year-old sounds. It's almost unbelievable that his first album only appeared in 2007. Over the following packed-out years Mika was pulled from promos to concerts. Until it became too much. The cancelled concert at Rock Werchter 2007 was a result of the pressure, "I was all used up."

This time he is building in some buffers, like this strange presentation-tour. "The alternative is: endless interview days with always the same questions. Sometimes it's like the scenario is written out beforehand. What's the use?"

 

A bit later we're dining in a Brussels restaurant with Mika and his sister Yasmine, as smooth and charming as her brother and also part of the - if they exist - club of Natalie Portman-look-a-likes. "One day Mika came up with the idea for these promo-tours. 'Make it happen', he said to the record company." She laughs. "Some didn't know what to do with this question, because it's so different..."

 

Yasmine plays a part in the story of Mika. She works under the pseudonym DaWack as a graphic artist, and was responsible for the colourful cover of Mika's debut album. This time she proudly shows a folder full of proof-works. They are artworks from artists, designers and cartoonists that are now bundled in an art book with the EP Songs for Sorrow.

"I began personally ringing and emailing them all", Mika tells us an hour earlier. "Some didn't believe it was me, or had never heard of me." The question was the same for everyone: let yourself be inspired by the lyrics in this EP. "Walter Van Beirendonck immediately said yes, because it was the first time he'd done something like this. Meanwhile (?) I was allowed to borrow clothes out of his archives and he asked me to write a bit for a book about him."

Yasmine shows us the work by Van Beirendonck, a collage with a self protrait of the Antwerper hidden within it. The drawing from another artist is worrying: Two children walking next to a tree with a noose hanging from it. Yasmine laughs. "In the first version the two children were standing under that rope looking up, and there were no monkeys jumping around in the branches yet. Mika asked the artist to make it a bit less dark."

 

 

Umm, yeah that'll do for now

 

thanks for translating:thumb_yello:

 

love this article especially the parts where he's talking about the fans being a choir at the gigs, how he asked all these artists to work for the EP book and how he tried to become vegetarian

[Starrats]

that is one big article

 

thanks for posting

[Soaring Simpson]

I guess Belgium is now officially the coolest country on earth? Lovely article.

 

Is "fingerknip" "a snap of his fingers" in English?

[Guest]

I guess Belgium is now officially the coolest country on earth? Lovely article.

 

Is "fingerknip" "a snap of his fingers" in English?

 

Is it?

 

Yes That's it. I couldn't find how to translate it ..

[keti]

Is anyone of the people who've got the article willing to scan it and send it to me?

[Axie Dentelle]

thanks for translating:thumb_yello:

 

love this article especially the parts where he's talking about the fans being a choir at the gigs, how he asked all these artists to work for the EP book and how he tried to become vegetarian

 

Great article!

But where's the part where he says he tried to be vegetarian?

[Guest]

Is anyone of the people who've got the article willing to scan it and send it to me?

 

I can't ... no scanner ..

 

Great article!

But where's the part where he says he tried to be vegetarian?

 

Not yet translated

[Droopsy]

Finally had the time to read it all. Lovely article

[Louiza]

Great article!

But where's the part where he says he tried to be vegetarian?

 

oakie doke translated this part too

 

 

We are eating meat, Mika fish. "A long time ago I became vegetarian, after I saw a TV program about the handling of slaughter. But there was a time where I began to feel too tired, and since then I eat meat every now and then. My mother couldn't laugh over it at first. 'And by me you eat no meat!' (??) was her reaction. While she's such a good cook."

 

[Sabine64]

I´m patently waiting for the next part to be translated. I hope it will happen, please. It is such a nice article....

[Guest]

A little bit later Yasmine admits she used to play the piano quite good. "But compared to the talent of Mika, my playing was nothing. He sings from the age of 7. First he followed an opera-education, but later on he decided to follow his passion in his own music."

So now Yasmine follows the path of her brother and works with him as a graphic designer. With another sister she also sorts out the right clothes for Mika. "We're all very interested in fashion.", Yasmine says. "Tomorrow we are visiting Antwerp, and my sister is very jealous. Of course she would love to come with us, shopping 'for work'. (laughs). Fashion is a passion for us all."

The main course comes and Mika & Yasmine switch places.

We are eating meat, Mika fish. "A long time ago I became vegetarian, after I saw a TV program about the handling of slaughter. But there was a time where I began to feel too tired, and since then I eat meat every now and then. My mother couldn't laugh over it at first. 'And by me you eat no meat!' (??) was her reaction. While she's such a good cook."

Family is important, that's clear from the start. "Our parents never told us we had to have succes. But the message was always that you had to do the best you could."

The off the record character of the meeting keeps off the pressure. When Mika notices that one of the journalists has a recorder he reacts cramped (?). "Oh my God!" Just at that moment the conversation had become sinister/playful, from the question: "What whould it do for your career if you would walk under a bus now?" Mika reacted that a tram looked like a better idea, because the Spanish architect Gaudi died that way. And then he noticed the recorder. He's not mad, but he's happy when they press on the off-button.

 

 

 

More to come ..

[Guest]

"There's a lot of pressure", he admits. "Last summer, after the final gig, I suddenly realised: there's nothing anymore! I withdrawed and started writing without thinking about big things too much. The EP with artbook took the pressure away: I wanted to do something first where the commercial part played no role. There gonna be 10.000 copies sold for 15 euros, barely enough to cover the costs."

The conversation comes to the music of Mikas colleagues. He confesses that he picks up a lot of music from the internet, but claims that he's also a big record buyer. "I have everything from Rufus Wainwright from the net, and after that I've bought all his records. Also as a gift for others." Together we talk about the quality of the Pet Shop Boys and Fleet Foxes. He asks wich new cd we recommend. The Green Day one, we answer. "Is it that good? I can't wait!"

We doubt if this boy lets his taste controlled by tips from the press. Didn't the album LICM give evidence of an healthy "piss off"-attitude? "And still I'm always spared by the English press, untill now. There haven't been a real back-firing yet, like you see it sometimes with other artists. But I've had a tast of it. In an English newspaper I got a 5-star review the first time, a little bit later - when I had succes already - a review with 1 star. The first time something like that happens you don't understand much of it. But now I can deal with it a lot better."

Maybe Mika can, with his second album almost ready, finally make some work of finding a own place? He lives in London now, but doesn't have a place of his own. "My stuff is stuffed together in boxes and cupboards. I'm home rarely, but now I want to search a little place of my own in Paris and London, ánd a third place."

But the only place attract at the moment is his bed in a glamorous Brussels hotel. Mika looks at his watch and shouts out: "My God, it's midnight. That late already! Once I'm tired I can't hide it." For a moment he gets in the temptation: maybe there can still be a visit to a nightclub? "But do people go dancing in Brussels on a wednesday-night?" A little bit later the cab-driver takes away the last doubt and Mika says goodbye. "See you". "Hope so."

Edited May 27, 2009 by Guest

[Guest]

Hmm, I can't put it in the first post anymore .. too much text ..

And now?

 

There's still a little part left ...