Interview with Lebanese-Brit, Mika

posted on: May 21, 2015

Ahead of his intimate gig at the Vine Centre, Liz Tung catches up with platinum-selling artist Mika to hear about his new album and the Lebanese-Brit’s proud lack of national identity

Singer-songwriter Mika is nothing if not a man who bucks expectations – a teen heartthrob whose idols range from Grace Kelly to Ernest Hemingway. A Lebanese-Brit who was born in Beirut, raised in France and came of age in the UK. An artist trained in classical music, who’s most famous for a love song about sucking on lollipops. Ahead of Mika’s upcoming show at the Vine Centre, we try to unwind some of these contradictions with a chat about his upcoming album, his favourite style icons and how to solve the problem of placelessness…

In June you’re releasing your fourth album, No Place in Heaven. How was the process of putting it together? 
It was very intense. I was working out of a large expensive studio when I suddenly realised that trying to create something intimate in such a big setting just didn’t make sense. So I left the studio and set up a recording space in the living room of the house I was renting, and we wrote and recorded most of the album there. That changed everything because it felt literally homemade – and you can hear that. The palette is quite restricted, so with every song you can hear what the ingredients are. I wanted it to feel like it could have been done 10 years ago or in 10 years’ time, and to have that kind of timeless songwriting pop feel – so it sounds like a songwriter’s album, but it’s pop music and it’s melodic. 

You have an interesting sense of style – who would you say are your style icons?
For me the most important people in style are what in French you call the enfants terrible – so like Schiaparelli, Jean Cocteau, Picasso, Hemingway. I mean, all these people were part of the same clan in Europe at the same time, and they revolutionised the style industry from music to art to fashion. I think that little kind of devilish playful quality – that combination of being really intellectual or wised-up, but also very naive, candid and playful – that is when magic things can happen.

Source: www.timeout.com.hk