Yuku free message boards

10.15.09 - added the 2008 interview at the bottom
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
03.22.08 - i've added the 2006 & 2007 interviews at the bottom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
apparently, the 2nd interview was up there, too. enjoy:
.....
John Mayer Interview 07/24/02

Well, it had been nearly a year since I had last interviewed John Mayer. I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to do it again for www.mystupidmouth.com. After playing a blazing show in Cleveland, OH, at the Tower City Amphitheatre, John took some time out of his evening to talk about his future, his goals, and his fans.

RY: What do you think you would be doing if you weren't playing music?
JM: It's kind of hard to answer, because I started playing music at an early age. Idealistically, I'd want to be a graphic designer. Something that would allow me to have the same crew of people around me everyday. I'd sit down at my desk with my computer, have a 9-5, have a little apartment, wake up and just work all day. I'd still want to be creative.

RY: Your music has been put into a category that is the young singer/songwriter/pop musician. How do you feel about that and how do you feel pop music is changing?
JM: I think that the point of music is to be refreshing. Music is all about contrast. I don't really know how much that has to do with like the vitality of what's appearing or how much it has to do with what’s come before it what new music is in response to. Take the music that Jack Johnson and Pete Yorn make. It's been around for a really long time. I think that people just like to get sick of something. You like to keep your sunglasses on long enough to take them off and go "Oh my, that's so bright". People like to put the dimmer down on your dashboard a little lower so you can turn it up and go "Whew!" (laughs). I think a lot of it has to do with contrast. In terms of how I feel about being grouped with singer/songwriters, there's the view I have of myself how I'd like to be, and then there is the view of what I actually am. I'm not that scared about anything else. I don't see anything as a threat to music. I don't think Britney Spears is a threat to music. Britney Spears fulfills a desire for a lot of people who want performance and who want (visual) entertainment. That happens to be with a beat and a melody, but that’s entertainment. I went to a Britney Spears show a couple years ago. That girl makes a lot of people happy that Pete Yorn would just not satisfy. I don't think its in danger of killing any other kind of music and it's not an acid that eats other music. I think the real danger, if there is any, is in prominence. As in, how much prominence is given. Why is there a channel that is supposed to be the embodiment of popular music in itself, but yet it really only plays one kind of popular music. At the same time, MTV plays my video. If that signals a change, great, and I have anything to do with that change, even better.

RY: Obviously you've been touring pretty heavy for the past two years, what do your future concert plans look like and can we expect to see another solo tour or a tour with just you and Dela?
JM: I would like to do a me and Dela tour a la Dave and Tim, but I don't know when it's going to happen. I think sometimes I miss the reality of the situation and that is I made a pop record. So, I have to tour on a pop record. I would love to do an acoustic tour in the fall or early winter next year with a stand-up comedian opener. I think it would be real cool to have Zach Galifianakis (former host of Late World with Zach) open. He could go on for 30 minutes and we'll go for an hour and a half. I think as far as future tour plans go in an immediate sense, I think we're going to drop off the American map for a couple months, do some international stuff. I don't want to be so available to people on the road that they take it for granted. I don't want people to say "we can see him next week." I think that after this tour the next time we'll go out will probably be for a few weeks at the end of the year and play some places we didn't hit this tour. Other than that, the record is doing really well in other parts of the country. We're going to get in backpacking mode. We're going to go across the world.

RY: In recent times, its quite obvious that your popularity has increased at an astronomical rate. As a result, some fans have labeled you as a sellout.
JM: That's one of those things that when you're on an airplane, the pilot says "Pshh. We're about to hit some choppy air, you might want to put your seatbelt on". The choppy air comes, but you're not scared. I was well aware very early on that there was going to come a point when a lot of people were going to exponentially get into my music and that there were going to be people crying selling out. It doesn't affect me at all. I'm a music fan myself and I know what selling out means. "Selling Out" circa Iggy Pop's popularity selling out is a different thing than a fan saying selling out now. Selling out back then meant you compromised your goals, integrity, and identity for money. I could have told you 2 years ago I wanted to play these shows, so I'm not selling out. What selling out now means, is a very amorphous definition which means "That's not the way I wanted to see you. You've sold out. Sold out equals the path of your career is not what I imagined for you or for me. The path that I imagined for you and me, this is nothing like it". It's anything other than the explicit thought that this one person had of what it was all going to be like. Anytime that it becomes different, which its going to be, there is a compromise that the person going to the shows have to make. If you listen to my record, do you really think that the music is designed, written, recorded, or produced to be played for eighty people always? It's not. It's designed to be played for as many people as possible. I scientifically engineer my music to be as accessible to people as possible and to be as engaging to people and make them as accessible to it as possible. So, again, I think that its all about trading your concept of what it is for the reality of what it is. People have the concept that I'm a troubadour. We have two busses (I'm in one) and we have two rigs, this is a business, there is an incorporated, somewhere in this situation. The difference is I think as this goes on, hopefully when I'm on stage, you can still see music coming out of somebody. I don't care if its in front of five-hundred thousand people, I have the coolest fans in the world. I don't have fans who push other fans, I don't have fans who are elite. My fans have nothing to prove. Whether they're fourteen or eight it doesn't matter. If I were a nineteen year old fan who personally saw me two years ago, I would be happy. I think most people are, but again, its not a big deal. Selling out is meant to be inflammatory. It's meant to piss someone off or me off as much as possible. Again, doesn't affect me at all. It's a disappointment. Some people can make that re-adjustment and some can't. The people who can't will have wonderful memories of when they saw me in front of one-hundred twenty people and that’s great.

RY: Sort of a follow up to that last question. There is a group of fans, as you call them the "superfans" who have been coming to shows and who have been listening for quite some time now continue to do extensive traveling to catch shows. The time has come where your accessibility to meet a large portion of your fans is no longer possible. How do you continue to keep your "superfans" happy as well as your new fans?
JM: I'm still very accessible. If you come up to me while I'm at the mall and ask to take a picture or get an autograph that's fine. For instance, with Inside Wants Out, the most that I can do and the least that I can do is to take a song off. Put a barcode on the back. We tried to change one of the colors for the front artwork, but it was too late and we missed the deadline. Something that honors those early fans. Other than that I don't know short of an ID card that I should have thought to make up early on. How pompous would that have been though? Hold on to this card. It entitles you to special benefits when I play seven-thousand seat theatres (laughs). It really comes down to me being as present as I can be on stage. I've never been more present on stage before. I'm looking at people and that’s as much as I can do pretty much. When I get on the radio, I'll have them take as many calls as you can take and talk as much as I can. I don't really have it set out to be elusive or aloof. I feel really silly when a Suburban drops me off and someone opens the door for me. I feel really silly when there is a ring of security people around me like the Star 98 show in LA but you don't know what to do. So, I think as long as it feels silly and feeling strange I have still kept that connection. The minute that I put my sunglasses on and look down at the ground and walk in, then yeah, I wouldn't want to listen to myself anymore.

