MIKA On Being Tormented by His Teacher & Finding Safety in Music

Summary

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Great Company with Jamie Laing

Episode: MIKA On Being Tormented by His Teacher & Finding Safety in Music

January 14, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this moving and candid episode of Great Company, Jamie Laing welcomes platinum-selling pop artist MIKA for a conversation that dives deep into topics of resilience, vulnerability, family bonds, the power of music as sanctuary, and embracing life’s chaos. MIKA shares, often with humor and raw honesty, stories of childhood trauma, his extraordinary mother’s influence, overcoming public and private embarrassment, and the path to self-acceptance as a gay artist. The episode is rich with powerful anecdotes, memorable quotes, and essential insights into creativity, identity, and healing.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins, Family Trauma, and Early Embarrassment

• MIKA recounts being raised in Beirut during civil war, the family’s escape, and his father’s eight-month ordeal as a hostage.
• The family’s displacement led to poverty, loss, and adjusting to new lives in France and the UK.
• His mother, an artist and creative force, responded to hardship with music and art, fostering resilience in her children:
  • "She responded to life with music, with art, with color. And when you have that, that is an enormous luxury." — MIKA (25:42)

Timestamps:

• [18:16] MIKA discusses parents’ encouragement of music and storytelling.
• [19:20] MIKA details his father’s hostage experience.
• [22:12] Adapting to the UK, dyslexia, and tough school experiences.

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2. School Trauma & Music as Safe Harbor

• MIKA describes severe bullying and abuse by a teacher in his UK school, leading to emotional shut-down, withdrawal, and being expelled.
• Music, especially the piano, becomes MIKA’s escape, solace, and core of identity:
  • "Music was my escape hatch from fear. The piano became my safest place." — Jamie Laing quoting MIKA (45:00)
  • "It became like a hug, but a hug that went inside." — MIKA (53:21)
• His mother pulls him from school and arranges for four to five hours of daily music study, with a Russian teacher who recognizes his unique learning style ([23:27], [23:54]).

Notable Segment:

• [50:34] MIKA describes the public humiliation by a teacher, and the saga culminating in his father confronting the school.

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3. Embracing Embarrassment & the Art of Hustle

• MIKA and Jamie discuss the formative power of embarrassment in building character and creative courage.
  • "Every single thing that was important in my life was associated to embarrassment." — MIKA (09:45)
  • "Overcoming embarrassment is important." — MIKA (11:06)
• Anecdotes include MIKA’s mother making him “hustle” by cold-calling at record companies as a child and gatecrashing industry parties:
  • "She made me gatecrash Diana Ross's Christmas party and I sang to Shaka Khan." — MIKA (36:29)

Timestamps:

• [11:06] Embracing embarrassment as growth.
• [13:23] Weekly trips to Warner Music at age 12.
• [35:36] Stories of gatecrashing label exec parties.

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4. The Mother–Son Bond

• MIKA reflects on his mother’s pivotal role in his artistry and emotional survival. Their relationship was both creative partnership and deep friendship.
  • "We were collaborators and friends. And then she was also my mom." — MIKA (27:26)
  • "When I lost my mother, it felt like losing my compass." — Jamie Laing quoting MIKA (27:46)
• MIKA finds peace in knowing he shared his journey and success with her.
• On grief and resilience:
  • "It gets better. It just takes time." — MIKA (29:15)

Timestamps:

• [26:07] Jamie observes MIKA’s body language when speaking of his mother.
• [27:14] MIKA on fulfilling his mother’s dreams.

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5. Finding An Authentic Voice: Sexuality & Pop Stardom

• MIKA recounts being told he was “too weird, too colorful” for the mainstream, prompting him to embrace his identity all the more:
  • "Fine, I'll be whoever I want." — MIKA (39:30)
• He describes negotiating his sexuality publicly, weaving it into his music from the start, and attending queer clubs as a teen:
  • "Thank God we've moved on. Thank God. Yeah. I was never embarrassed about my sexuality." — MIKA (41:04)
• The importance of alternative pop as a vessel for truth and joy.

Notable Segment:

• [40:24] Jamie on the record company’s reaction to MIKA’s persona.
• [42:17] The euphoria of queer club culture as formative for live performance.

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6. Resilience, Chaos, and Self-Acceptance

• MIKA and Jamie celebrate the necessity of chaos for creativity and love:
  • "Chaos is great. Chaos is really important. We should do a whole other episode on that." — MIKA (63:02)
• The pair riff on standing out versus fitting in, the importance of not conforming, and the long process of becoming comfortable as an outsider.
• On survival:
  • "I'm like a cockroach. Survive nuclear attack. I really can. I'm cockroach." — MIKA (66:50)

Timestamps:

• [62:00] Both discuss the beauty and role of chaos.
• [66:50] MIKA’s favorite trait: “stubborn resilience.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Music as Sanctuary
  • "I would literally put my head in between the two speakers, put music on and put it as loud as possible... Just to feel. Yeah. Something." — MIKA (52:43)
• On Bullying and Outsider Status
  • "Making me stand on my chair for hours in front of everyone. And if you had to go to the toilet, well, tough... public humiliation, bullying." — MIKA (50:34)
  • "You don't understand that this is wrong. You don't understand that it's not your fault. So I shut down." — MIKA (52:43)
• The Role of Embarrassment
  • "Embarrassment is an emotion we never explore and we should go out and make a fool of ourselves." — Jamie Laing (08:30)
  • "If you're not going to write about love, what are you going to write about? Might as well read the yellow pages." — MIKA (61:12)
• On Survival
  • "Restlessness. You know, throwing babies and bathwater out at the same time. That sort of thing... Without even realizing it." — MIKA on what scares him (63:44)
• On Legacy & Joy
  • “It’s fearlessly joyous. It’s joyful and joyous, and it. It takes no prisoners.” — MIKA on his new album (59:32)
• Favorite Self-Written Lyric
  • "As I wander, I listen to your words and play with them between my fingertips like embers on my chapstick lips..." — MIKA, from “Nicotine” (67:39)

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Highlighted Timestamps

• MIKA’s musical upbringing: [15:19], [17:43]
• Family trauma, father’s kidnapping: [18:16], [19:20]
• School struggles and bullying: [22:12], [50:34]
• Embarrassment and performing as a child: [09:44], [13:23]
• Mother’s encouragement, loss and legacy: [26:07], [27:46]
• Sexual identity & pressure as a pop star: [34:44], [40:24]
• Music as emotional refuge: [45:02], [53:21]
• Creative process and ‘chaos’: [62:47], [63:02]
• Rapid-fire questions & personal quirks: [61:34] onwards

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Closing Sentiments

Through honesty, humor, and vulnerability, MIKA’s story on Great Company is one of triumph over adversity, creative courage, and embracing messy, authentic living. Jamie Laing’s empathetic hosting draws out laughter and wisdom in equal measure, making this episode a must-listen for anyone seeking inspiration to face their own fears, embrace their weirdness, and find comfort in music, chaos, and community.

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Key takeaway:
"If you can lean into embarrassment, that will be a good thing." — Jamie Laing (69:10)

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Transcript

[Jamie Laing]

Coming up in this episode of Great Company.

[Mika]

You don't understand that this is wrong. You don't understand that it's not your fault. So I shut down. He's an idiot. He's stupid. It's a waste of space. Public humiliation, bullying. I would literally put my head in between the two speakers, put music on and put it as loud as possible.

[Jamie Laing]

What, to escape the.

[Mika]

Just to feel. Yeah. Something.

[Jamie Laing]

I mean, that's worse than bad.

[Mika]

I didn't realize that that was not normal. Hi, I'm Mica, and I'm in Great Company. Platinum selling pops to Mika. Mica.

[Jamie Laing]

Mica. Mica.

[Mika]

Every single thing that was important in my life is associated to embarrass me.

