Just a few weeks ago, MN2S unveiled a new podcast series. Spotlight will see a host of exciting artists and celebrities interviewed, revealing fascinating insights about their careers while exploring their history with MN2S.
In Spotlight’s third episode, Mica Paris was interviewed about her illustrious career. Having worked with Prince, Dionne Warwick and Bobby Womack, Mica Paris is a bona fide soul queen. Over a career that’s seen seven studio albums, work in theatre, TV and radio, Mica has carved out a reputation as one of the UK’s premiere talents. Her most recent album, Gospel, was released in 2020 to critical acclaim. Here we’ve published an excerpt of our Q&A with Mica.
Click here to listen to the third episode of MN2S Spotlight.
Tell us about your childhood. You grew up with your grandparents?
“My grandparents were ministers. Jesus in the morning and Jesus in the evening, all day, seven days a week, baby. You never had so much church in your life. That’s probably why I’ve been running ever since. [laughs] It was a lot of church! But the good thing that comes out of it is the selfless aspect of it. This is what I’ve kept, is that I literally do it to inspire and uplift people with the music, the voice, that’s all I’m doing it for really. When you come from that kind of upbringing, which is about touching the people and getting them out of the mundanity of their everyday lives, it makes it a little bit different than just being just another pop artist, it’s a completely different spin on it.”
Was it a musical childhood?
“I’m the youngest of six, there’s three girls and three boys. My sisters and I we used to call ourselves the Harmony Sisters. We’d be at the bus stop singing and people would be saying, ‘carry on, carry on!’ It was great. My sister was more the one we thought would become a singer. I watched her and I wanted to be like her. So it’s kind of ironic that it turned out to be me. But we’d sing everywhere – especially on a Sunday after church when visitors would come over. We were the entertainment!”
How did you first get started as an artist? We heard you were discovered by the editor of The Voice newspaper.
“He discovered me in church when I was about fourteen. He discovered me singing in front of the choir, I was the lead singer. He was the only white guy in the audience – you couldn’t miss him! He went up to my grandparents, he asked for permission to talk to me – they liked him a lot, he’s a really nice guy. He and I sat down and we got together, and I pushed him in the direction of getting me a deal. He wanted me to stay in church and make a gospel record, but I wanted to make a soul and pop record. I was ready. I put a demo together and he took it to the labels when I was 17. I didn’t like any of them! The only one I liked was Island Records.”