RY: Can you expand a bit on how the transition works from being an internet only musician to a mainstream top 40 musician and what the advantages and disadvantages are?
JM: Somebody basically had to hand you the key. I think I was too oriented on what it was going to end up that I didn't get so attached. The way that I've lived my life which is just the way that I'm wired to be really confident. I know that I'm going to reach a certain point. Not this point, but I knew that I was going to be able to make music for a lot of people. I didn't know when, I didn't know how, but I knew it was going to end up that way. I didn't really spend a lot of time thinking about where I was anymore than these are the formative years that take me to where I want to be. Where I want to be is in the middle of my 5th record, that is just as anticipated as the second or first. Actually, if my fifth record was as anticipated as my first, nobody would buy it (Laughs). I want to have a lot of fans. I want to make music for a lot of people. I always knew that I lived those early days to get to the point of where I want to keep getting to, which I'm not there yet. I want to get to the point of being a classic artist. I think everyone wants to. I don't know if I ever saw it as a trade-off because I knew. I enjoyed the hell out of it and I stood in every moment for what it was. I always knew that I really wanted that to be the stepping stone. I never got attached to it enough for there to be a down-side. What’s the downside now? I don't get to sleep in the back of the van? I don't get to eat Taco Bell everyday (laughs)? I'm glad that I paid my dues. I probably could have paid a little longer, but that's alright. I paid for as long as I had to. I did so much playing every day that by the time I got on stage, some of the shows sucked because I was so tired.

RY: The previous time I interviewed you, I asked you where you saw yourself ten years from now. Obviously, a lot has changed since then. Where do your answer stand in terms of this question today?
JM: Previously, I had stated New York City, but now I want to live in LA. I want to balance the life of living on the road with the life of living in a house. Live on the road four months out of the year. For the rest of the time, wake up and get in my car and sit in on this guys record. Wake up and go to the studio and work on another album or drive around to a radio station here. I want to have a home life. I want to have a front lawn. Right now, because I don't need a front lawn, there is no better time than to tour twelve months a year. This is solidifying my ability to take six months off and be domestic and do my own laundry and get my oil changed. But, still to be a musician all the time.

RY: Can you talk about some of your goals as a person?
JM: I want to be a provider for a family. The money you make is so relative to the life you have and who you provide for. The money that I make doesn't mean that much to me right now. It's a number. What if that number were to correlate to a baby's bedroom or repaving the driveway. That's when your money just sparkles. I would also not mind having a steady love in my life. I'm uncannily good at getting sick of things. I got sick of a lot stuff as I've gone through it. One of the things I've gotten sick of is "That girl has a cute ass, I wonder if I can meet her after the show." The girl with the cute ass also has bad breath. I'm completely sick of it. I want to be able to get back on the bus and say it was a great show, how is everything, how was YOUR day? The world revolves around my day, so I want to call someone else up and ask them how was their day. Another goal is to add another inch to my penis at some point. Maybe in the next couple months with the use of some isometric exercises.

RY: At this point in your career, have you had any regrets or disappointments?
JM: I don't really have any disappointments. I regret not understanding the line between my personal life and my public life earlier. I remember when I was going out with Vanessa and I would get on the radio and they'd say "we heard you're dating Vanessa Carlton." What I should have said was something like hey next question. What I did though was give the world the benefit of the doubt that I could explain it in a way that would make people say "Okay, I understand" and then not bring it up really. I think that hurt the relationship just because we're too really young people who just started getting into our own music industry and then you sit down in the car and her song is playing and they're like "here is John Mayer's girlfriend." I regret that and I wish I would've understood earlier. Now, with pictures being taken for People Magazine, that's not my fault. I haven't brought it up to anybody. I don't go talking about it. It's not my fault. The thing is, it's not my fault that I met somebody that I really really like and enjoy spending time with, which is where its at right now. I don't have a girlfriend, I don't wear a ring. It's someone I enjoy spending time with and talking with. Why should that be turned into an apology or some kind of leverage because they have a picture of me? It's a dignity thing. It's like someone snaps a picture of me. What can I do? Am I going to let it affect my day? No. I do wish earlier on that I understood how it worked. I didn't give myself enough credit that people cared enough to talk about it. But, that's about it.

RY: Describe what its like to go through constant changes whether it be with a new guitarist, a new drummer, a new tour manager. What's that like and how does it work?
JM: You absolutely have to live one day at a time. If you were too look ahead to the future and try to get from where you are today, to this point next year, you would die. Thankfully everything so far has been an up slope. Every new person who has come in so far has been better. Every time we work on a song, it gets better. Wonderland kicked ass tonight b/c we thought, hey, lets put the organ in the song. I think if it was the other direction, I would probably be a lot more disheartened. You just live for everyday. You go today is cool, tomorrow might impress me more. It just keeps upgrading and upgrading. If I had known back then that I was going to end up here, I would have been like, when are we going to meet Michael Chavez. He brings something incredible to the band. His style really affects the bands style. I think its beautiful playing. You can watch him get more comfortable each night.

RY: In terms of collaborations, is there anything planned for the future or anything you would like to do in terms of collaborations?
JM: I did that thing with Alice Peacock. I really like the song a lot. I haven't had the opportunity to record with anyone else, although I would like to. I would like to collaborate with a lot more people than I have and if it doesn't work, oh well. I would love to write with Martin Sexton. We were messing around tonight on stage during soundcheck, and I was like man, there is some cool stuff we could do.

RY: Can you tell me a little bit about what you have planned for your new record, when it may come out and how it will be different from "Room For Squares?"
JM: It'll be different from "Room For Squares" and that it's not going to be as major scale melodic. You won't be able to play it on all the white keys of the piano. It's not going to be so boppy, not poppy, but boppy. It's something that I really like doing because I was so inspired by Charlie Hunter. Now, I think I'm a little more seasoned and subtle. I really like the idea of exploring guitar textures. I still want to be smooth. I still want to be textured and "Something's Missing" is the sound of my next record. There is no song like it on "Room For Squares." There's a little bit of pain in it and a little bit of melancholy. "Room For Squares", what it has in it is a little bit of young romantic melancholy. I really like the idea of being sexy, like an older sexy. A little darker, a little older, but not like a dark record with clouds on the cover. I listened to "Room For Squares" July 5th for the first time since January. When I heard it, I was like this record is corny! It's cool because it's corny and it makes no apologies for melody. Now, there is going to be a lot more guitar playing. A little more stretching out. I knew this before, and I would tell you if I was making this up. I always knew that "Room For Squares" would be the record that allowed me to make the other records that I want to make. Maybe my second record wouldn't have done as well if it was my first record. "Room For Squares" is the mixtape. Welcome to what I do, and here is the starting point. There is some stuff we are doing at soundchecks that I won't play until the record comes out because I want people to be able to go to the store and pick up the record and say that haven't heard the majority of it. It's kind of a letdown otherwise.