[Jamie Laing]

Get out of here.

[Mika]

My mother's obsession. Just try and get someone to sign me. She said, all right, now I'm gonna drive you in and we're gonna go to Warner Music and you're gonna get someone to listen to it. She made me gay. Crash Diana Ross's Christmas party and I sang to Shaka Khan.

[Jamie Laing]

What did that teach you?

[Mika]

I shouldn't even be saying this.

[Jamie Laing]

When you talk about your mum, your whole body opens up.

[Mika]

She was extraordinary. One thing that I'm so happy about is that I managed to take her on that journey that she always dreamt of.

[Jamie Laing]

You losing your mum must have been so tough.

[Mika]

Oh, it was so tough. You said.

[Jamie Laing]

You said, when I lost my mother, it felt like losing my compass.

[Mika]

I think we all kind of feel that at one point. Another. And if I don't have that compassion, what am I going to do now to make sure I'm going the right way?

[Jamie Laing]

You feel life changing in front of you, and it's quite a scary time. How did you know things were falling apart?

[Mika]

I was.

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[Jamie Laing]

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[Mika]

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[Jamie Laing]

Hello everyone, my name is Jamie Laing and this is Great Company. Hey guys, welcome back to Great Company. Now this episode today is going to absolutely blow your mind because we have the singer songwriter Mika on the show. Now, Mika and I first met, we met when we hosted the Attitude Awards together.

[Mika]

Right?

[Jamie Laing]

Now, if you know what the Attitude Awards are, you're probably wondering, why was I hosting it? Because Mika loved the podcast. He thought we'd make great hosts together, so invited me to go and do it. And I was really touched by that. And since then, we've become friends. Now, this episode is amazing because Mika is an amazing storyteller and his life is fascinating for so many reasons. He grew up in Beirut and his family had to leave because a civil war broke out. His father was held hostage. Yes, hostage. Okay. And his mum took the family away and had to bring them up by herself. Micah found music and he fell in love with music and that was kind of his escape. He called it a hug, which we'll find out all in the episode. Now, he's gone on to sell millions of albums, he was nominated for a Grammy, and so many of us have loved and listened and just fallen for everything that he's about. And this episode doesn't disappoint. Now, before we start, I just want to ask one favor, and that is if you could please subscribe to the show. Now, the reason that does so much for us is because this show is completely free and we want to keep it that way. You don't have to pay anything. And the reason we can keep it free is because you subscribe. So if you haven't subscribed, you just click that button and it does us wonders. It keeps us getting the guests that we want to get and keep making the show that we want to make for you guys. If you can do that. One thing. Thank you so much. Okay, Enjoy this incredible episode of Great Company with Mika.

[Mika]

Hi, I'm Mica, and I'm in Great company. Can we just talk about the fact that we met because, yes. My partner and I, who, you know, we listened to your podcast, so although I've not done many, hardly any, you know, you were very much present. And I also then very rudely announced to everybody and you that he listens also to your wife's podcast. But to fall asleep.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, to fall asleep. To fall asleep.

[Mika]

I have to wait. The amount of times I wake up in the middle of the night, and he's like, that, and your wife's vodka somewhere in the bed. And I'm just like, can I just shut her up? And I'm just like, literally. And he's just snoring and she's somewhere in the bed. We just get her to shut up.

[Jamie Laing]

You. You have done very few podcasts.

[Mika]

This is all new to me.

[Jamie Laing]

Why?

[Mika]

Why is it.

[Jamie Laing]

Why have you not done a podcast really, before?

[Mika]

I don't know. I don't. I'm not sure if I was. Well, I wasn't invited. Just as simple as that. I'd love to tell you there's some big kind of. I'm holding back. There's a whole media plan and strategy. No, it just wasn't really invited.

[Jamie Laing]

But do you find it easy? Because podcasts are quite like an intimate space. Right. So you have to, like. You have to be quite open about things, I suppose.

[Mika]

How's my body language? Yours is very open. Right.

[Jamie Laing]

Yours is closed.

[Mika]

My arms are crossed. No, I'm gonna open up. Okay. So how does this work?

[Jamie Laing]

I'm in that zone at the moment. I don't know what it is, but. But I'm. My emotions always here at the moment.

[Mika]

Right.

[Jamie Laing]

So one thing can just send me off. I can get emotional.

[Mika]

Do you know.

[Jamie Laing]

Do you remember when things make you. I don't know how you get this. When things make you upset, the emotion goes to your throat. That's where my emotion always goes. And I realized for so long that I always held my emotion there, so now I let it go past.

[Mika]

It's weird. It's so funny how different emotions go to different parts of your body. I mean, and that sounds way worse than what I was intending.

[Jamie Laing]

I know what you meant was.

[Mika]

What I meant was, you know, when it's anger. It's more the back of the neck.

[Jamie Laing]

So true.

[Mika]

Like, almost like a dog.

[Jamie Laing]

Yes.

[Mika]

Right. And when it's frustration, it's almost your chest.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah.

[Mika]

When it's fear, it's, you know, it's always somewhere else. But you're right. When it's. When it's kind of emotion in a positive sense.

[Jamie Laing]

Yes.

[Mika]

You do feel it.

[Jamie Laing]

And when it's. Yeah, and that is so true. It goes to different parts where I never thought of. And so when you feel. Yeah. Nervous anxiety, sort of. It is in the chest, but also that's excitement as well. Sometimes that I have, and sometimes I find it hard to.

[Mika]

And those old kind of adages, like butterflies in your stomach and stuff, those are real things. You do feel those butterflies.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah. I had a great quote the other day, which I'm going to absolutely murder. But it was something like someone said that embarrassment is an emotion we never explore and we should go out and make a fool of ourselves. And it's so true. We don't. Some emotions that.

[Mika]

To a friend of mine, two days ago, really. So she. She went on holiday and she's going through a bit of a life change at the moment. And she very clearly, on this holiday that she went to a Greek island somewhere and she's going to. I'm not going to say her name, but she's still going to kill me for talking about this. And she's a very good friend of mine. And she just stayed there for about four weeks and she spoke to me on the phone about how she got so embarrassed by some of her actions. She'd been such a serious job for 10 years. And then she just went out and. And let her hair down and she was feeling embarrassed about it. I was like, that's the whole point. That is exactly why you went on this trip. That's what you needed to do something to be embarrassed, to not think about the consequences, to recognize it, but also feel that it's a really good thing. You know, how many times have we been made by the things that were the most embarrassing in our adolescence? I mean, my life is made by fundamentally embarrassing moments throughout my entire life, even my adulthood.

[Jamie Laing]

Give me some examples. When.

[Mika]

Oh, gosh. Every single thing that was important in my life was associated to embarrassment. Get out of here. Of course. I mean, your first kiss, isn't that a moment of embarrassment as well? Afterwards?

[Jamie Laing]

Yikes.

[Mika]

You're crumbling inside.

[Jamie Laing]

I remember the first time I lost my virginity.

[Mika]

Embarrassment.

[Jamie Laing]

It was the most embarrassing thing.

[Mika]

Who in their right mind, anybody who says the first time I had sex. The first time I had sex, I was wonderful. It was just so great. I mean, I'm just perfect. That person is a psychopath, and you should be really afraid of that person.

[Jamie Laing]

The first time ever I ever tried to have sex, I didn't know what I was doing, honestly.

[Mika]

How old were you?

[Jamie Laing]

I think I was. I was quite young. I was about 15.

[Mika]

Okay, okay.

[Jamie Laing]

Well, that's illegal. But that's right. And it was someone who was 38. What?

[Mika]

What?

[Jamie Laing]

Imagine. No, but. But I remember I didn't know what I was doing, so I couldn't. I thought you just moved like a dance move on top.

[Mika]

Which. And how did you form this opinion? Well, I. Cause I.

