That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Mika

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

Singer/Songwriter Mika joins Gaby for a chat about all things joy. He tells the story of watching Wicked with the composer Stephen Schwartz and singing with Ariana Grande. After seven years, he's back with new music, and wants to spread joy through his live shows. They talk about Mika's childhood, and how his mother 'collected' people - bringing lots of amazing characters into their home to live - and how they actually inspired some of his songs on his first album. (if you look at the video for 'Grace Kelly' - you'll see them!) Mika listens to birdsong regularly - sometimes in the garden, but also to playlists of tropical creatures. Did you know birdsong is medicine for your brain? When you hear birdsong, it means there's no trouble around! (you learn something everyday don't you!) Mika is a real joy spreader and so full of life and energy! We hope you feel a little of that energy after listening to this episode...

Mika, so lovely to see you. Thank you. It's nice to be here. In not a strange place where we last saw each other. Oh, gosh. Are we allowed to talk about it? A little bit. Little.

All I'm going to say, well, I'll say it so you don't get in trouble. Okay. But the last time I met you, we were in some surreal, immersive theatrical kind of thing. And I don't even know how to describe it. How do you describe it? You just said it perfectly, because we're not allowed to say. what happens on the ride, but I was part of the ride

and you were immersed in yourself. And I was the spectator of this piece of theatre and the piece of theatre, well, the cast, which you were part of, is about 450 people. This is not a joke. In the most enormous building

in the middle of London, no one's allowed to know where it is, it changes all the time, it's shrouded in mystery. And for 450 cast members, there is one spectator and I was the spectator

and you were in the cast and I was losing my mind you really were the wonderful thing was when when I had to say and hello what's your name and you looked at me and he said Meeker

and I wanted to say I know you're Meeker but I can't so now I can hello Meika Hi Gabi it's really a pleasure so lovely to see you and thank you for your new music

oh thank you it's been too long Yeah, it's been, well, yeah, it's been a while, a really long while, seven years almost. I may have been touring the whole time. I put out an album in another language in French, and this is my seventh album now, and so it's really good to come back with something that's so kind of joyful and kind of eccentric and out there, you know? But eccentric and out there and joyful are three things that we really need right now. I think so.

I kind of wrote it as a medicine for me. Oh, that's interesting. Well, just a little bit. How do you keep your spirit, you know, as in the times we're living in, as you get older, when I started doing this, I started really, really young. I was like eight or nine years old when I actually started being, you know, going and getting gigs, like in the West End or in like classical music and stuff. But when I really started singing my own stuff, I was about 19 years old.

That's still young. Yeah, but then I'm now, I'm almost 43. and how do you kind of grow up but keep your spirit? How do you grow up and not let the gravity of life pull you down? Doesn't mean that you have to act like a clown. But you still have to be that person who allows themselves to dance on their bed in their boxes, pretending to be Michael Hutchins at 7pm just because,

without anyone watching. Did you do that yesterday at 7 p.m.? Oh, I do it all the time. Fabulous. That's how it should be. I'm no shame. I think you have no shame either when it comes to that. I have no shame.

I was just told by my producer not to touch something, and now all I want to do is touch it. You mean the keyboard? Yeah. I completely understand that, because I have this thing where I like the texture of buttons. Like if I'm doing that to the phone, ooh, not going on someone on.

Touching the phone. But like, you know, the texture of buttons? Yeah, but I like, I think you like being naughty. Sometimes. Yeah, naughty's good. Norty with a small N is a really good way to be. You know, I have so many questions for you. I don't even know where to start.

For me? Yeah, for you. I mean, firstly, starting off with the fact that when I was, you know, getting ready, waking up in the morning for me is arduous. And you were just defying gravity. I didn't understand. I would just become... He's gone to defying gravity.

I wanted to ask you about that. I wanted to ask you about... I wanted to ask you about Popular with Ariana Grande. Oh, yeah. You gave me that. You gave me all of my... I was just about to say how I couldn't get through a kind of slice of toast and you were on fire already at 7 o'clock in the morning in some, you know, street in the middle of like mysterious suburban. I know, but I'm very annoying. Ask my husband, the first thing in the morning.

The big breakfast was astonishing. Oh, you're so lovely. But tell me about Terry, tell me about, yeah, singing popular with Ariana Grande. Well, what happened was this was a few years ago and quite a few years ago. And I was, Stephen Schwartz came to visit me in the studio. I was working. Just, what, randomly?