RY: As it stands, your repertoire of songs is only moderate in size. Do you think a time will come where songs like "No Such Thing" and "Wonderland" won't be played every show?
JM: Absolutely. I can't wait to be like Dave Matthews Band and play four or five records worth of stuff and play two nights in the same place and only repeat two songs. The reality is, that I'm not that artist yet. I've been graced with a fan base that is very much the fan base of a band with a bigger repertoire than what we have. This is all from one record. Thankfully, we have E-Sides*. I would love not to play "Wonderland" the first night and then play it the second night. However, that's all I've got right now. Maybe one day, we'll have songs on the second record that people like just as much. I think I'll probably be playing "3X5" for the rest of my life because I can't stop playing that song. It's almost like I've gotten so many fans up front, that I have to catch up to them.

RY: Anything you would like to say about the future?
JM: I hope to sell out in everyone's mind completely, because that would mean that they didn't see it coming at all.

*This is the night that John invented the term. This is what he refers to his unreleased tracks. So, just remember five years from now when you're seeing John at an amphitheatre or stadium of your choice and he mentions e-sides, that this is when the word was created.

Copyright 2002 mystupidmouth.com.
Please note that parts of this interview have been edited.
............................................................................
It's a bit lengthy, I should forewarn you. I actually cut out a lot if you can believe that. Anyway, John was super generous with his time and I know that I received more time than "most" interviewers have. It's always a pleasure to do these interviews (it's hard to believe this was the 4th one). Anyway, enjoy!

RY: How would you say your relationship with your family has changed other than the obvious that you may not see them or talk to them as often since things have taken off for you?

JM: I think my success has brought me closer to everybody in the family because it makes me look out for everyone more and make sure everyone’s comfortable inside of it. The last thing I want to do is have anyone’s life change that didn’t sign up for it. My brothers have been as classy as you can be by retaining their own personalities and lives. They’ve done it in the most admirable way and I don’t even know how I’d be able to do it if the tables were turned. I wrote my mom from the road last night, “I miss you”. I didn’t used to talk to my mom that way before I spent that much time away from home.

RY: What is the thing you like the most about your career right now? How about the least?

JM: The opportunity. I think as much as I’ve done great things, these things are setups to the next opportunity. People assume the current record to be the final statement. I have no idea what I am doing! I’m putting a record out that I think feels really good. When I put a record out, it’s like a new friend to me. It’s not like I sit with records for years and years and years and then put them out. I’m getting to know them at the same time that my fans are. I sometimes think the same things that my fans think about the records. The best thing is being able to look forward to another shot at making a record that may live on in people’s minds. The best part of it is all that possibility that leads to your own guitar. It’s all under the same umbrella as inspiration and possibility and I really feel very full still. I won’t let anyone take the really important parts away from me. There are some people that have made me pull my hair out or decisions that have been made or plays in the game that make me furious, but nobody ever will take that part away from me that puts me behind a microphone and I go, “Anything is possible right now and I’m ready to go find it.”

The worst part of my career I don’t even really know. I don’t even feel like taking that traditional stance on, “you’re never home”. Right now I wouldn’t have anything to do if I was home! I’m having a great time on the road. I know I’m going home after this! The worst part about it is people’s expectations are a prison. The idea of people thinking they’ve figured me out. That’s a lot of the reason behind putting “Come Back to Bed” out as the next single. My fans let me do that. We have these blues after shows, and fans show up! How many other people could do an after show playing an entirely different kind of music than what they are known for? Not just to clink their glasses together, but to check the music out. My fans have given me an amazing amount of freedom. Sometimes, I don’t think I use it enough and that I let people down because of it.

RY: A follow-up…do you think that now that you’ve put out a few records and established a fanbase that this will allow you to make the records you really want to make?

JM: No. Every record I put out is a record I want to make. There are some records you have to make. I don’t know why I didn’t put a lot of the songs I had finished on “Heavier Things”. I just knew that that was how “Heavier Things” had to be. If you’re an artist and you’re not making the record you want to make when you’re making that record, you shouldn’t be an artist. I think time is always good. I think “Heavier Things” is a fantastic release if you chart it on time versus quality. I’m really proud of it for what it is. One thing I had to prove to people is that I make records. I could make a record tomorrow if I had to. Too many people disappear for too long and the world heals up over them and you can’t be seen anymore. Could “Heavier Things” have been better with time? Absolutely. If I‘d had another year to work on it, it would’ve been over the top. I’m also proud of myself for being able to see making records as something I do and not hard. “Room for Squares” would’ve been better if I had waited longer. Any record would be better if you waited longer. I think time is the real only factor for me personally. There are times where I get down on myself about this record because it’s not “Room for Squares” and that was my baby and my “live to make this record” kind of thing. I don’t know why sometimes I worry about it.

RY: Do you think you’ll ever put out a blues record?

JM: Not without a hell of a lot of help from my friends. It’s kind of like the reverse of the Santana thing. I would need a lot of Santana’s to ease me into the blues world. I think blues for me is an ingredient and isn’t really the full offering. It’s something I feel like I’m transitioning into really gradually. I don’t love blues anymore now than I did when I first put out “Room for Squares”. I’ve just bought myself the freedom to play more of it.

RY: “Heavier Things” has been out almost a year and has enjoyed great success. Are you going to be working on your next record this fall? How will this record differ from “Heavier Things”?

JM: I don’t really know what’s going to be on it. A good song can bump any song off on anytime. I write 12, make a tracklisting, and then I start shooting other tracks off of it with better songs. I don’t think another record will come out probably until next spring. I want to demo this record. I think demo-ing is such a healthy part of creation because you can just get more of a sense of what works. By the time I recorded “Room for Squares”, I had demo-ed each song twice. I’ve demo-ed “Hummingbird” and “Untitled 2” for 2 weeks. There is so much more I know about it now. It’s almost like demo-ing songs makes up for putting a record out and then learning about it while you’re on stage. That’s how I learn the most about what I’m doing. “Hummingbird” will definitely be on that record. It’s weird; it’s one of those songs that really moves me. People don’t really talk about it. For me, there is just something about it. Picking the songs that you like is a lot like picking the photos of yourself you like. You’ll always pick the photo of yourself that makes people say, “Let me see” and then they’ll say, “That looks nothing like you”. I think sometimes I like certain songs more because they’re interesting to hear coming out of me. I’ve been listening to “Journeyman” a lot that is a fantastic Eric Clapton record that came out in 1989. It’s so effortless how he fuses blues with pop. I listen to that record at least twice a week. There is something magical about to me because he’s able to go from a pop song to an old blues standard to a pop song and back to an old blues song. I think it would be a great template for at least figuring out how to go from a pop song with electric guitar to a pop song with acoustic. I know the rule for this record is that if it doesn’t sound good solo, it’s not going on the record. I’m not writing with multi-tracks, I’m writing in my bathroom with a little tiny microchip recorder. That’s the way I did for “Room for Squares” and I just want to get back to it. I’ll get back to loops someday. For me, I just want to go back to being able to sit down and play a song acoustic during a set if I want to. We’re going back raw for this next record.