[Jamie Laing]

Cause I didn't. You don't. I didn't get. You didn't get taught anything. I wasn't told anything. I didn't know what I was doing.

[Mika]

You know, when I saw the first season of Sex Education, I was just. The one thing I thought was, oh, gosh, these teenagers are really lucky.

[Jamie Laing]

Cause they know what they're doing.

[Mika]

Because this is up. You can actually watch stuff like this. You know, it's so strange. We had such a different exposure. We had a very Hollywood, like, exposure to sex and sex lives. I think the going back to embarrassment, embarrassment as something good is quite an extraordinary thing. So it's not just negative. For example, the, you know, overcoming embarrassment is important 100%. I was 12 years old. My mother used to make me. I would write songs at my. My white piano. And then my mother bought me a mini disc machine. I remember that right. And also I had lots of little Walkmans and stuff and a mini disc machine. And she was like, now if I bought you this mini disc machine, you have to make demos. So of course I went and I would record my songs on the mini disc machine. And then she'd say, all right, now we're going to put. Transfer that to tape. So I transferred to a cassette. And then she's like, now you're going to draw some nice, you know, write your name. M, I, C, A. Because that was my name. Yes, my real name. Well, my other real name. And she said, all right, now I'm going to drive you in the white Toyota Previa. And we're going to go to Warner Music off High Street. Ken, get out of here. We're going to park there and you're going to go in with your cassette and you're going to get someone to listen to it. I said, mom? She said, yeah. And so we would drive there. I always remember it was pouring with rain. It was like 3pm she had taken me out of school to do this. That was the exchange. I didn't have to go to school, but I had to go and sell my, my songs. Yeah. And I walk into the lobby of Warner Music. You're 12 years old. 12, 13. Yeah. And, and I have my, my little hand decorated, hand drawn M I C A songs. And I go up to the secretary at the reception desk and I knew that my mom was staring at me through the window. And I hustled and I had to hustle. And you know what? I was dying of embarrassment inside. And I knew I had no choice because I got that day off school and this is what I had to do in exchange.

[Jamie Laing]

That's amazing.

[Mika]

Do you know I worked my way up that building?

[Jamie Laing]

What do you mean?

[Mika]

They were so embarrassed by my embarrassment and they felt so bad that they let me in and they found someone to listen to me who was just like a runner in the A&R department on the first floor. Get out of here and slowly, slowly. And I went back every week.

[Jamie Laing]

You just kept going.

[Mika]

I kept on going.

[Jamie Laing]

But that is, but that is tenacity.

[Mika]

That is.

[Jamie Laing]

I think what happens is in life is that we see the end product, right? So what we do is we see the end product the whole time, which is where we watch someone finish, like do the a hundred meters and they, they get to the finish line or they see your success and they go, okay, I want to be there. They don't see the grind that it takes. They don't see that little boy, 12 years old, going into Warner Music or wherever it is, getting up to the reception, having all that embarrassment come over there. They just want that end product. But actually you have to do that. Hustle. Every single thing. Typically most people have done, there's been this hard graft at some point that people don't get to see. And you've had that since 12.

[Mika]

Oh yeah. But it's, it's, it's a joyful thing at the same time.

[Jamie Laing]

100%. Of course it is.

[Mika]

So you know when you're 12 years old, you're like, oh, that was interesting. And it's, it forms you, it kind of becomes, it's pretty cool to go home and, and eat your spaghetti with tomato sauce and go. I hustled my way up to the first floor.

[Jamie Laing]

But that's unique.

[Mika]

They told me to go away and isn't that crazy?

[Jamie Laing]

They told me to go, that's unique. I would say that's a unique thing. Like that is. Most kids, especially around that time, you know, wouldn't be. Wouldn't be hustling. Wouldn't have a. Wouldn't have a dream. They were so focused on that they would want to go out and achieve it the whole time. You know, it's. I wanted to be a stuntman at one point, but I'm not going to go into all the different places where stuntmen work and ask. I'm just not going to do that because I wasn't that.

[Mika]

Some kids do.

[Jamie Laing]

When was the first time that you realized music was part of your soul?

[Mika]

Oh, it was. Well, according to other people, it was from when I was really, really young. So I was. As a baby. It's funny, my father always says there was this really. This moment that he remembers. And they were. We were in a restaurant, and a guy, a street busker, came up to the restaurant in. I don't know where it was. And I was a baby, and I was about one and a half years old, and he was playing a violin. And. And they could. They could tell that I was reacting. My face was reacting to the sound. And I just went completely quiet. And I just kind of like, you know, almost like a dog does when a dog's really interested you. You pull out the ball and the ball. The dog kind of like suddenly perks up and straightens its back. Well, I. Apparently I was in his arms and I suddenly straightened up and my back got a little bit, you know, kind of more engaged. And my hands went up. And this guy saw that I was reacting to his music and I was listening to him and I went. And as he came closer, my hands went up and up and up in the air, and he kept on getting closer and closer until I went for the strings with my hand and grabbed them and I wouldn't let go. And I pulled and pulled on the strings of the violin because apparently I wanted to know, you know, where it was coming from. And so that about a year later, they give me for Christmas, a violin. When I saw it, I was over the moon, apparently. I don't remember this, but, you know, I was three, four years old or something. And they leave me with it. And I'm constantly plucking it and doing things with it. They leave me with it. They go off to the kitchen. And we were living in an apartment at the time in France, and my dad was working there. And by the time they came back, I smashed it into a million pieces. And I wanted to know what was inside. I wanted to know what was going on inside and how it made that noise. So I think there's, there's some sort of curiosities that just kind of provoke a chemical reaction. And I think as, as parents, it's. I was so lucky and I think a lot of parents have this natural thing where they can feel when there is that reaction happening in the kid in front of them. It's really important just to go there.

[Jamie Laing]

And give that, to allow them to go and experiment and feel that and experience it.

[Mika]

So the pushing, you know, and the, and the pushing and the mom who's, who's sitting out there in the Toyota Previa in the pouring rain. I can see her over my, on my shoulder and she's sitting there going, go on, you do it. That, that, that, that forcefulness and that encouragement doesn't come from an empty place. It comes from a natural predisposition, a natural curiosity that was already instilled, you know, that was already very clear and manifesting itself early on.

[Jamie Laing]

Were your parents always like that? Or have they always been like that? Where they encouraged you to try and do an experience and experiment and go for it?

[Mika]

I think it was, it was really. It was music. It was really music and storytelling and using music to express yourself. And it was really encouraged, Encouraged. With me, I had a lot of problems at school. I was young and I had a lot of problems. And my dad had, had. We had a lot of issues at home. I was born in Beirut in the 80s, in 1983, and it was a really violent time in the civil war there. And of course, I don't remember any of that. So that part of it for me didn't have any consequences, but it kind of conditioned the family in a way. And we were evacuated by the Navy, the American Navy. And my mother said that she wanted to go to France, she didn't want to go back to the States. So we went to France and we went to Paris. My dad ended up getting caught again in the first Gulf War and was a hostage actually in an embassy, in the American embassy for about eight months. And life fell apart.

[Jamie Laing]

How old are you?

[Mika]

I was young. I must have been seven or something. And, and. But it, it was strange to have life fall apart. You know, everything just kind of fell apart.

[Jamie Laing]

And in what way can I. In what way? Because you're seven years old and seven. We're. My parents got divorced at eight.

[Mika]

Yeah.

[Jamie Laing]

And I remember things. It's a weird thing. Life sort of continues. You're quite naive, but you feel. You feel life changing in front of you. And it's quite a scary time because you're so conscious of, of that now. So what was that for you? How did you know things were falling apart?

[Mika]

Well, well, when your mother makes you. When the CNN or whatever the news is on constantly your dad doesn't come back. I mean, it was always working. But then when your mother kind of makes all four kids, because at that time, my little brother wasn't born, because I'm one of five, all four kids, every single evening, do the rosary all together. Trust me, I never. I never did the rosary ever again.