Yeah, he just wanted, he just wanted to say hi. Did he knock on the door? Yeah, he rang the, he sent an email, and then he rang the doorbell. Yeah, he came in and sat in the room for about four hours. Oh, wow. Okay, cool. And he looks at me waiting for a response, and I'm like, that's nice. He's like, you haven't seen it?

I'm like, no. I say, well, come with me. I've got to go check on my L.A. touring production. And so we were like, okay, I'll go with you. That sounds nice. So we're sitting there, and I'm watching the show. I'm sitting next to Stephen Schwartz. Everybody watching at this point, the ones who know who he is are quite excited.

But at that point, not many people knew what he looked like. Right. And it was really interesting. He was writing notes. This is a man who's written, you know, Pippin, Godspell, so many different, huge, even a huge, huge, huge Disney. He's God. Disney musicals as well, like, as a lyricist, like so many things. He's sitting there writing notes for the touring production of a regional version of his show, which is, at that time, was playing in like 32 different countries and different languages.

He's sitting there writing notes, and afterwards he's like, so what did you think? We went for dinner. I said, listen, it's amazing. obviously. I get it. But there's this amazing melody. And he'll say, which one? He was like, the one that goes popular. I said, but the problem is you've given it to the,

why did you give it to the wrong person to sing? You gave it to the popular one when that song should be sung by the loser. He just looked at me. I said, you know, the blues has got to sing popular. I say, will you let me play with it? And he just smiled and he was like, okay. I went off and I rewrote,

I used the melody and a bit of the, lyric and then I kind of rewrote the entire song from the perspective of someone who feels like the world tells them they're a loser. And, you know, and it's a bit of a vengeance song, but really tongue-in-cheek and really warm and really melodic. I was really nervous. I played him the demo and he was just saying, you've written the song, the other version of the song that I wish I had written. So I said, okay. And at this point he had rejected anyone using any single melody from Wicked because quite rightly he protects his his brilliant brilliant piece of work so at that point um there was a young actress with red hair who had started singing

who had just been signed to the same label as me republic in new york and and they were like um you know this girl's really good where you just i was okay so we did this kind of like a you know of kind of video call she was in toronto filming a nicolodeon show it was ariana grande and And I'm like, hi, how are you? And, you know, this is how the song is she'll say, oh, this is cool. And she's going to say, oh, try it. I'll say, okay, try it. She just opens her mouth.

And two takes, it was done. I was gobsmacked by this astonishing creature. I didn't know where it came from. I called up the label. I was just saying, this is the biggest star in the world. This is the biggest star in the world. And then she came just to show you how the work ethic from such a young age, She flew in from Toronto to film a video with me.

She flew in overnight, woke up at the morning. I don't know, when she was four or five a.m. Went and dyed her hair brown and black because she wasn't allowed to use her red hair because that was reserved for the other show. That was for the part. She didn't want to wear a wig. Dyes her hair black.

Films a video, goes back into her hotel room, dyes her hair red, gets on a plane, goes back and starts filming the next day in Nickelodeon. That is why Ariana is Ariana Grande. Wow. I mean, not that story, but that work ethic is why. No, I do. No, at least you're the work ethic you're talking about.

It's unbelievable and she was young, you know, and she still had that kind of thing. Sometimes it's just like you just come across some people and you're just like, this just works. This is this person was born to do this. So you've seen the films, I presume? Bits of them, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What I love about the film more than anything is the set.

I mean, they built all that stuff. In a world where everything is just kind of done in the computer now in CGI, they built everything. And we should be so proud because they built all of that land with a huge lake. It wasn't AI. It was all real and it's all just outside London. Wouldn't you like to go and visit? No, it's gone.

I know, but wouldn't you like to just walk? Of course. Of course, but it was so secretive. But I think the UK doesn't, I think a lot of the people in the world don't realize that all that was built in, in, you know, in the UK. Same thing with Barbie. You're wearing a glorious pink jumper, which is one of my fair. They always say pink is punk. Pink is the most punk color that anyone can wear.

But, you know, Barbie, for example, that was done here as well. And they built that whole world. Do you know that on the global market, there was a short. in the world of bright pink paint. I heard that, but I didn't know if it was one of those urban myths. No, no, no, no, no, it was true. Because everyone kept saying it to me because I love pink. And they said, oh, you know, you're not going to be able to get pink polish.

