Mika: “Prince and David Bowie have had many colors and many different ways of expressing themselves. That fascinates me” | LOS40 Classic

For more than 15 years Mike conquered our hearts with the multicolored universe of his first album Life in Cartoon Motion. That makes him an intergenerational musician, a classical. But far from settling for the number 1 of that album, he has continued his path full of albums, songs, soundtracks, symphonic concerts and festivals. The last album, in French, dedicated to his mother, who recently died. We talked about all this and much more with the British musician of Lebanese origin while he prepares the details of the concerts he will give this summer. Among them the cycle Barcelona Nights, July 17.

Bruno: Hi Mika, we’ve finally managed to find a space in your schedule!

Mike: Yes, I’m busy finalizing the details of my performances at the summer festivals. Many open fronts!

B: I’m Bruno, from LOS40 Classic, thank you very much for granting us an interview. I’m going to speak to you in English, but I know you speak Spanish.

M: No! How do you know that?

B: I’ve heard you before. Come on, tell us something in Spanish!

M: ‘Hello, I’m Mika and I listen to LOS40 Classic’

B: Wonderful! Last year you already came to several Spanish festivals…

M: Yes, in Madrid, Cap Roig, A Coruña… It is fascinating how different one region is from another. The different reactions of the public. It is an incredibly diverse country and that to me is very fun.

B: And more this summer! We know that you return to Galicia and Catalonia. On July 17 at the Nits de Pedralbes, Barcelona, ​​what can we expect from your show?

M: I’m planning to bring part of the show that I couldn’t bring to Spain. It is a very nice video and light show. I come from different musical styles, classical music, opera, and I also love electronic music. So what comes out when I write is that alternative pop that characterizes me. And that mix is ​​what I take to the stage to create a small world for two hours so that people can enter it.

B: How many languages ​​do you speak?

M: I speak English, French, Italian, a little bit of Spanish, I love speaking it! I have studied Chinese for 9 years! but I can’t speak it [ríe].

B: And some Arabic, right? Having been born in Beirut.

M: A bit.

B: Your latest album is entirely in French. Congratulations for C’est la Viegreat song!

M: Thank you. She really wanted to record an album in French. I know it wasn’t a very commercial decision because it could only work in one or two markets. But I think it’s important to make strange decisions and follow your heart. Because it makes you feel like it’s something new. Now I’m working on my new album, in English, and it feels different. New. It has made me regain freshness now that I am composing in English again.

B: And will you write any album or song in Spanish?

M: I don’t know. But what I am clear about is that if you sing in a language the reasons have to be truly honest. If they are, then you can sound credible. There is nothing worse than an American or British singer singing in Spanish just because he wants to reach the Hispanic market. If you do it, make it real. If not, it sounds strange. So, if I have the right collaborators, if it’s the right time in my life and if I can truly speak better Spanish, then maybe.

B: You must be quite a perfectionist, right?

M: I try to make things I can be proud of in 10 or 40 years. It doesn’t matter if it is a super commercial success or not. What I want is for it to be of quality, poetic, magical.

B: Not long ago you opened the Eurovision Song Contest from Italy performing before a bigger audience than the Super Bowl. How was that?

M: It was very big. It’s the first word that comes to mind. It is a great machine. The preparation was very difficult. Write the script, don’t sound corporate, don’t bore. Of course, the important thing is the music of the representatives of each country, but also the feeling that the presentation conveys to you. We wanted to sound poetic and somewhat eccentric. Glamorous and colorful. It gave us a lot of work but in the end it was a lot of fun.

B: If they asked you, would you represent any country in Eurovision?

M: I don’t know. There are a lot of young performers who can go to Eurovision to be discovered by the whole world. It’s incredible, you can have 15 thousand followers on Instagram and the day after the Eurovision final, if it goes well, your single will be playing in 25 countries. For that, Eurovision is incredible.

B: And you’re already a pop star so you don’t need it…

M: It’s not about whether you need it or not, it’s more of a sense of urgency. When you see Nemo In full performance you feel “Wow! That can only be happening here and now, in front of millions of viewers, how cool!”

B: In LOS40 Classic we play #1 as Grace Kelly either Relax, Take it Easy. What has changed about Mika since that debut album, Life in Cartoon Motion?

M: I’m very lucky because I’m still essentially that person. I wrote that album in my room and in the living room of my apartment. It wasn’t a team-created record for me. So I feel grateful that I don’t have to fight a different version of who I am, or a different vision. So I’ve been able to evolve from that album, write new things, record symphonic albums, compose soundtracks, make an album in French, return to more electronic pop in English, but always staying true to myself. When you see me on stage is when everything makes sense.