[Jamie Laing]

You're going to remember it at that point.

[Mika]

You're like, something's up. Something's up with. And. And it was funny. It was. I mean, it was really bad. It was really bad. There was no way of knowing if he was gonna, you know, survive. And there was no way of getting messages out. And every once in a while, magically, a fax would arrive, and a fax would arrive and it was his in. When he had a chance of sending out a fax, he would send a fax out from the embassy and it would print out on one of those rolls of kind of very thin shine, slightly white paper. And he would do drawings and he would send messages to all of us. And, and yeah, he had to be, you know, he was careful about what he wrote. And then these faxes would come and it was the most extraordinary thing. Xerox messages from another world while our world was kind of falling apart, you know. And, and, and I just remember in the midst of all this, I remember one thing my mother used to put on vinyl records. And we would dance and we would dance and dance. We would dance to Joni Mitchell, we would dance to Nirvana. We would dance to Bruce Springsteen and, and this French singer Georges Mustachi and Charles Trinet. And we would, you know, do can cans or whatever the hell we would do. And we would dance. And so after that, we moved. When my dad came back, he had a. He was a different person. He had a beard. He was emaciated. We stopped calling him dad like that. We called him Mike because he wasn't dad anymore. And then everything kind of fell apart. We lost everything. We lost our house. We lost stuff, which was just stuff. But that stuff changes things. And so we got in our white Toyota Previa. The white Toyota Previa is very present in my life.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah.

[Mika]

And we get into. We drive over to the UK and we start up and life slowly, slowly starts up again. That was When I was put into a school in the UK French school called the French Lisa French State school. And it was really hard because I was just a bit of. I didn't understand what was going on. And that's when the dyslexia really settled in. Long story short, I get kicked out of school. Yeah, I had issues with a teacher and my mother looked at me and she goes, you know what? You're not going to go to school. I'll say, yes. I said, what am I going to do? She goes, you're going to go to the park? I said, yes, I'm going to go to the park. This is great. And you're going to learn how to sing and you're going to learn piano. Say, oh, okay. I didn't realize she meant four to five hours a day. My piano teacher showed up and it was a Russian woman called Allah who didn't speak much English and used to speak to me in Russian. She realized very quickly that in order. Because I couldn't read music and I still can't. Yeah, I would sing. She would sing to me and I would sing it back and then I'd be able to play it.

[Jamie Laing]

Get out of here.

[Mika]

And so she would say, oh, well, if you can sing, why don't we just start singing? And I started singer and Russian songs, German songs. And then I started working. This was like during 9, 10 months of not going to school, I started working and then I get my first job and it was at the Royal Opera House in the chorus.

[Jamie Laing]

How old are you at that point?

[Mika]

About eight, nine? Eight.

[Jamie Laing]

This is wild. And I know it's your existence, right? So in your head it's like, okay, this is what's happened to me. But for someone sitting here and you know, we've met and I've been a fan of yours for a long time, I told you that already. And, and researching your history and understanding your life, I was completely just amazed at all of the stuff that went on. And I know almost in your head you brush over it, but your, your dad becoming hostage and then coming back and not calling him dad, that is a lot for a seven year old boy to handle.

[Mika]

But it happens to more families than you'd think.

[Jamie Laing]

Yes, true, it does, it does. And when you're probably, when you experience that, you probably experience a lot of other families, but someone who's listening now and someone like me who hasn't experienced that, you know, so fortunate. I more and more, more and more.

[Mika]

I speak to people.

[Jamie Laing]

More and more I realize how fortunate Lots of us are that we don't experience any of this, but so are we.

[Mika]

And so was I. Because there was always a response. And in the most. In, like, my mother had this amazing capacity to respond. And she was a. She was a. She was an artist, she was a designer, she loved music, she was a great cook. She made children's clothes. And she had a workshop with like, seven people making the clothes with her. In our kitchen and in our living room, the sewing machines used to go through the night. I used to wake up and go, hey, hey, Tina, you know, hey, Paul.

[Jamie Laing]

And they're loud. Yeah, they're loud.

[Mika]

Go, go pee. Bye, bye. Good night. Going back to bed. Like, we, we. That. She made clothes that were sold in department stores. She made them for other brands and they were. And so she was really an artist. She so this.

[Jamie Laing]

And very smart.

[Mika]

She was. She was smart. Not financially smart.

[Jamie Laing]

Okay.

[Mika]

She was art. She was emotionally intelligent. She wasn't financially smart, but with so many money problems. But, uh, it was always we all. She responded to life with music, with art, with color. And. And when you have that, that is. Is an enormous luxury.

[Jamie Laing]

When you. When you talk about your mum, your whole body opens up.

[Mika]

Yeah, because she was. She was extraordinary. She was an extraordinary human being. But I did tell her that before she died. And I did say, you know, you are extraordinary. And I've learned so much. I was lucky enough to be able to have the guts to overcome my embarrassment at saying something like that to my own mother, because it's amazing how embarrassed we sometimes are to say what we really think. You.

[Jamie Laing]

Losing your mum must have been so tough.

[Mika]

Oh, it was so tough. It was so tough. But, you know, I was. Because we started together. And so, you know, from that, the driving to the record companies and all that, it really didn't end. I mean, it just went on and on and on and on. And of course, there was an element of pressure, but she was. She knew that I wanted it, so it was kind of complicit, you know, it was. It was. We were in it together. And the one thing that I'm so happy about is that the last 15 years of her life, we actually managed to. I managed to take her on that journey that she always dreamt of, you know, that. That is awesome.

[Jamie Laing]

That is amazing.

[Mika]

You know, actually go and do all these crazy things that we dreamt of being able to do, and we did them.

[Jamie Laing]

And she saw your success?

[Mika]

Well, she. She was, you know, and all the challenges.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, of course.

[Mika]

Everything but. But that's why we had this extraordinary friendship. We were two. Two. We had two layers. We were collaborators and friends. And then she was also my mom. And it was really amazing how there was a. In front of others. We were just. We were together and there was love there. But we. And then. But in private, I was her son.

[Jamie Laing]

There's an amazing quote that you said. You said, when I lost my mother, it felt like losing my compass. That really got me because I think in life we sometimes try to our parents to tell us what to do or where to go. And actually, as I've got older in life, I've realized that actually our parents typically would. In my experience, and I'm sure yours, your parents are trying to do their best and they're navigating us through life as much as they can.

[Mika]

Absolutely.

[Jamie Laing]

And it's so beautiful that you said that your mum was, you know, you then didn't have that compass.

[Mika]

In a way I didn't. And I think it's so. I think we all kind of feel that one point another when we feel like we've lost that compass. And then you realize that, that that's actually. It's almost like passing of the baton. Well, then, you know, you assume a certain responsibility. You have to. You have to kind of. You have to. You know, you look around you like, actually, no, I'm not alone. There is, you know, there are my siblings, the people I love, my friends, you know, and you. It's. I think it's probably normal to feel that. But then you kind of saying, okay, well, if I don't have that compass, what am I going to do now to make sure I'm going the right way?

[Jamie Laing]

That's really important. And for someone listening now, that's what you would say. Maybe they're in that moment where they feel they've lost someone.

[Mika]

Yeah.

[Jamie Laing]

And they're probably in that moment where they don't think it's going to get better.

[Mika]

But it gets better.

[Jamie Laing]

It does get better.

[Mika]

It just takes time.

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[Jamie Laing]

There's these moments in your life where it's like start again. Let's rebuild, start again. Let's rebuild, start again. Which is an amazing kind of weighed attitude to have in life because sometimes we cling on to things, I think too much again, relationships, business, whatever it is. And actually there's a moment when you're going to, you got to let go and starting again. We're so Scared of for some reason, because it feels like failure. It feels like we haven't achieved what we should achieve. But actually there's something beautiful about starting again. And I think with you, like, if I look at your music career.

