Too proper for the black kids.
Too black for the Mexicans.
Too square to be a 'hood nig*a.'
What's normal anyway?
That's a nice way of setting up, pretty much, my life experience.
Miguel.
He's not your average RnB star.
He's not your average rock star.
And he's definitely not average.
At anything.
You've probably listened to him in the nude.
He's seductive. He's smooth. He's sexy.
In the late 2000s, his label wanted him to be 'the next Mario.'
Or 'the next Usher.'
But he wanted to be, well...the next Miguel.
I sat down with him, moments before his gig at the Enmore Theatre.
Thank you so much for joining me, man.
It's a pleasure, Marty. Thanks for having me.
You as an artist emerged out of a period of RnB that reached it's commercial peak and then you were kind of
being molded into this artist that you didn't think you were necessarily.
What did you discover you weren't during that time?
As far as discovery goes, I've always known that I was something else.
I was going, "How can I fit me into this thing that you expect?" so that you listen.
And I think after that experience, I was like, "Oh, I don't have to be in that box.
I can just be 'other'.
You can retire the sunglasses. The red--
The red sunglasses?
I still love those sunglasses, I must admit.
Really?
Yeah, I still love them.
I don't look back and go, "Why did I wear those sunglasses?"
I know who I was at the time.
I know why. I get it.
There's a fine line between a corny seductive song and a truly sexy, seductive track.
What do you think it takes to write that kind of song?
Ah...vulnerability.
Yeah.
Absolutely. I think vulnerability is probably the most seductive thing as a human being.
Do you think it's crazy that you probably allow men to get vulnerable in the bedroom?
Yeah. I actually pride myself on being that dude, you know.
I think in all my favourite songs there's just that thing that you feel like they really just baring it all or saying
something that just took some courage.
Great songs give us that extra courage that we need, you know.
It just makes us feel alive and that's what it's all about.
You've also been reconnecting with your cultural past by going to Mexico with your father and your brother.
Did you find out something about yourself that you didn't already know during that trip?
Did you feel a shift?
Taking the trip to Mexico really changed a lot for me and not so much in anything I didn't know about myself.
It was probably more about how deep my gratitude is for the opportunity that I have to do what I love now.
Because I am Mexican and black. My father's Mexican he's from Michoacán in Mexico and my mother is a
beautiful black woman from Inglewood California
So they met in Inglewood in Los Angeles.
Growing up in the 90s, there was a lot of tension...racial tension between blacks and Mexicans.
They can do what they want to do. We do what we want to do,
They talk about, "This is a black school. This is a black city. This is a black neighbourhood."
It's not fair. We're Hispanics. We have a right to say whatever we want.
They starting calling us names like, 'nig*a' and everything like that and so we started fighting.
Trying to figure out where I belong and how to belong
or who I was has been a journey.
It has been a real journey.
I think that's why my music sounds the way it does. It's diverse because I am diverse.
And I've learned to embrace that.
♫ Oh, don't stop ♫
♫ Alright ♫
♫ Yeah ♫
Was there a particular moment where you felt more content with yourself?
I think the overall trip...leaving the trip, I just felt more rooted.
And I think that feeling of contentment just comes from appreciating. Again, like that place of gratitude, where
I'm like, "Wow, if my grandmother would've never left and never met my grandfather and decided to settle down
and had children... having my father. Leaving my father and all of her children and my grandfather to go work
to hopefully bring them up and eventually be able to do that and then coming to Inglewood, California.
Where my father eventually went to school and eventually when to high school where he met my mother.
In high school.
I would have never even existed.
And it's a culmination of a lot of these small decisions that bring Miguel to Australia in 2018.
What do you think the is the best lovemaking song ever written?
Best lovemaking song?
There's so many. I mean, you can definitely go 'Sexual Healing' is always going to be a good one.
I'm happy with a Destiny's Child, 'Cater to you'
OK.
Nice. Alright.
Like I know it's a feminine track, but I quite like it.
I'm not mad at that.
OK. Cool.
Do you have a personal favourite?
Ahh...for sex?
There's just too many.
An easy go to?
I mean, 'Closer' is a go to.
I'm being real. That is a go to for me.
That's all the primal and spiritual...that's where that kind of all meets.
For me, you know. But there's so many, man.
There's a lot.
That's probably a good place to leave it.
Yeah.
Thank you very much, man.
Yeah, thank you.
Cheers.