You're not going to be able to paint your house. I don't paint my house pink. But, and everyone would say it to me, and I still, so it is true. It was true. You love that story. They painted all of it. I have friends who work on some of my sets and stuff for the tour, and they were painting on that job.

Oh, how amazing. See, for me, if I think about you, I just think about a smile. It's absolutely true. The first thing when I think about you is just the smile. But everything is very visual. Your music is visual. When you're on the piano, it's visual. I was looking at clips of you doing Eurovision abroad.

Everything's very visual. When you write music, do you see it? Yeah, I see it. Exactly. That's so true. I mean, and very few people ask me that. I see a lance. I see a character, I see a situation,

and I try to describe it to the best of my ability. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but I see, and every song has a certain kind of like, you know, colour weight as well, yeah. But it always has been like that. That's why even when I wrote my first album, that's the only reason why it's called Life in Cartoon Motion, because every time I was writing a song about real life, sometimes mine, sometimes that of people around me,

I saw it like a cartoon, and I was just trying to describe it, But that's how when I listen to your music, I visualize. So, I mean, you've got to be a filmmaker as well, and you've got to write novels. That's very generous of you. I think you just have to be a delusional daydreamer. When you dream, when you dream at night, not daydream, but when you dream at night, what language do you dream in? English, but then little bits come in, yeah.

Do you never dream in any of the other? Because you speak about 20 million languages. I speak a bit of other languages. So Italian? I speak Italian. I never, ever, ever, ever, ever dreamt an Italian. Really? Yeah.

Such a beautiful. That's a sing-songy language, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, and then... Let's put you, tonight you will speak in Italian. I shall be eating spaghetti. But all of the languages, the languages that you speak, who make you...

Like I said, it's all colorful. But it was never intentional. You know, I... It was never intentional. No. Because, well, I was born in Beirut, in Lebanon, and that was in 83, and that was during the war. My mother was the daughter of a Syrian guy who arrived at Ellis Island and kind of made his life in America. And his wife, who was only 16 years older than my mom.

And so she grew up in this kind of very, very Middle Eastern family, but in New York. York, right, in America. And then my dad grew up all over the world. And even in the UK, because his dad was working for the government, he was a diplomat. So he was, you know, being placed around the world, kind of like army people. And so they met. And we, from the time that I was one in a baby, we just then we moved over to France, then we moved over to the UK.

I was, I'm the product of London. I was educated in London. I went to music college here. I snuck out to go to clubs from the age of 15. when I really shouldn't know but I did and it made me and it made my music and it gave me dreams and I just wanted to

write songs for you know for the city that I was living in and it was London but the languages were always my mother collected people and if you think I'm exaggerating I'm not No but I get that I love that

She collected people So there would be we would She would meet There was this lady that always drove By the house on her bicycle She always cycled by the house her name was Bella Revis Colado

and Bella had had an extraordinary life she had worked as nurse she had worked as a cleaner from the age of 15 when she had come over to the UK from Spain and she would just come over and she would just kind of sit and talk to us

because we would always sit on the step of in the street we would sit on steps and this is in London near all's court and she would just talk talked to us, my mother would just kind of watch her from the window. Long story short, this lady moved in with us. She moved in? Yeah, she lived with us until she passed away at the age of 96. And she was so poorly at this point. And everyone had, you know, as life goes on, and I have four

siblings. Everyone gets dispersed around the world and I had been touring and everything. And so we all go and I would go and go back to my mom's house and be like, Bella would be there and I'd be like, hey Bella, how you doing? She's like, I need to see everyone. And everyone is traveling too much. And so one day she was really poorly, and she said, please, I need to see everyone. And so bit by bit, we regrouped.

Everyone came from wherever they had been working or studying, and everyone came back to London, saw her. The minute she saw everyone, she said, okay, bye-bye. And she passed away. But that is how my mother collected people. This incredible woman with her incredible past, lived in our house for 25 years.

She said a very special person. She met a guy working as a waiter in China, in the Holiday Inn in Beijing, in the 90s. Brinker. Brinker becomes a friend of my mom's. He obsessed with Mariah Carey, obsessed with Michael Jackson, obsessed with the West,

comes over and lives with us. So Vinker's also there, and Bella? He was also living. At the same time. But there was no room, there was no bedroom for him. So he had slept on the sofa in the living room. And Brinker was there and everyone would come over from school.