[Verizon Ad Voice]

It.

[Jamie Laing]

Feels like for me, that you are constantly challenging yourself and rebuilding yourself and growing yourself and developing yourself the whole time.

[Mika]

Well, that's a kind way of putting it. The truth is, none of this was meant to be commercial.

[Jamie Laing]

What do you mean?

[Mika]

Well, even the first album, which is very successfully commercial.

[Jamie Laing]

I mean, it's so successful.

[Mika]

It was not at all. It was written on that white piano, and it was really just. It was about making something that made me happy, that would make me happy. Like, you have the ability to write your own. To write your own medicine. Why not just do.

[Jamie Laing]

Sold millions of albums, didn't it?

[Mika]

Yeah, but it's the whole time, I guess the promise I made, it was like, okay. And then when that destabilized me a little bit, the. The success of that album, which was really made in my bedroom, and it wasn't a creation, it wasn't a construction that afterwards was like, okay, how do I actually. Wait a minute. I can. It's about my own altitude. It's about where I am in my thing. And. And it's about finding a way to write things that engage me and to constantly kind of develop my story and tell stories that. That. That I find interesting and challenge myself in that way. And that's what I've always tried to do. And it. That's why I. I believe fundamentally in alternative pop. I think alternative pop is. Is glorious, because alternative pop, even though it sounds like a contradiction in itself, something has to be popular. And alternative. How is that possible? But I think it can be.

[Jamie Laing]

How did you do when the success of the first album happened? Was it also with Universal or is it. Was it with Universal?

[Mika]

Yes, it was with Universal.

[Jamie Laing]

So that's.

[Mika]

Signed by. I was signed by Lucien Grange after auditioning in a hotel lobby in front of people who were drinking their tea.

[Jamie Laing]

Get out of here.

[Mika]

Yeah, get away.

[Jamie Laing]

We could get out.

[Mika]

One lady complained.

[Jamie Laing]

Can I just quickly say. I rarely have interviews right.

[Mika]

Where I.

[Jamie Laing]

We've got time left, but I'm almost concerned about coming to the end because I have so many questions about your life. It is just. And the way you do. You know what so amazing me is the way that you're a storyteller and that you're so engaging. You really, truly are. And that's why your music does so well. Cause it Captures the way you speak, the way you're talking to me, the way you're telling me your stories. I'm in. I'm in it with you. And that's. Your music does the same. So that little boy, what happens? So you're how old? And you go and see people and they're drinking tea, and what happens?

[Mika]

So by this point of, you know, being forced to go into really, you know, crazy places and try and get someone to sign me, which is my mother's obsession, I mean, everything from like, she made me. I shouldn't even be saying this. She made me gatecrash a party in America, in New York, where. Because she found out that this guy who lived not far away from my aunt, he was the head of rca. I gate. Crashed that party and found my way at the piano and sang for the people. Get out of here. And there were like movie stars there. And I remember. And so by that point, anyway, I still didn't get signed, but by this point, I was used to. I even did it. She made me gatecrash Diana Ross's Christmas Party and I sang to Shaka Khan, get that out of there, I promise.

[Jamie Laing]

Fucking serious.

[Mika]

I'm completely, completely serious.

[Jamie Laing]

What did that teach you? Or what has that taught you?

[Mika]

I don't know. It's.

[Jamie Laing]

Again, it goes back to that theme of embarrassment, I think, where in order to succeed or get what you want in life, you have to remove that element of embarrassment, the thing that stops us from achieving what we want in our life. That's being a florist, being an artist, being a singer, being a banker, being a producer, whatever it is you have to get.

[Mika]

Being a lover, you're being a lover.

[Jamie Laing]

You have to get over embarrassment.

[Mika]

Yes.

[Jamie Laing]

And that. And you put yourself.

[Mika]

And it's so hard.

[Jamie Laing]

It's impossibly hard. But if you learn it from a younger age, you're more likely to do it when you're older.

[Mika]

You might learn it in a certain. You know, like, you might learn it in some ways, but. But you still. You never really learn it, do you? You know, after all that training, I find myself in a position where I've got. I've. I've written most of the songs on the first album, and I've been told to go meet this terrifying guy called Lucian Grange. Lucian Grange now is. Is. Is. Is head of Universal Worldwide. And he's a very big deal. And. But he's also infamous because he's. He was a notoriously difficult and frank and expressive executive. Anyway, so I'm Sitting there and there's this guy called Lucian Grange drinking. He's having tea and we're talking and he's like, well, there's a piano there, so. All right, then, use it. Go on. Then I'm like, all right, fine. And other. All these American ladies are having, you know, the tea with her bouffons. And. And I sing. I sing. Yeah. I try to be like Grace Kelly like that in the middle of a hotel lobby. Which is fine if the song is actually. Now it's. It's, you know, it's a bit more well known than it was then. But then it was just like, you know, just. Just a weird song that I. Yeah.

[Jamie Laing]

But have you not seen There's a Thing, which I love. Have you seen Chapel Roan where she's singing?

[Mika]

Oh, yes, she saw that. She's singing Barney Club and there's like six people.

[Jamie Laing]

There's six people. And then it cuts to.

[Mika]

Yes, I saw that. So we obviously are getting the similar.

[Jamie Laing]

Thing on our thrill.

[Mika]

I'm like, wow, I've watched that like seven times.

[Jamie Laing]

It's amazing, isn't it?

[Mika]

It's amazing.

[Jamie Laing]

It's amazing. And so, yeah, you have to start somewhere, though, with your songs. Of course you do.

[Mika]

Exactly. It's just, you know, at least she was singing to. In, like a proper. She was doing a gig.

[Jamie Laing]

I know you were just in the room, but then you get signed. There's a quote, which he said, the. The record company said I wasn't marketable because I was too weird, too theatrical, too colorful. So I wrote a song that said, fine, I'll be whoever I want.

[Mika]

Yeah, exactly. And. And it was always. And because there's always this idea of seduction, isn't it? You, you, you inevitably, you. You feel like when you're writing songs and you're presenting them, you're entering in this kind of uncomfortable, kind of like seduction. That's why even in the Fray, there's a song in it that goes, should I look older? Should I be bolder? Should I bend over just to be put on the shelf? As in just to have my record there put on that kind of display shelf. And no one ever mentions that line, should I bend over? It's in the Grace Kelly.

[Jamie Laing]

Really?

[Mika]

It's the second verse. Should I bend over? Bend over Just to be put on your shelf. Well, guess what? I'm not. I'll do the one thing that's gonna piss you off even more. I'm gonna walk around like Grace Kelly.

[Jamie Laing]

With your Mika, with your sexuality. Did you Feel pressure to come out publicly?

[Mika]

Yes. Well, I did. And it's okay to say it. I mean, I was, I was, you know, it was everywhere in my music and in my lyrics. Should I look older? Should I bend over to be put on your shelf? Like I try to be like Grace Kelly or it's, you know, love today.

[Jamie Laing]

It's everywhere.

[Mika]

Stuck in the middle and then. But it's everywhere. But it's being discussed, it's being explored, it's being used poetically. Sexuality in the most pure, beautiful, glorious way through the life of a 20 year old, 22 year old, 23 year old, going and out loud, figuring it out. And then immediately before even a single comes out, the, the. The labeling and the kind of like, well, announce it. What club are you in? What are you part of? You are this, you are that. Why aren't you this? You know, like all these things and it just, like it was funny because it became something else. And instead of being discussed in this way through performance and through music, and suddenly became just about satisfying the media more than anything. And thank God we've moved on. Thank God. Yeah. I was never embarrassed about my sexuality. I was sneaking out the age of 15, come back at like 4 in the morning from the Astoria. It was the best nights, if you want to know why. My gigs have that euphoria kind of feeling to them. I Learned that at 14, 15 years old at the Astoria at G A Y. When you saw those things, like, it was like Studio 54 back then. It was like those drag queens on those podiums and the confetti and the giant gold balloons and like the Spice Girls miming on stage half pissed and it's just like. And whoever had the number one would come and just do a personal appearance and everyone would just heckle them or sing along or boom. And all at the same time. And it was, you know, it was. I wasn't embarrassed about my sexuality. And then suddenly I felt like, you know, it was. It. It changed and. And in the end I found my own. I navigated it. I found my own, my, my own pace, my own way of dealing with it publicly.