RY: Although it is early in your career, you’ve had a lot of great moments, (Sharing the stage with Clapton, BB King, Buddy Guy, Double Trouble, winning a Grammy, selling millions of records etc). What moments have been the most sentimental to you and why?

JM: There are a couple of them. The Grammy is what I think about when I think about the first stage of my career. When I think about “Room for Squares”, the Grammy is like that question that you get right in “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” that says you’re definitely taking home this much. That was a real lock. To tell you the truth one of the really big moments for me was getting my own Martin guitar. Every time I pick that thing up I’m amazed by it. I’m as much of a fan of that kind of thing as I am the facilitator of it. Getting to know Buddy Guy is huge to me. There is always the great show that you get off stage from that you’re jumping up and down but the ones that really poke out are the ones that seem to agree with the dreams you had when you were growing up.

RY: As your popularity continues to grow and more people take notice of you, you’re obviously going to be idolized and serve as a role model whether you want to or not. How important do you think positive role models are and do you think you’ve served as a positive one thus far?

JM: I never really think about it on that level. Before I think about being a bad role model, I think about being tacky. Way before saying to myself, “What are the kids going to think?” I think, “That’s pretty uncool”. Maybe I’m going about it in a different way. For instance, the demographics at these shows are changing a lot now. I feel like I have stretch marks on my soul because I don’t feel anymore like the college kid playing for the college kids. The college kids are more of a lighthearted, goofy setting whereas I feel really grown up on this tour. For whatever reason, there are a lot of families in the crowd. For a lot of the audience members, you can see this is the first time ever at a show. There is a lot of little 4-year-old girls being propped up by their fathers or mothers. I don’t swear as much anymore on stage. You can swear on stage when you’re playing at the Blind Pig because the only people at the Blind Pig are people who think the guy on stage swearing is really funny. I just got to a point where I crossed over. There are a lot of babysitters taking care of kids because mothers and fathers are out watching my shows. That’s made me really hold myself differently on stage where it’s a little less gimmicky and I’ve just had to stop swearing as much. That’s about as much as I’ve changed it.

RY: What in your opinion makes a “good” musician?

JM: Self-awareness. Very few people who suck know they suck. The people who suck who know they suck will always be admired by their peers and appreciated by their fans. Self-awareness helps you decide what moves you and not everyone else. A lot of people think I’m really arrogant and I used to be. I had a lot more to prove than I could get out. Anytime there is more in you than you can get out, you start getting really combative. For whatever reason, I’m really not that arrogant anymore. If you don’t realize what you’re doing wrong or what’s not hitting the middle of the target, then you’re not really going to be a musician. To me, anytime someone says, “Listen, I suck”. That to me shows great awareness. Anytime someone says, “I really kind of suck at this”, most people take the stance of “No you don’t, come on, keep playing”. Anytime someone says, “I’m great at this”, people say, “No you don’t, you suck”. It is amazing to me how my mind has changed, because as I’m up there now, I’m like, “I am sucking”! Now I feel like I’m really naturally trying to continually lift this thing that is heavier than me up over my head and keep it there and keep it balanced the whole night.

RY: What would you say is the worst interview question you’ve ever been asked?

JM: “How did you end up in Georgia?” I think is the worst question I’ve been asked. There really is no way to put an interesting twist on it day-to-day. You just have to give a background story. I hate any answer that I can’t implement how I feel that day that is a straight-up informational question. To me, it’s like continually having your arm in a cast and someone asking how you broke your arm. Eventually, you just want to say, “From shoving it in your moms ass!”

RY: Who or what would you say is your moral compass?

JM: Me. I have a really small window of being cool with myself before my conscience really starts to kick my ass. You have to make peace with the things you’re cool with and stay out of the realm of the things you’re not. The worst thing a person can do is to defy themselves. To me, it’s like that game “operation”. If you hit the sides, you get the buzz. That’s what happens, I hit the sides sometimes, and invariably, I have some kind of emotional earthquake. It sucks and it’s really devastating. I’ve just found now to stay in that little window and you’ll always be happy. I always find that that realignment is the price you pay for that night you decided to leave your rules behind and be someone else.

RY: How important to you is trust? I know that ever since I’ve gotten to know you, one thing I’ve really admired is your honesty and openness even if it’s something you’re unsure of. So, what exactly does trust mean to you?

JM: I think the same thing about trust everyone else does. Now, as it pertains to my career, I always feel like the number of times you say, “You’re probably right, I’m going with you”, all adds up to the one moment that you say, “You got to go with me”. You have to stay really even all the time and not count beans as to who is winning and who is losing. Take the good ideas no matter who they come from. Be willing to ditch your stance in the middle of an argument that might be 20 minutes long and go, “You know what, you’re Right”. It’s harder to trust as a musician. That’s why as an artist, I have to work doubly hard to prove to people that I don’t have my head in my ass. For the one moment when you hope people remember the number of times that you were incredibly equitable and they trust you that you’re not just into waving the flag all the time. I think in a perfect world, I would’ve like to have heard a couple more times someone going, “What did you say? You can’t do it? Got it”. I really feel like you invest the number of times you say, “Okay”. They’re like sick days. You can cash in and say, “no”. There are times in my life I wish “no” resonated a little louder because all the times I said, “I don’t understand why, but okay”. That’s an emotional thing for me, though.

RY: I know you did some work with Justin Timberlake and you guys did some recording together. Will this material ever surface?

JM: I don’t know. We wrote a really cool song called “Done”. It was just a hook from hell. Just ridiculous. I would love to work more with Justin. We talk every once in a while. I don’t expect to talk to him all the time. That’s what happens when you’re friends with someone who is as busy as you are. It’s pretty cool. I don’t know. I tracked the tune for the last record and it didn’t come out. It was just so different. I think I kind of had the song in mind, and then he and I were in a hotel room one day and came up with this chorus that was just catchy as can be. It’s so Justin and also me at the same time. It has all these little Justin things in it.

RY: Will we see a No Such Thing-less show in the future?

JM: I think it will be possible on the next record. I think I still have an obligation to some of these songs. It was a big move for me not to play “My Stupid Mouth” every night. I saw it as a staple for a really long time. It’s still really hard for me to write a setlist where there are 3 “Heaver Things” songs together. Is this what people want? It is the record I have out. There will come a time. “No Such Thing” is a good ass shaking, uplifting tune. What do I have to play instead of “No Such Thing” that is going to be as good? Probably nothing right now. Not in 2 hours. 3 records in 2 hours? I might swap out “No Such Thing” and put in whatever the new song is that I don’t know yet. I approach sets based on what’s going to do the trick. To me, “Bigger than My Body” and “No Such Thing” do the same kind of trick. “Wheel” and “Not Myself” do a certain kind of trick. The more I fill in those categories the easier it’ll be to swap them out. A “Wonderland-less” show may take a couple more records. Right now, it’s like the “Fire and Rain” of what I do. James Taylor still plays “Fire and Rain” and he’s been playing it for 20-30 years. I have no reason to say “screw you” to anybody who wants to hear that song when they come. We can always change the song up. I think taking the jam out of “Wonderland” was such a good idea because it didn’t need to have a jam. Let your pop songs be your pop songs and enjoy them. It doesn’t mean you have to prove to people that you can still play guitar by playing guitar inside of, “Your Body is a Wonderland”.