B: After the soundtrack you composed for Zodi et Tehu: Frères du Désert with 160 musicians from all over the world including Berber musicians from Morocco and your symphonic experiences with the Paris Philharmonic or the Quebec Symphony Orchestra. Are you thinking of repeating something like this?

M: Right now I am finishing preparing a huge symphonic concert that I will perform in a Roman amphitheater in France. But the next project is my new joy-filled alternative pop English album that I’m composing on the piano.

B: So, your new album is a return to your origins and the sound of your debut album.

M: It’s the desire to see that if a song sounds good on the piano, then it will work with the entire production and in concert with the band. And yes, I also worked on the songs from my first album. After having sung in French and with more than 150 musicians you feel like doing the opposite. And that is returning to English sitting at the piano.

B: Tell us about your favorite Classics. Maybe Freddie Mercury?

M: Well, actually I’ve been more influenced by Prince. When I was 13 years old I was obsessed with him and his way of playing the guitar, the keyboards, how he danced, his melodies, the extraterrestrial image he had. I was fascinated by the feeling he conveyed of fun and danger at the same time. The same could be said about David Bowie and his extreme poetry. Sometimes so punk and hardcore and sometimes so tender, colorful, pop, soft and happy. They are musicians who have had many colors and many different ways of expressing themselves. I love that.

B: Do you know or like any song or artist from Spain?

M: I have a playlist that I wake up to that I change every few months and for the past four weeks I’ve been waking up to Mediterranean by Serrat, it’s very Classic I know, super vintage, and I don’t know why but I’m obsessed with it, it’s so pretty!

B: We click Mediterranean of Joan Manuel Serrat in LOS40 Classic. Who we haven’t included yet is Rosalía, do you like her?

M:Yeah! And I love that in recent years linguistic barriers have been broken down to make today’s music. Being able to do not only reggaeton in Spanish and sound in France, in the United Kingdom and around the world is something very powerful.

B: I would like to congratulate you for I love Beirutthe benefit concert you organized for the victims of the 2020 Lebanese capital explosion.

M: It was an initiative that tried to bring the human dimension to a tragedy and we did it with a lot of love, taking care of the detail, the script, the performances. It was a concert, but also theater, interviews, like a television program. And we wanted to make it intimate and exciting. It was during the pandemic and confinement so we couldn’t fill a stadium. The challenge was to create excitement from an empty theater and for people to watch us from home on their computers. With all the horrible news about things happening in the world, especially now, we end up becoming numb to numbers. Victims seem like just numbers and statistics when in reality their experience is terrible. So the challenge was, despite being far away, to connect with the real dimension of the victims and even if only for a moment to reconnect with their stories in a human way and from the heart.

B: How are you experiencing the current crisis in the Middle East?

M: It’s awful. Extremely sad. And infuriating. I am half Lebanese, there was 25 years of civil war there. Division, separation, hatred, suffering, death. For what? It’s hard for me to express it but what has all this suffering, so much loss and death been for? When will it stop? When will we realize? It is a horrible and very complicated situation. I am very sad for the tens of thousands of people who are having such a hard time and suffering so much.

B: Let’s hope that music does something to relieve the pain.

M: I think that music doesn’t fix anything and that musicians don’t solve anything, music is always there. What would be truly sad would be a world without music, it is clear that music directly affects our mood, all over the world.

B: I feel like some radio stations like LOS40 Classic and some musicians like you are like shamans of sound with the power to spread joy through music.

M: If happiness comes from a true place it is very powerful. And he would add that you shouldn’t be afraid to mix happiness and sadness in a concert, it gives the experience more meaning. There is a moment in each concert, although it does not happen in all of them, that you hear the voice of that woman whose house was destroyed by a bomb, she lost an eye and her husband, her life was destroyed and she had to start over, in another place, as a refugee, and then I sing the song Any Other World. That’s close to another song titled We are golden that remembers the value you have. and then it comes Love Today, which seems like a happy song but it has an undertone. And that’s what I try to do, share a happiness, which at the same time is profound.

B: Well Mika, or do you prefer that we call you Michael Holbrook?

M: No, they’ve called me Mika since I was born, that’s fine.

B: Then we can conclude the healing process of your disk My Name is Michael Holbrook?

M: Yes, especially after my last album in French dedicated to my mother who died recently. Without a doubt I had to go through grief and I am lucky to have been able to experience it through music and publicly. It helps me move forward.

B: Happy to know that you are well and looking forward to seeing you in concert on July 17 in Barcelona. Thank you very much Mika!

M: A pleasure. See you soon!