[Jamie Laing]

Do you live in the present or do you think about the future a lot?

[Mika]

I both. I try. I think about the future a lot. Sometimes I force myself to live in the present a bit more. I try. I try as well. Yeah, I can see you like that. I can see you kind of. Yes, exactly.

[Jamie Laing]

Too much, too much, too much sometimes. What do you. Or who do you want to be or how do you Want to be remembered when you're 60.

[Mika]

Oh, remembered. You'll still be here, hopefully alive.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, you'll be alive.

[Mika]

So. But if not. If not, I won't be. If I'm not, I won't, I won't miss it because I won't be here.

[Jamie Laing]

I'll be something else.

[Mika]

I'll be, ah, no, don't worry. My spirit will go into a dog or something. I'll be kind of reincarnated to a higher form of being. What kind of dog do we think, Colton? Retriever, obviously. Working retriever, obviously. What else? Either that or a duck. Even when, you know, at that time when I was at the park, when I was at the park, I sound like I'm in slow horses, but when I was at the park now when I was going to the park instead of going to school and I was just doing music, I used to look at the ducks all the time and I was fascinated by the ducks. I said they have the best life ever, the geese and the ducks because.

[Jamie Laing]

They were free and they were just walking about just like get fed bread.

[Mika]

Float around, swim all day, hang out in the park and guess what? Whenever the weather gets cold, they go on holiday for like four months somewhere else.

[Jamie Laing]

That is going back to that because I do want to. It feels like, I think when.

[Mika]

You.

[Jamie Laing]

Have that sort of consciousness when you're thinking about that, that means you're probably having a tough time yourself. And so that 8 year old boy or whoever old you were when you're in that park, you were obviously having a tough time because you're looking at the simple things. Exactly. And you're going, they have it so simple. Why do I have it so tough? And there's a great quote which you said, which is music was my escape hatch from fear. The piano became my safest place.

[Mika]

Yes.

[Jamie Laing]

What do you mean by that?

[Mika]

Well, the piano became this, this kind of like thing where you can. No one. I didn't have to ask for permission to make something. It didn't cost any money. Even the piano itself, the physical thing was something that we got because when they came to take all our stuff in that apartment that we lost in, in, in France before we left, the, the bailiffs came and the only thing they didn't take was the piano because it was a rental. But then when we tried to, when we left we found out that actually the rental company had gone bankrupt and so the piano just stuck with us. And that's why we. That's my piano. That's the one I Still have today in this. In where. Where we are in the uk, for example.

[Jamie Laing]

Get out of here.

[Mika]

The piano. Sitting there in a little cottage, all beaten up and perfect. So it was this kind of like this. This thing where I could build a landscape and I could tell stories and I could talk about sex and, you know, obviously not when. When I was, like, 15, 16 and 17. Sensuality, sex. I could. About my sisters. You know, I could talk about my grandmother, who was such a piece of work. There's a song on my very first album that goes. I sit and think about the day that you're gonna die. Your wrinkled eyes betray the joy with which you smile. Oh, can't you tell? Can you look at the world from my point of view? Or are you just too rigid? Wow. It's about her.

[Jamie Laing]

Did she. Did she?

[Mika]

Oh, yeah.

[Jamie Laing]

She heard it.

[Mika]

She loved it. She was a vicious bitch.

[Jamie Laing]

So my grandmother, Ruth Hill, was the same.

[Mika]

Really?

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mika]

Complete. I mean, And I.

[Jamie Laing]

And she, in the greatest way. Both.

[Mika]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jamie Laing]

Good and bad.

[Mika]

Good and very bad. Yeah, good and very bad.

[Jamie Laing]

It was your mum's mum. Yeah, yeah, my mum's mum as well. Toughest. Very, very, very tough.

[Mika]

Extraordinary woman. Extraordinary woman.

[Jamie Laing]

Did you feel, during that time, though, because you were playing music, did you feel like an outsider when you were looking at the ducks and you were seeing the ducks and you thought, what an amazing life that. Do you feel uncomfortable in yourself?

[Mika]

It's really interesting that you started talking about embarrassment at the very beginning of this conversation. And it's so, so, so, so, so, so present as this idea of embarrassment and the good and the bad. And so being an outsider and embarrassment, obviously, are connected. When I. When I came over to. To London and I went to this school, it was. It was a disaster.

[Jamie Laing]

Just the bullying.

[Mika]

Well, it just. But that comes. You don't even know it's bullying. Right. So when. When you're. When you're going through it at first and when. Especially when you're a kid, it just the. In a very practical sense. I was at a school beforehand that was really small in Paris, and we had a uniform. Okay, Right. My mother's a dressmaker. I spend with my sisters most of our Thursdays and Friday evenings or weekends in the Santier, which is the. The wholesale district for textiles. And we choose textiles, which inevitably means that we all get to choose our own textiles and get off cuts and stuff from these places, from these warehouses. Wow. All this to say, I get to London in this very big school and there's no uniform. And the worst thing in the world possibly could happen. I dress myself and I show up. I show up. I had pink polka dot shorts.

[Jamie Laing]

Nice.

[Mika]

Here we go. With a yellow shirt and a matching bow tie. And that's how I went to school.

[Jamie Laing]

That's a recipe for a disaster.

[Mika]

Yeah, but here's the most delicious part of it. I thought it was completely normal.

[Jamie Laing]

And it should be normal.

[Mika]

Well, should it?

[Jamie Laing]

Well, yes, because what you're doing is. You're doing. What we should all be doing is standing out rather than fitting in.

[Mika]

Yeah.

[Jamie Laing]

And that's the most. And we spend all of our lives. I don't know why we do it. Trying to fit in the whole time, especially when younger. I tried to do it. You tried it. We all try to do it. And actually, why fit in when we're born. Stand out.

[Mika]

I wish you could have said that. I know, but to me, when I was. By the end of the day, hiding.

[Jamie Laing]

In the bathroom, your bow tie was off. Yeah.

[Mika]

And I didn't. And I didn't have anything to change into. I did take off the bow tie, but I still had to walk around with my polka dot Bermudas.

[Jamie Laing]

But. But, Mika, the thing.

[Mika]

That's embarrassment.

[Jamie Laing]

Totally.

[Mika]

So I didn't. Then I walked in that day not feeling like an outsider, but I quickly realized that there was some that. That existed. And that is the moment that I realized that the outsider thing, I would say. Whoa.

[Jamie Laing]

But do you know what's amazing is that even though you had this.

[Mika]

This.

[Jamie Laing]

This embarrassment and this tough time and what was going on, but then you start learning to sing and play the piano and that those little moments lead you into what you're doing now. And so without potentially all of those things that happen, you. You know the fact that the piano was left and you got to take the piano.

[Mika]

Yeah.

[Jamie Laing]

The fact that you didn't have a good time at school, so your mum took you out and said, you're going to learn to play piano.

[Mika]

And I was expelled. But that's. Okay.

[Jamie Laing]

Why were you expelled?

[Mika]

Oh, boy. I was expelled because unfortunately I had a very bad teacher.

[Jamie Laing]

Okay.

[Mika]

I know. That's what all the kids. Yeah. This is what.

[Jamie Laing]

I blame the teacher. Right.