RY: How do you feel about up-and-comers, the music/touring industry, and where you currently stand in it?

JM: There will always be a market for up-and-comers. People love up-and-comers as much as I do. I love that new artist that I don’t know the name of. I think when people talk about the touring industry they talk about the icons, the people who have made a living off of packing stadiums. All of a sudden, people ask why they can’t pack stadiums anymore. That stands as the great barometer. It’s not like these people have done anything less amazing. That was the way people could tell that something was definitely wrong if X band can’t sell out a stadium. I don’t really know. I don’t look out and see 10, 15 or 20,000 people. I just look out and see a lot of people. To me, if I’m playing a lot of people, then I don’t care about the numbers. To me, if you’re doing 5K don’t worry what it would have been like to do 8K.

The last thing I will say is this. I am not in the jet stream of selling records at the moment and I don’t have a song on the radio right now. Because of that, I now appreciate having people at the shows more than ever. I think when you’re first starting out, you’re like, oh this is what happens, and this is what comes with it. It’s not a package deal anymore. There is no reason for someone to go to the show unless they just love the music. When I see that many people out there whose true showing is laid out in front of me, I just more than ever want to stop 3 or 4 times during the show and say I can’t believe you guys would get in your car and get in traffic and park for $20 and wait in a line. I appreciate it more than ever and all I want to do is convey it to people. It’s not just an affectation to say thank you very much. I really mean it. Take out getting recognized and just make me a guy who doesn’t get recognized and goes to a show. I’m not sure how many I’d go to. It takes a lot to get ready to go see a show now. It’s not like just showing up and watching. It is a huge undertaking and to see all these people who must care about me enough because they’re willing to go through with it, they need a huge thank you somewhere in the show.

Please note that parts of this interview have been edited.

Edited by: RichardYoung at: 8/15/04 7:55 pm
............................................................................
Just because John Mayer isn't doing a full-scale summer tour in 2005 doesn't mean there isn't room for an interview. It may seem/be a little shorter than past MSM interviews, but it's far from incomplete. Enjoy!!

------------------------------

RY: Can you talk about the evolution for the direction of your new record?

JM: It’s hard to say. I’m still figuring stuff out all the time. With the evolution there is a responsibility in it. To not evolve for evolving’s sake because then you lose people. In that, I’ve had to really make some hard decisions when I finish a song or when I’ve just come up with a tune because I don’t finish the ones that I don’t love. When I just come up with a tune I have to listen back to it and I gotta go, “is this really what I want to be?” So, it’s really hard to make this record because not only do you have to be inspired to write a tune, but that tune has to fall in line with what the vibe of the record is. That vibe of the record is very clear right now more based on the people who are making it like Steve Jordan, who is playing drums and producing it with me. Together we’re like one producer. Pino Paladino plays bass. They keep it very clear for me as to where it isn’t going.

RY: What can fans or listeners expect out of your new material?

JM: I think a lot of people have read stuff about it being a “blues record” or it’s “all guitar playing” and it’s not. There is more guitar playing. Certainly, it goes back to the “Room for Squares” motif in terms of songs you can play on guitar. So now we’re back to the organic kind of playing. The bridge is a totally different melody and a totally different feel. The reason that’s like that is because I have the time to write, and what I thought was a chorus but it ends up being a bridge, and so naturally it might be a different key or a different time signature, and so it’s a lot more in one tune. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to that “sit around and scratch your chin kind of lyric writing”. It doesn’t impress me anymore. People can expect the singing to be a lot more open now. The record is about half done and we’re going to LA after this tour to really finish up 7 or 8 tracks that we’re just going to go kill it and it’ll be half done. I don’t have singles yet but I know that I have songs that I’ll play on stage forever. I’ve got lifetime kind of things because they feel really really really good.

RY: What do you look forward to the most about your new album?

JM: This is the first record I’ve loved making. Not to put down any other processes, but this is the one where I’ll go into the studio and not know what I’m doing. I just went in with Charlie Hunter and Steve Jordan on Memorial Day weekend. We all get in a room and find a sound that moves us and just feel that certain vibe from those specific players. One of my favorite tunes that I ever wrote came out in an hour and a half. That’s always really scary when you tell somebody that you wrote a tune in an hour and a half, because if it sucks they look at you like maybe you should’ve spent 3 hours on it. It’s just happening. It’s so much fun and I’m discovering things musically, as I play them and record them that I never thought I was going to do. So I get all the fun because I never thought I’d hear myself sing on this melody or that chord change.

RY: How about a timeframe for when we can expect the new record to drop?

JM: It’ll come out when it comes out. Part of making this record is compression. Take 3 ideas and it may turn into 1 great one. I think even when I’m done with the record, which I’d like to be done with it by the end of the year, I may go back and do 4 more songs and take the best 2 of those and knock the worst 2 off the record. I have a hunger for this record that I wonder if I’m ever going to have again for any other record (laughs) because there is so much to say on this one.

RY: Any songs you’ve previously played that listeners will be familiar with come release time?

JM: I think the only songs you've heard that are definitely going on the CD are “Hummingbird” and a song called "I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You)", which I think was originally just called Untitled 2 or something. Everything else is new, so new that even my closest friends can't identify any parts of the songs as something they've heard me mess with before.

RY: What is the best thing you’ve done for yourself since having almost a year off of the road?

JM: Wow, it’s been almost a year? I started to go outside. I started to do some athletic stuff that I hadn’t done in a very long time (laughs). I did some mountain biking and I’ll probably break something of mine one day. It’s kind of liberating to be going down a mountain at 40 MPH and know that you are a lot of people’s “golden boy”. It’s great to walk back into your ritzy hotel in LA and you’re covered in blood and dirt. I never experienced it before, and I really love it.

I guess one of the best things I did was put down the guitar actually. I started writing a lot and often when I put the guitar down. I never did it before. I was afraid that I’d lose touch with it. Now I go on a trail and I’ll just be biking or something. Then, I go upstairs in my hotel room and sit down and bang something out in no time because you’re not always at the machine. When you’re always at the machine, you think that that’s how you get it out by looking at your watch. When you experience stuff and are not afraid to put your guitar down, things pop into your head and you write them in no time. The last record was beats, pro tools, loops and those kinds of things that I liked bringing songs out of me. Then when it came time to tour it was like, “I can’t play Split Screen Sadness without a machine”. Now it’s an acoustic guitar and one of those Marantz compact flash recorders which everybody should own.