And they'd hang out and they'd be like, Brinker speaking Chinese. Bella screaming at everybody, telling everybody off in Spanish. This other lady called Rafa, who we met in Portobella Road at the market. And she started to hang out with us too. So Raffa was living there as well as Brinker and Bella? Yeah, Raffa as well. Raffa would partly live there half the week. and Raffa had a glass eye

and Where did Raffa sleep though If Brinker's got the sofa And Bella's got a room Sometimes in bed with us Okay with the glass eye And Rafa And so if you

I'm telling all of this To kind of explain that She was speaking Arabic Bella was speaking Spanish Brinker's just speaking Chinese And he Every time Bella and Raffa Would always scream at each other

He would go No No Bella Rafa, relax, relax, take it easy, relax, take it easy. And that was a joke. That was our joke in our family to say, relax, take it easy. Because that was what Brinker would say. And then Raffa would always go, when she would get so upset and get fed up with her,

she would say that we were making her eye hurt, her eye that she didn't have. She goes, my eyes, my eyes are going to make me lose my good eye. All of this is in my music. Of course it is. It's all over the first album. Raff is on the album, she's speaking. Relax, take it easy, became my first single. Bella's all over the album.

And in Grace Kelly, my very first music video, if you look, all those people eating all that food and dancing around, it's them. They weren't extras. It just brought them from the house and the Tlio de Previa. That's why you are magical. You are magical.

No, you are. But this is our life. But this is obviously your mum. It's magical as well. Yeah, she was. And she was obsessed with one color. Pink? Pink.

Yes. Oh. With one color. She sounds an incredible woman. Yeah, it was a force of nature. What a, what a child? No wonder, that explains why everything is so large and so visual and so beautiful. But yet so small.

Because it's okay for some of the most important things in your life to stay small. And to stay with you in here. Stay with you in that. It's like you don't, not everything has to be blown up or inflated or has to be taken to that other level. I totally agree with you. That's a secret to happiness. But it's listening to the birds song, first thing in the morning, which people forget to her. Oh, don't get me started with that.

Why? Go, go, go. Oh my gosh. Okay. So there's this incredible guy called Luke Smith is an amazing musician and producer. Anyway, and he got me really into birdsong. It is the most sophisticated kind of music and melody that exists on earth. And it's so complex that it actually is like neuromedicine for your brain. And that we really absolutely have to listen to just ambient sounds and birdsong.

Absolutely. And it fixes parts of your brain. It makes you calm because if there's birdsong, it means that there's no trouble around. So if you hear a bird song, you instantly, we all have it inside us that we think, okay, we're okay, we can breathe, we can take a moment. If you walk into my world, when the kind of like Amazon delivery guy or the postman walks into the house, I often get a very strange look because five times out of ten, I don't have music or radio playing, I have birdsong.

It gets a bit weird when it's like kind of tropical cuckoos and parrots going, wah, wah! Oh, but... No, opening the door. There's so many playlists just for Birdsong. I know. I have, honestly, if I show... And the lovely E-D-M-R, EMDR. EMDR.

Hold on, let me go to the door. What's that? Just that sort of sound. What's that? EMDR. It takes you into meditative state. There's another. There's all sorts of ones.

This gives you clarity. It's just really... That's really nice. But they're all different. different levels. Can I give you an app recommendation? Go on there. And I can because it's a foundation.

It's part of Cornell University in America. Yeah. And so it's not profit. It's called Merlin. Merlin. And Merlin is able to... As in M-E-R-L-I-N. And as you walk around and you hear a noise, you just, it's like Shazam but for birds.

A Merlin bird at pre? Yeah. And it will tell you what kind of bird and why that bird is there at that. specific time. Thank you. Got that. And everything, all the data that you collect gets collected around the world and they're building up a database to understand the changes in the migratory patterns of birds. How wonderful.

So you didn't think we're going to start talking about birdsong. I love the idea that the Amazon delivery person gets a parrot when you open the door. That is perfect. Let's talk about your new music and your new single. Love Immortal. I mean, I was listening to it this weekend and I have to say I overplayed it

and I kept playing it and kept playing it because, and it's the same thing and I'm looking at the eye to tell you this but your songs, I fall in love with your songs and I feel like I get to know you even more. That's a compliment. For you when you write, is it that you want people to know you more?