[Mika]

And I was expelled because this bad teacher used to do really bad things to us. And. And not just to me, but she had. She chose her kind of the. The kids that would be. That would get the wrath. The most of the wrath every year. And I happened to be one of those kids in that year. And there was. There was two others and There was. There was very strange things. I mean, like what? Like I. She used to. Public humiliation. Writing poems about. She would find out something had happened, something embarrassing. She would write poems about it and she would put the poem up and everyone had to recite it together. No, to the kid. Making me. And making me stand on my chair for hours in front of everyone. And if you had to go to the toilet, well, tough.

[Jamie Laing]

You.

[Mika]

You peed there.

[Jamie Laing]

I mean, that's worse than bad.

[Mika]

Yeah, it was bad. Very, very bad things. And. And so I went into another kind of. I went into. I thought it was. I didn't understand. You know, you don't understand that this is wrong. You don't understand that it's not your fault. You don't. You're having trouble in the. You know, for Adam and Eve, it was the apple in the original sin. For me it was the pink polka dot Bermuda shorts. And. And the serpent was a teacher. And so then I didn't realize that that was not normal. So I shut down. Shut down. Forgot how to read and write. Stopped communicating. That's when I used to. I used to. I did this thing where I would go home and I would just. I didn't want to. I would try and distract myself. So I would listen to music really loud. Nirvana or Bach. I know both of those. Literally. Bach or Nirvana or shabbaranks that I loved. And I would put my head in between the speakers and put it as loud as I possibly, possibly could. What?

[Jamie Laing]

To escape them?

[Mika]

Just to feel. Yeah. Something. And it's funny, that was it. I would take comfort in the sound, which is why that phrase is in one of the songs. There's a song, my album, my new album called Spinning out, and it goes. And when the world spins round Just take comfort in the sound. And it's so funny. It's about me. As a. As a kid, I would do this very strange thing that would freak out my parents. I would literally put my head in between the two speakers, put music on and put it as loud as possible and try and feel it on my.

[Jamie Laing]

Face, but try and explain to me, because what would that do? What would the sensation do? What would the music do?

[Mika]

It became like a hug, but a hug that went inside. And so the music would. Would kind of make me feel other things. And I would go somewhere else and I would close my eyes. I've had a lot of hearing problems in my life.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can guess.

[Mika]

Right? Wow. And so I shut down and no one understood what was going on. I was just literally.

[Jamie Laing]

And you weren't. You weren't reading, writing, you weren't speaking.

[Mika]

Oh, it all fell apart. I started speaking a lot less detaching myself. All the typical signs of some of a kid that's going through something bad. It was a mystery parents couldn't understand. One day, my sister Paloma finds my satchel. Like my rucksack.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah.

[Mika]

In the street outside the school. I just left it there. Which, of course, then the teacher would. This woman would have tortured me about and humiliated me, of course. So then. But. But I just didn't care. And I couldn't make sense of anything. So then my sister Paloma walks into the room and she goes. She knocks on the class door and she goes, I'm sorry. My brother's bag. And she makes me stand up. She makes me stand on my chair. And she starts again. And this time, though, my sister hears it. Wow.

[Jamie Laing]

So you have. You have an ally there.

[Mika]

Almost. My sister doesn't understand. She just thinks it's completely crazy. And she's only two years older than me, but she understood this was bad. She leaves the school and goes and tells my mom. She walks home. And my sister's disabled. So for the fact that the way that she ran home as fast as she could to the house, which is, you know, about 20 minutes away, and tells my mom. My mom suddenly puts it all together. This is what's happening. She was. My mom. Paloma's like, crying. She's like. He's standing on the chair. This is all happening. Everyone had to. And, you know, repeat after her. He's an idiot. He's stupid. He's waste space. And they all had to say it, and she couldn't. She's just like, going on my. My mom's like, oh, God, that's what's happening. And she calls up my dad and tells him. He freaks out. I have no idea what's happening. And we're waiting to be collected. And everyone had to be collected at the. In the courtyard. And so there's a. And there's ropes, and the parents are on one side. Then there's the rope. Then the teachers with their classmate, with the classroom, you know, around them, the. The pupils of their classroom standing there. And then once you see your dad or your mom or whoever's picking you up, then you would go out how it worked. Yeah. My dad arrives and he steps over the rope and he walks over and he goes in a very loud voice in front of everyone. He was like, I need to say to you all the things that you said to my son. And he goes on and loudly. He doesn't touch her, but he's absolutely livid. And he's loudly saying, you say to my son in front of everyone and you made them repeat that he is stupid, that he is worth for nothing. That he is. And she goes on and on and on and on, which is extraordinarily dramatic.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, I imagine.

[Mika]

I just wanted him to shut up. Yeah, you wanted to shut up.

[Jamie Laing]

So embarrassed.

[Mika]

I was just like, this is awful. And then she faints and they all run to her and they. Then the director of the school puts me and my dad in his office, and he goes, well, you're clearly expelled, and you can thank your father for that. We left me. Paloma. Who's there? My dad. Holding hands, walking down from the lyce Francais, This. This school. All the way home, singing together and skipping. Hey ho, the witch is dead. The wicked witch is dead.

[Jamie Laing]

What an amazing image.

[Mika]

And then I started singing just to kind of. That's why I didn't go to school. It wasn't, you know, that's. That's the reason why my mom was like, yes, there's no point sending you back into school. Start again. We need to rebuild.

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[Jamie Laing]

Do I am your new single, Modern Times, and you have your album coming out.

[Mika]

Yeah.

[Jamie Laing]

Are you excited?

[Mika]

Yeah, I think because it's. It's quite a euphoric album. I wrote the entire thing at the piano. I wanted to write an album alone again. And it was really important to find a way to. To make something bold. And by going back to the piano, I found that. That. That friend again, and I found that permission as well to make something really bold. It's then, you know, it's been. It was produced and completely reinterpreted as well by a guy called Nick Littlemore from band called Empire, the Sun and Pinyao. And so I just didn't want to water down his work. I was like, it doesn't. It might be. It might please some people, it might not please others. Some of it's a bit edgy, but it's. It's fearlessly joyous. It's joyful and joyous, and it. It takes no prisoners.

[Jamie Laing]

Do you write about loving?

[Mika]

Is very strange that you're talking about that because I just had to do an interview with a. With an author who's like a novelist, and he was writing a piece on the thing, and he went. I listened to the records and there are 52 mentions of different types of love. He says, it is an album that is obsessed with love. Why? I say, it's really funny. I say, well, because it's fascinating. I say, you know, I consider. I always say that love is like electricity. Electricity is this incredible thing because, like, from. From a, you know, positive and a negative. Electricity jumps in the emptiness between. Well, love is the equivalent between people and emo, and it's that same thing. So if you're not going to write about love, what are you going to write about? Might as well read the yellow pages. Do they even print the yellow pages? I wish they did. It was really nice to have them. Great doorstops.

[Jamie Laing]

We like to finish the podcast with eight questions. Are you ready for this?

[Mika]

Yes. I also.

[Jamie Laing]

I just can't wait for the music. I cannot wait.

[Mika]

I think you'll like it. No, maybe not all of it, but I think you're like, there's a bit of it. Like, I think there's a song called Excuses for Love that you'll love.

[Jamie Laing]

I can't wait. Because we were all singing all your songs upstairs, and then we saw that everyone was arriving, so we quickly. And then I was singing A little bit while I was coming down the stairs. Yeah. Yeah. It's true.

[Mika]

True story.

[Jamie Laing]

Okay. Eight questions. What's a saying or phrase that makes you smile or cheers you up? Oh, yeah. We put you on spot.

[Mika]

Yeah. It's really good. Can I have two?

[Jamie Laing]

Anything you want.