RY: What do you miss the most about the road and not touring for so long?

JM: I miss the community. It’s a great community when you’re touring. I don’t miss it right now to be honest, though. I’m more looking forward to going back to LA and finishing up my record. Basically, my schedule is to finish up my record and put it away and then go into training for this trio tour, which we’re going to do in the fall. I have to get back in shape as a guitar player. It’s going to be a lot of guitar playing. For me, if I went out on the road right now to do the Trio tour, I don’t think I’d have the stamina to do it. After the Trio tour, I’ll come off the road and hang out for another couple months. I have faith that that tour will direct me to a new place or a new phase. I’ll write from that new phase and bump it up against the other phases and you get a really varied and textured record. “Heavier Things” sounds like January to April of 2003. That’s what that sounds like to me. This, I’m trying to make sound like 12 different time periods.

RY: So now your Trio tour in the fall, will it be covers, originals or a variation?

JM: There’s going to be originals. A lot of the stuff on the new record was recorded as a trio. It’s much more rocking. I’ve got ballads though, don’t worry (laughs). We’re going to do some stuff from the new record, we’re going to “Daughters”, and we’re going to see what other tunes we can do. I think “Something’s Missing” would be pretty cool in the Trio format. I’m going to do a 3X rule for covers. If it’s been covered 3X, I’m not going to play it. No “Little Wing” or no “Voodoo Chile”. This is very much a band. I’ve had offers for the band to play when Pino couldn’t do it and you can’t take the money because that’s not the band. I think out of that we’ll have a pretty cool set worked up.

RY: If you could have one wish music-related, what would it be?

JM: I think there are a lot of great players who haven’t even picked up an instrument yet and I wish they did. I wish I could do battle. I don’t mean do battle on stage, just do battle. All those dudes in the ‘60s were trying to top each other. Hendrix was trying to top The Who and The Who was trying to top The Beatles which nobody could but everybody was trying. Statistically speaking, there just aren’t enough players right now, which speaks to the fact that there are a lot of people who have latent ability to play instruments that just never picked it up. When I think about that, it really kind of frustrates me. Maroon 5, I feel great competition with M5 and they feel great competition with me, and it’s great. I hang out with James all the time, and he is on my new record. For the first time, I’m giving up the 2nd guitar chair and it’s like James, do what you do on this tune. I want to beat Maroon 5 and they want to beat me and we still go out at the end of the night. That’s the way it’s really supposed to be. Nobody really gets that so much right now. Everybody is too afraid to feel smaller that they don’t want to play at all. I want to go out and see someone else, and I want them to make me go home and want to get them.

RY: If you could collaborate with one person in music that you haven’t already, who would it be and why?

JM: Nobody. I’m absolutely done. I got to spend some really good time playing, writing and recording with Clapton and that’s it. Clapton would’ve been my answer to you previously. Now my answer is nobody. I’m done collaborating for a while.

RY: What labeling would you say you’ve received the most that you believe to be false?

JM: That I’m the guy who you play when you try to get your girlfriend to take her shirt off (laughs). That one bugs me. I understand it and that was part of the reason why I didn’t want to put “Daughters” out.

RY: At this point in time, what would you say is your biggest fear?

JM: When you love something so much your biggest fear is waking up one morning and not loving it anymore. That’s always been the biggest fear. You know you really love something when your biggest fear is, “what if I stopped?” What if I just wake up one morning and go, “I just don’t want to do this anymore.” I just want to take my money and buy a house and just hang out and do nothing. If you wanted to do that, nothing would stop you. So I hope that never happens. I don’t want to fall out of love.

RY: What would you say you look forward to most in the future?

JM: The next record. I’ve turned down a lot of shows in a lot of high stakes or high notoriety situations because I don’t want to be seen until I make my next statement and then people can judge. That’s what I can’t wait to do. I think it’s going to change a lot of people’s minds and make people go, “Oh. He’s kind of still in the game I guess. Weird. I thought he was gone. I thought he was this, but now I kind of like this. I kind of get what he’s doing now.” You can’t please everybody, but you can try.

RY: Will your new record be filed under “John Mayer” or “The John Mayer Trio”?

JM: It’ll be filed under “John Mayer”.

RY: Anything you’d like to leave with as you move forward?

JM: I just love making this next record. I don’t know how many times I’ll have left in my life that I’ll dig as deep as I’m digging on this record, so I’m enjoying every second of it. It’s a record that’s based on the “sequence of events” and “vibe”. Those two elements together.

So far, I have not overanalyzed, and I have not freaked out. I know if the record came out tomorrow that the radio couldn’t play a single tune, and I’ll figure that out later. I love being in the studio, and I love the guys I work with, and every time I walk out and into my car and go back to sleep, there is something else that came out that I didn’t know was there. I don’t know how many times you get that in your life. These might be the songs that I play for the rest of my life and people still want to see me play them.

I’ll leave you with this. The reason I know this record is pretty great is because I listen to these demos or these unfinished tunes more than I ever have listened to my demos or tunes before. I have to stop so I don’t get used to the way that I’ve sung them for the demo. I listen to them like a fan because they happen so fast and they come from such a deeper place than I’m aware of, that it’s almost like somebody handing you a song and going “here, this is yours now”. I wake up in the morning and take a shower and put my tunes on, and I sing along in the bathroom and they’re gifts. They’re absolute gifts. I’m kind of approaching it that way...
Are you thinking about the Rockboat 2005? If so, will you be new to the boat? If this is the case, make sure you use referral #6185! 2 drinks on me on the boat. You have my word!

Edited by: RichardYoung at: 6/26/05 11:00 pm
===========================================================================================================================

2006:

Here you go, MSM. This has now been an annual tradition dating back all the way to 2001. This is the 6th interview that we've done. A big thanks to John for being every bit as enthusiastic about it in 2006 as he was in 2001. John has been very supportive of our community since it's inception and that hasn't show any signs of slowing down. Additionally, a big thanks to everyone who works with John for making this whole thing so incredibly easy.

Lastly, I know some people like a little background on the interview. This year, the interview was conducted in the great city of Buffalo on September 1st before he put on what was a fantastic show. There was no publicist present (or anyone else for that matter), never has been. Almost a conversational interview, though I've formatted to have a bit more structure. Enjoy!



RY: So you have a new record coming out. Previously, your turnaround time in terms of album creation has been relatively quick. This time around, it’s been a little bit longer. Could you explain why that was the case?

JM: I felt like I could stop and that for the 1st time, that fear of things going away wasn’t going to overtake me. For a long time, I was in this state of mind where I would constantly ask people for their perspective on what was going on. To be able to go away and not have that stuff for a minute; I knew was going to be good for me as a person and as a musician. I had also taken a lot of stabs at ideas and trying to be things. I was able to understand what time had to do with showing me how close or far away I was from actually hitting what I wanted to hit. With all of those factors, I just knew that no matter what was going to happen because of it, I had to experience full integration with doing the right thing for me. Not just what feels good in March.

