Here for The Rage Monthly, MIKA opens up about his “coming out” process, talks
aboutNo Place in Heaven, while also offering thoughts on his childhood and where his music will take him next. He shares these views in a genuine, reflective and intelligent way. If there is one man who could provide an answer to, “Where have all the good/gay guys gone?” as he sings in his latest hit, “Good Guys,” Mika is living proof of being a modern gay role model. Thank you so much for taking the time. Oh, it’s a pleasure. I haven’t really slept for twenty-four hours but I’m really happy
to have the opportunity to do this. So, thank you. You bet. When you look back at your childhood and teenage years, what effect or influence did this have on the musical sensibility of your work? 100 percent of it was formative in the kinds of music I make and the reason why
I make that music. I always felt a little on the outside, looking in. I was often the re- cipient, especially in school, of a lot of negative energy. Instead, I processed that as my form of revenge. My form of procuring power was by writing songs or by hav- ing delusions of grandeur. Those delusions of grandeur manifested themselves in songs that made me bigger than life—songs in that moment where I was actually powerful and that my voice had a reason. The thing that gave me the feeling of justification, for those who didn’t under-
stand, was melody. If you look at it, a lot of people who are outsiders who make pop music…. pop music is overwhelmingly melodic. That is why. No Place in Heaven is not only musically invigorating, but it’s intellectually stimulating. As a songwriter, how do you find that balance? First, thank you. One thing that never gets boring is telling stories. It’s easy to
say, you want to make a singer/songwriter album, but what’s that mean? I found that I wanted to make a storyteller’s album. I wanted it to feel like it was made in a bubble. When you read a book, you have a beginning, middle, an end and you enter that person’s world. Right? Then, as soon as it’s over, you kind of miss it. When you listen to pop albums today, a lot of times, sometimes you step into it
but don’t feel like you’re going from one song to the next. A lot of the time, they’re written by different people and produced by different people. I wanted to make a pop album that really told a story, the same way that pop albums from the 1970s did. It’s a second intimate diary for that hour the album lasts. You’re really going into someone’s head. That’s the kind of “pop” I wanted to make on this record. I made sure that the lyrics, the stories and the melodies were the most important… far more than the instrumentation. I think the most stunning song is “Ordinary Man.” Lyrically and compositionally, it’s one of the most beautiful songs you’ve written. What is your personal reflection on writing this one? I think heartbreak provokes strongly the most honestly, beautiful songs. I think
that the reason for that is, when you’re heartbroken, you feel completely worth- less. And so, what do you do when you feel worthless? You protect yourself and you write songs in order to make yourself feel better, in order to establish a sense of worth again. What I love is, how it’s like an emperor whose been punched in the stomach, it’s like a little prince whose been forced to come down to earth. On the one hand, it’s touching and beautiful and whenever anyone has ever
been heartbroken, they can relate to it. On the other hand, it’s really pompous in the most delicious, fairy-tale way. It’s like this little prince who’s been bruised and licking his wounds. He just hates the fact that he’s normal! I think that’s the perfect way to describe being dumped or being heartbroken. Feeling normal. Which is essentially, the one thing that every single one of us is terrified of feeling. I think as a song, I thought that this “age-old” sentiment and that mixture of really big, grand orchestration and grand opera-style melodies, with the normal and now, everyday action… opening a beer can, sitting with friends that you secretly hate, going to the toilet, making your bed… that combination. In a way is what gives it that Nat King Cole-kind of torch quality. That’s definitely what I was aiming for. I wanted this Nat King Cole torch quality, but with banality.
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