[Mika]

Okay. Well, the one thing that is really cheers me up is what's for dinner. Yes, that. That. Honestly. Yeah. So you just live for dinner? I live for dinner. It doesn't matter what it is. Can be fish fingers. Anything. Anything. Fish fingers. Pasta. You know, Chateaubriand. Actually, I hate that stuff. But. But you know what's for dinner? Or. But there's a word that always. That is. I love, that I find really comforting. And that's chaos. Because I think in chaos there's just the best things happen.

[Jamie Laing]

I'm not kidding. That's one of my favorite things.

[Mika]

Really.

[Jamie Laing]

I'm not trying to jump in. Yeah. I love it. And sometimes my big thing is I miss chaos.

[Mika]

Me too.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah. And that's when I actually. Becoming more sensible in life.

[Mika]

Yeah.

[Jamie Laing]

I go. I miss. I love chaos.

[Mika]

Chaos is great.

[Jamie Laing]

The best way.

[Mika]

Chaos is really important. We should do a whole other episode on that.

[Jamie Laing]

I would love it. It's.

[Mika]

It's being completely serious. Because chaos.

[Jamie Laing]

It's great.

[Mika]

Is your friend.

[Jamie Laing]

It has to be controlled. And you can't let it go too far. And chaos is everything.

[Mika]

Without chaos, there is no love. You will never fall in love. Without care, there is no art.

[Jamie Laing]

It's so true. It's. I. I can't. It's a big believer in chaos. Best compliment anyone's ever given you.

[Mika]

Do you want to go out on another date? Let's go.

[Jamie Laing]

What scares you most about yourself?

[Mika]

Restlessness. You know, throwing babies and bathwater out at the same time. That sort of thing. Without even realizing it.

[Jamie Laing]

I'm similar again. When was the last time you cried.

[Mika]

Watching the Golden Girls? I. I don't know. It was so. It reminded me specifically of my aunties. It was really strange.

[Jamie Laing]

Really.

[Mika]

And I really don't cry often.

[Jamie Laing]

Do you know?

[Mika]

I think I was really tired.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah.

[Mika]

And it just reminded me of my Of. But there's some flash of it just. I just was transported back to this house in Connecticut. Yeah. And it was this thing where I saw them all together. Whatever. Yeah. The Golden Girls. Love the Golden Girls. Amazing.

[Jamie Laing]

What's something you can't let go of?

[Mika]

Apart from my piano. My dogs and dogs. And we have one now. That's Meliki. And there's a whole song about her on the album, it's called Immortal Love. Yeah, I know. And she's 15 and a half. Yeah. They go with mal.

[Jamie Laing]

That's the one that's only got you now. The connection we have with animals is wild.

[Mika]

Yeah.

[Jamie Laing]

What's your guilty pleasure?

[Mika]

Potato chips.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, it's a good one.

[Mika]

It's good. Salty. Salty crisps.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mika]

And Japanese beer.

[Jamie Laing]

Okay.

[Mika]

Yeah. Have you been to Japan?

[Jamie Laing]

I've been to Tokyo.

[Mika]

I love it. Okay. Did you drink the beer?

[Jamie Laing]

I would have drunk the beer. I would have Dr. But I didn't. I don't. Doesn't stick out in my mind as something that I love.

[Mika]

Crazy. It is very good. It's the champagne of beers. I also liked unpasteurized pilsner. You have to get it from a tank. It's good. I love that. Yeah, I like. Really? Yeah. I like beer.

[Jamie Laing]

What turns you off?

[Mika]

Bullying. And it happens in so many forms so often. I've realized people who are often screaming that they are the victims are often the bullies. Hear, hear.

[Jamie Laing]

What turns you on?

[Mika]

Someone who's at ease with their body. It's not about. I turned A biggest turn off also, by the way, is vanity. I just think it's so gross. But the opposite of someone who's at ease with their body can have a body that's not like an Instagram body, which only looks good on Instagram, but in real life, it's all a little bit too. Like there's bumps everywhere and it's also tight and hard and like it's not. You want some?

[Jamie Laing]

You know, someone who's comfortable in themselves is always. Exactly.

[Mika]

And you have any shape of body. But when you are at ease and you are in. In equilibrium with your own body and spirit, then. Then that's hot. That's not a Paris Hilton.

[Jamie Laing]

Hot. What do you like most about yourself?

[Mika]

My extremely stubborn resilience. Fundamentally, as much as I torture myself and struggle and go feel like I go up and down emotionally and all that, fundamentally I'm like a cockroach. Survive nuclear attack. I really can. I'm cockroach.

[Jamie Laing]

It's good. Resilience is everything.

[Mika]

Amazing.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, just keep going.

[Mika]

Amazing. Rats also are amazing, by the way. We're really, really, really too tough on rats. They're fascinating creatures. You should study them. Yeah, rats.

[Jamie Laing]

Rats are. I mean, the amount of studies that people have done on rats, which are insane. Like, it's wild.

[Mika]

This is literally the point on the podcast where everybody's not going to agree with us. They agree with us.

[Jamie Laing]

Bonus 1 favorite lyric you've ever written.

[Mika]

Oh, it's a new one.

[Jamie Laing]

Can't wait.

[Mika]

And it goes. We have to just remember it very quickly. It's a song called Nicotine. And it's. The lyric goes. As I wander, I listen to your words and play with them between my fingertips like embers on my chapstick lips Sweetly burning. Your words leave me yearning for you. You speak, you smoke me under. And now I'm thinking only of you in my Nicotine trademark.

[Jamie Laing]

Mika, you're amazing. We absolutely love you. Thank you. Coming on.

[Mika]

Great content. Thank you very much, buddy. That was insane.

[Jamie Laing]

Okay, well, I hope you enjoyed that episode. I mean, Mika, if you're listening, thank you so much. I mean, so many takeaways. The fact that his parents, his mum, pushed him into music, made him go to record companies and perform for execs there, that is amazing. A parent allowing their children to follow their dreams. That's exactly what kind of great parenting is. Embarrassment can be good as well. That was another thing I took away. He's been embarrassed throughout his life, and it's made him who he is today. You know that great conversation we had about leaning into embarrassment in 2026? If you can lean into embarrassment, that will be a good thing. His close relationship with his mum, her death and, you know, music became an escape for him. He described it as a hug.

[Mika]

Right.

[Jamie Laing]

And I hope that you, in your life in 2026, you can find your hug for you. And the last one about being bullied at school, feeling like an outsider, teacher picking on him. Now that teacher picking on him, that was a kind of wild story. But the fact of feeling like an outsider, I know so many people listening will relate to that. Now, I'd love to know what you guys think of the episode. Okay? So if you can, please leave your comments and I'll read out some of my favorites next week. And for anyone who's looking at the comments, like your favorites, too, let's create that community. That would be amazing. Now, Mika's new album, Hyperlove, is out right now, so you can go and get it. Mika, thank you so much for coming on. Remember, if you haven't subscribed to the show, please do. It's completely free. And we'll see you next week for another episode of Great Company.

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[Mika]

The new year brings new health goals and wealth goals.

[Jamie Laing]

Protecting your identity is an important step.

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[Mika]

Part of your New year's goals with.

[Jamie Laing]

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[Mika]

Visit LifeLock.com Special offer terms apply hi, it's me, Paloma, and I'm delighted to announce that my podcast Mad, Sad and Bad is back again for season three. And I know I might be biased, but it's going to be mad. My greatest season yet. I've got an extra special lineup of guests, including the incredibly fabulous actor Richard E. Grant, mega gorgeous pop sensation Leigh Ann, and the brilliantly funny and lovable Koji radical, as well as many, many more surprises. So listen now, wherever you get your.

[Jamie Laing]

Podcasts, say hello to Samantha.

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[Mika]

Samantha built a SaaS platform that helps small businesses manage their workflow, but she needed a smarter way to reach decision makers.

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[Mika]

Now that's streamline marketing. Samantha, what's your tip for scaling smart?

[Monday.com / BetterHelp Ad Voice]

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[Mika]

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