RY: Since you’ve been playing professionally, this is definitely the longest break you’ve taken. Can you talk about what it’s like to be more domesticated and how you’ve spent that time outside of writing?

JM: Yeah, the best way to sum up my time off is the night that I watched the Grammy’s this year from my apartment. I had an apartment in Santa Monica while I was figuring out where I was going to live and I had a pizza party. It was an interesting feeling. I felt relaxed, relieved, but also, I found it a little unnerving that I’m not in the game. I guess if you’re a pitcher for a baseball team and you’re not pitching 1 night, it’s got to be a different feeling because you want to get in the game but you’re also glad you’re resting your arm. Now that I’m back on the road, I love doing this again.

A really good friend of mine asked me the other night, “So what do you think your reality is? Touring, recording in the studio or being home? Which one is your reality?” It freaked me out because I don’t know the answer to it. I’ve certainly grown up a lot just by way of being home. Having a house is a big thing for me. You have a front lawn. You have neighbors who make you baskets and bring you pies and you have to bring the plate back. The real answer is learning to put the guitar down and not be defined by the guitar for a minute. It’s scary for me. I used to take the guitar everywhere I went even if I wasn’t going to play it because I didn’t like not having it. I can go on trips now and not bring it. I can go days now without playing guitar. I’m not scared of that sentence as much as I used to be because I know it’s always going to be there.

RY: Other than taking significantly longer to create the album, how did your approach differ with this record in comparison to your others?

JM: In just about every way. The 1st time I realized the approach was changing was when I met Steve Jordan again. Steve had played on “Heavier Things” as a session player, but hadn’t really ever made any kind of contribution production wise. We ran into each other again and played on the Herbie Hancock track [“Stitched Up”]. Steve has a way in bringing the whole process of making music down to 2 or 3 main points. Get people in a room together, get it feeling right and make sure it goes on tape. Before Steve, for whatever reason (partly to do with me), I had kind of brought myself to a place where I thought there was so much more to it. I almost felt like you had to trick yourself into finishing a song. Then Steve, because of his vibe and who he is and his whole being is about “the feeling”. I had literally never in my life shared that with myself. So that changed everything about the record.

That’s when I asked Steve if he wanted to help me do 3 songs. I’ll never forget those 3. We did “Bold as Love”, “Trust Myself” and a song called “Over and Over.” From that point on, I just loved his style and I love what he taught me, though taught isn’t even the right word. I have Steve Jordan’s methodology to use now. It’s 1 of those great moments in life. I have his methodology as best as I’m ever able to take it in from working with him for so long. I also have become really self aware in the right ways lately. I just know the stuff I think is cool today I might not think is cool tomorrow. You just got to let things shake out. Some things you’re not going to figure out today. Some things are best figured out over a lot of today’s.

The other approach was this record is just a series of flashes. They’re flashes and they’re being prepared for the flash and just doing nothing but contributing. Even though the songs are all kind of different from one another, there is no moment where any song goes crooked. Point A to point B and it feels really connected. Everything except “Belief” happened in a matter of a couple days. The difference between making that sound like “I wouldn’t brag about that” and “I can see how that’s cool” is that I’ve become a better musician to be able to handle myself in those couple of days to really hammer out what I need to hammer out.

RY: Speaking of Steve Jordan, what inspired the idea of the John Mayer Trio and how important was that whole process to you and where you ended up at with “Continuum?"

JM: I guess I had something in my head about the trio earlier than working with Steve because we had done those secret shows after gigs in 2004. But when I played with Steve and Pino in the rehearsal for the Tsunami telethon, it was wild. I’ll never forget it. It was like lift off and I was already itching for another project. Then we worked in the studio on some tracks. I remember bringing it up over and over again to my manager like hey this isn’t a little idea, like I think I really want to do this.

The Trio thing just kept making me say that I had to do it. It came together really quickly. We booked these rooms for the tour and went into a rehearsal space and wrote some of the coolest songs in no time. Even though “Good Love is on the Way” isn’t on the record, it’s still a bad song. I wrote the lyrics to “Good Love” in a hotel room before the House of Blues gig in LA. If you remember, there are earlier “Good Love” versions without lyrics. I wrote the lyrics to “Try!” in a fucking dressing room at the Filmore (San Francisco) and taped them on the monitor that night. I ate grilled salmon in my hotel room with the lights out and wrote “Good Love is on the Way” in Microsoft Word because I had to. That’s the coolest shit in the world! When you got to finish those lyrics because you got to sing it tonight? MAN, THAT IS COOL! There’s nothing like that. I’ll never forget coming up with “Vultures” one night. The original is like an hour worth of us playing “Vultures” and me singing just everything I possibly can on it. I took it home that night and walked up and down my apartment.

So anyway, coming up with all those tunes and hitting the road with the band, I learned from this Trio tour everything I am naturally and everything I’m not naturally. I had a great time doing the things I’m not naturally and I had a great time missing the things I am naturally. So, when I came into the new record, I had gotten a lot of stuff out of my system. I’ve never told anyone this before, but I picture my career, and I know as I tell you this that some journalist is going to read it and think he’s hot shit for wanting to bring it up to me some other day. I picture my musical career like a Tamagotchi. Remember those? The little pets on the keychain? You got to feed it, you got to clean its crap, you got to walk it, you got let it sleep. I felt like I had this Tamagotchi that was totally well fed like “Daughters” and “Wonderland”. That part of my pet was well fed, but there was shit all over the place and now I got to clean the shit up. Not to equate that stuff with shit, so you can call it whatever you want to. He’s tired, he’s sick or whatever. I just remember feeling like wow, this part of my little buddy is well fed. The Trio got a lot of that out of my system so I could get caught up and use everything I’ve gone through to put out “Continuum”. “Continuum” has, physically, sonically and feel wise the Trio in it. It is the Trio. It has probably 50% of the Trio ideal and 50% of what this record would have been without it.

RY: You obviously live in LA now. How has moving to LA affected you musically?

JM: I started to learn that people who lived in LA who live in NY love NY now and people who lived in NY who moved to LA love LA. It’s such a cool concept in your life that you can go twenty something years without experiencing a vibe and then all of a sudden synch in to it. Maybe one day I’ll move to Paris and be like I had no idea!

For me, I can be at the beginning of a new timeline. When you live 60 miles away from where you’re born, even if you’re doing new stuff, you’re always still on the same timeline. To move out 3,000 miles away from my closest relative and have a new phase in my life feels really healthy. And LA is a funny term. It’s like jazz. What kind of jazz? What kind of LA? Good LA or bad LA? I don’t live next to “Ripley’s Believe it or Not!” and the “Man’s Chinese Theatre”. That’s like New York City and I live in Westchester or something. I live an hour away from that. I live in a neighborhood with families. It’s not the LA you see in movies. It’s a suburb so much so that when I get to the city, I’m like I live here? I don’t think so. It’s just a place for me to disappear.