I find, well, I've never, thought about it, but I find that it's easier to express myself when I'm writing songs or to show who I am without fearing the consequences. I think that's the best way to say. Like from when I was really young, I found that you could put things in songs that you could never say just walking up to somebody or in a pub or like, you know, you could just never, you could never say some of these things. Imagine, you know, standing, going up to somebody in Costa coffee and going, I've been young and I've been old a thousand times. I have died and I've been born a thousand lives. They'd be like, oh no, get away from me. I'd rather like that. You put it in a song and it's okay.

It's the power of songs, you know, that's why they accompany us. It's a, it's, immortal love is a, is a song that is very, very, very much about one thing. It's about coming to terms with loss. It's about coming to terms with the idea of a presence or a soul or someone you love not being there. And I could always describe it. Like when you lose somebody, it's like they've unplugged themselves from you. And obviously, and everybody has, every person, every creature has a different size and shape plug of a different form. And as they remove that plug, there's space left behind.

And you have to fill it. You might as well fill it with good stuff, you know? because if you just ignore it, then it leaves you weaker because eventually there's so many plugs removed that you end up kind of weaker. So instead of becoming weaker, you find a way to make peace with it. And writing songs for me is one of the ways that I do that. So it's about understanding, coming to terms with loss,

and just for a second, zooming out. And are you able to do that yourself? No, that's why I write songs to try. You know, and then I sing them. You know, but I think birds do it, you know. And piano. And piano. Obviously, we have must talk about the piano.

It's just, I love it. I'm very lucky to have interviewed the winners of the piano. And they steal my heart. Oh, they're remarkable. Oh, my word. It is extraordinary. And what's so lovely is, and I walk everywhere. And the amount of times I go through all the different stations,

and you see strangers just as if you've given you've done that switch you've turned that switch on and you've said it's okay anyone you can do it you can sit at a piano there's no judgment we're not saying you're dreadful you know it and I know it's all about a winner in the end but it's not it's not it's not really about a winner but Claudia and I had a big argument about this when we were doing the very first season because which was just a documentary

It was meant to go on, we expected to go on like at 11 o'clock at night on a Wednesday night. Oh, it's a fantastic show. Like really, it was, it was a complete surprise. We did it because we loved it, the idea. It was so pure and just refreshing. And I love Claudia and I loved Lang Lang,ang, and it was it. But we just showed up and we didn't really know what we were doing. And then at the end, we knew we were going to do a concert.

And no one wanted a winner. And I was like, well, what if we have a performance of the night? Because when you perform, there's still that, there's a beauty in performance of the night without being a winner. Yes, yes, yes. I totally get that. It's a small difference, you can argue. It is a difference. The performance, okay, the performance of the night.

But they, it really, again, I'm going to use the word again, but it's a very magical show. Yeah, we, thank you. And to hear their stories and how. They are magical. Yeah. and the stories and how it has helped them. But music does. Music is something that can cure, that can help, that can hold your hand,

that can be there when you're feeling you've lost someone or you've fallen in love or you're feeling sad, you're feeling elated, all of that music. And music has been so powerful for you throughout your life. For all of us. And it's funny, it's like, you know, I don't know, the relationship with the piano in the U-Guard. is a very, very particular one.

And, you know, there used to be pianos everywhere. In a pub, there'd be a Joanna. You know? In every living room, there'd be a piano. It was just such a thing. There were pianos everywhere. At weddings, a piano. At funerals, a piano.

This instrument is part of the DNA of the country. And it's just quite beautiful to show, you know, it's not a guitar, it's a piano. It has a different power. And we just put a little bit of light on it. you, you're incredibly powerful. If we may, I just want to ask you for reasons to be joyful, what brings you most joy? Because you're a joy spreader, so we want to know what brings you most joy. I always say I'm an accidental optimist. Okay. Okay. So I love surprise. I love surprise. Like not someone going, ooh, to-da, surprise. Like, not that kind of stuff. You want me to hide under the

desk and go, hey. I love the twists and turns of life and I find that they are and the positions that I would, that they put me in that I would never put myself in you know, and that, the chaos of life is something

that I love and accepting you know, letting go of control and having an atmosphere to live in where you can, where there's there is a little bit more chaos and it's okay. You know, that is really powerful, it makes you quite happy, because it always, it always makes you feel a bit more

like a person. You know, control, obsessive control, I think is, is the opposite of what you're asking. It's the, is the, is a way to become really miserable. That's the most perfect answer we could ever wish for. Can everybody just give this man a round of applause and can we keep him here all the time? Maker, thank you.