RY: What were some of the different inspirations for Continuum?

JM: I was listening to Coldplay and Ray Charles at 1 point a couple years ago. I remember thinking how badly I wanted to make this music that was going to capture people the way that Coldplay does it. The way that U2 captured people. The way that that big booming, spacious, pop, melodic sound could get people. I’ve always wanted to do it. I still wish I could do it. Then I was listening to Ray Charles and started listening to soul music and thinking that it was what I should be doing. This stuff to me is just my calling right now. I want to make music that’s timeless and that’s not to put down any other music, but soul music is fucking timeless. It feels good all the time because it’s pure. It’s not cut up. The fact that a Ray Charles song today does for me what it did for billions of people over the last 40-50 years says something for the ingredients.

For me, making “Continuum” is a lot about looking in your closet and going I can wear this stuff. I’ve got good stuff to wear; I just got to wear it better. I was listening to this channel called Soul Street on XM, channel 60 constantly and I was just taking in the simplicity and the purity of soul music. As I was learning and getting older, I was trying to figure out how to say things more interestingly and then I realized it’s a hell of a lot more interesting to say it simply. If your intention is right, no one is going to say your words are too small.

RY: Is there anything interesting you can share about “Continuum” that someone may not gather from listening to the album or reading the credits?

JM: That’s a good question. “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room”, that was a cool day. I had had this piece of music for about a year. It started in my hotel room. And it started as a song called “Bad Day”, and no, go figure. It was before Daniel Powter (laughs). It was the whole, “You had a bad day, nothing went right.” Then it was, “Go cry about why don’t you”, and I loved that line. I thought singing something like that to somebody and being callus is so cool! I had the “we’re going down” line and then I said to Chad, this chaos really sounds a lot like slow dancing in a burning room. It was one of those moments in the studio where I’d get up from the couch and go let’s do it. He wouldn’t know what, but he’d go “alright, something’s going to happen”. I went behind the microphone and said “my dear we’re slow dancing in a burning room” and laid those harmonies in. It was maybe one of the coolest moments of the record. We had a lot of those moments.

“Belief” is the hardest song I’ve ever worked on in my life with the biggest payoff. The guitar part I wrote to “Belief” in ’04, the chorus I wrote in ’05 and I didn’t sing the chorus on the record until ‘06. It all ended with me realizing that I had to put it on the record and it was okay to write a song that you felt, but didn’t know if everyone was going to agree with. Ben Harper playing on it was killer. He just killed it.

“Continuum” was going to be a double record for a minute. Steve Jordan and I were laying by a pool 1 day making a list of songs. There’s probably another record of songs that we didn’t put on this album. We had “Who Did You Think I Was” and “Another Kind of Green” on the 2nd disc. It was going to be a long record, but then we realized let’s just make 1 great one and 2 disc sets rarely live up to the hype. Think of this album as a double EP! The world’s first double EP!

RY: Every artist tends to plateau at some point in their career. How do you plan to avoid letting “Continuum” be your plateau?

JM: Great question with a great answer for you. You just keep moving. I’m not going to make “Continuum” next because “Continuum” is done. I’ve never felt pressure. My next record is going to be recorded probably next fall, maybe next spring if I have time off. It’s going to be recorded in my house with a lot of piano, some slide guitar, almost like what you would consider a country record for me, but not country. A very organic, acoustic album with a lot of straight up chords. We’ll be just hanging out and everybody’s going to be able to play these songs. Very Bob Dylan-ish, Neil Young. That’s going to be my next record. It will be nothing like “Continuum”. Don’t make “Continuum” again and that’s how no one will ever compare it to other albums. You just keep having different paintings each time out.

RY: How do you feel about the place you’re in at this moment in time?

JM: It’s all very kinetic and I kind of feel like I have a real need for fun. I feel so happy and a lot freer for whatever number of reasons. I have a real “celebrate life” kind of mentality right now. That’s what “Gravity” is about. How do you have fun but not have too much fun and go back to work? At this point in my life, I am more relaxed than ever. I honest to God don’t know where any album or sales charts are or whatever you want to call it and I don’t even care. I’ve made proof. “Continuum” to me is proof that there was a time that I could do it.

After that, I just feel like I’m rested. I feel like I’m in a really good place. I just have to make sure it doesn’t become too good because when it’s too good all of a sudden, someone has to say, “You gotta come back”. I don’t want anyone to ever be like, “Hey John, you got to come back to earth”. So I’m learning how to have a Friday night and I’m learning how to have a Saturday morning.

RY: Do you have any big fears right now?

JM: When you love something so much, you fear not loving it anymore. You’re afraid of someday not loving it. That’s maybe my only fear. What if I wake up 1 day and I don’t know it? I guess my fear is not realizing it, but someone going, “You don’t have it anymore”. Not losing the talent, but losing the urge. I just don’t want to ever lose it. I want to hit that stage every night and fucking come with it.

RY: Anything else you’d like to leave the collective with?

JM: It’s called “Continuum” because it’s all 1 thing. This is the same guy who made “Room For Squares” and “Heavier Things”. I’ll make another record after this and in some ways it’ll be better than this and in some ways it will not be as good as this. It’s all the same thing. All along the way, I still pick music.

And I’m not cutting my hair! That’s all I gotta say about that.

RY: As long as it’s still growing!

JM: Exactly. I’ll shape it though. As long as I still have it.

RY: Anything else?

JM: The only other thing I’d want to talk about is that I was listening to “Any Given Thursday” the other night. It just came up. I was too far away to turn it off and so I let it go and I’m glad I did. I hear a fire in those recordings that I don’t have anymore. The question is who wants to be on fire all the time? Even in “Message in a Bottle”. It was a little too frenetic. I feel like I had been singing for the last 4 years like something was going to be taken away from me at every second if I didn’t just continually try and keep people in the room. It’s almost like I get tense listening to it.

I was wondering how people were going to feel about the fact that I get on stage now and I’m not trembling. I’m not shaking like an engine on a block. I just think its cooler now and I think if my fans are following me age wise and what’s going on, it’s just kind of cool to be a little more stable, relaxed and laid back. Just pull it back a little bit so it’s still a rock show. It’s currently an ongoing question for me. How much are fans going to miss the 23 or 24 year old kid who was playing like the room’s going to leave if he’s not firing on 11 all the time? I haven’t figured it out yet and I hope that people equate not feeling like a fire is under their chair with getting a little older and getting a little more laid in to where you are. Like “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room”. Can that be as groovy as “Neon” was even though it’s half the tempo?

Those are the things that I want to get to as an artist. It’s a balance and a show that I haven’t found yet, but we’re working on it. The first set we did isn’t going to be as good as the last of this tour. I just hope it’s still a good time to be a Mayer fan because it’s just going to find its thing in the next couple of weeks. I was gone for 2 years so it’s going to take me 2 weeks to get my groove on.
============================================================================================================================

2007, v.1:


~jocelyn