December 8, 2016 • 9 mins
Producer Frasier catches up with John Mayer!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I had one with Maria Littlepez joining us right now,
singer songwriter. They're very talented. John Mayor, how are you, John,
I'm good. Thanks. Uh So, you just released your first
new single in two years, Love on the Weekend. What's
the backstory in the song? Um? You know, I've I've
wanted to write Love on the Weekend for the last
couple of years. I've actually tried to write the song
(00:21):
a couple of times in different formats, you know. One
was like an up tempo, one was this other weird
jam out thing, and then I just always wanted a
song that sort of celebrated the sort of getaway vibe
on the weekend with someone, And so I finally hit one.
You know, I've had this song idea, and I went on,
if I just sang Love on the Weekend over it
(00:42):
and the music lined up with the lyrics, which lined
up with the vibe, and it was over in three hours.
I had it. Okay, do you pull from personal sort
of experiences with you know, previous relationships when you write
a song of this, Yeah, they all boiled down to
one fantasy. You know, it's not about any one person,
(01:03):
but it's it's about that feeling. You know, it's like
when a Friday comes around and and um, you get
to sort of disappear out into the world. So that
that excited me a lot to be able to put
that energy into a song. Cool. Well, I read that
you have more music coming out than you ever put
out in a single year. So how much new stuff
(01:24):
can we expect? A lot of it? Um, I just
met with the with the guys at Columbia. It's sony music,
and I think it's just gonna keep coming. So I've
got a lot of music. I mean I normally record
like fifteen songs and put twelve on on a record.
Were into like the twenties at this point of of
songs that I have out, have we have written. So
(01:46):
I think it's going to be one of those years
where I hope the music just doesn't stop coming out
because all of it is worth hearing. So a chance
we might get multiple records, you know. Uh, we're still
working it out, but there is going to be more
than one. There's gonna be more than twelve songs. Okay, yeah,
(02:06):
you know it's it's it's such it's such a new
world of music out there in terms of how people
get music and how people deliver music that, Um, I
think that's something that we're all sort of trying to explore,
like how to get the music out to people, um
in a way that makes sense with the way people
get music. Yeah, I mean there's a lot of different
ways to to do that. So the rest of the
(02:27):
new album, let's say it's twelve maybe more songs. Is
it gonna be like love on the Weekend? How would
you describe the other songs? Now, while the record being
called The Search for Everything is sort of um, it's
sort of sort of sums up the vibe of the record.
So being that I've made six records before this, it's
sort of like what I it's the best of what
(02:49):
I do in different genres. So there's like this is
sort of the most I guess what you would say,
like mainstream pop song on the record, and which I
thought was a very good thing to start with to
sort of acclimate myself when into this world. And there's
a lot of R and B stuff, There's there's a
lot of um, sort of acoustic singer songwriter stuff, and
there's a lot of like super sad ballots. So it's
(03:11):
for me, it's more about like, um, keeping myself interested
as an artist now. And what I keep thinking about
now is that the record is going to be so
much fun to toron. It's almost like a mix tape. Well,
speaking of that, you're you are going to go on
a solo tour in the spring. Are you gonna do
a full band? You're gonna make it more stripped down?
What what can fans expect when you hit the road?
(03:33):
All of it in one show? I'll say that I'll
leave it there, but I would say all of it
in one show? Okay? Cool? And more Dead and Company
shows next year too, Right? Yeah, how about that? How
did that? Oh? Sorry, how how did that come about? Well?
Number one, I fell in love with their music, um,
which I didn't see coming particularly, but I don't think
(03:53):
I think most people don't. You know you you kind
of always think The Grateful Dead is someone else's music,
and uh, and then it just sort of started to
seep into my life. And because I had never really
gotten into it, that's how much more I got into
it once I found it as an adult. And it
just so happened that those guys wanted to sort of
fire that back up again after they got back together
(04:15):
for their fifties, and at that point it just was
cosmically perfect to um play with those guys. But that's
How would you compare the fans at, say, your solo
show to the fans at the Dead and Company shows?
That's a really good question. Um, actually not that different.
I've you know, obviously there's some there's some superficial stuff
(04:36):
that's different in the way that like the lifestyle sort
of rolls out. But I've always had really sophisticated fans
and and grateful Dead fans are really sophisticated. Um. I
know sometimes a sort of quote unquote hippie vibe gives
people the sense that, um, there's simplicity in it, but
there's it's it's one of the most like intense, detail oriented,
(04:59):
music lee driven sort of fan bases in the world.
And I've always thought that my fans were song people,
they were guitar people, they were like music fans. So
that's actually really similar. And I'm really excited about doing
a having a year where there's both my tours and
(05:19):
a Dead and Company tour. It just sort of helps
me look at my life less like a solo artist,
which can be sort of confining. And I've sort of
done it into being more like a musician where playing
my music is part of what I do, and Dead
and Company is part of what I do, and making
records where other people is going to be what I do.
So it really freed me up because I was starting
(05:41):
to look at the sort of the the hamster wheel
of like, well, we're just gonna write songs it sounds
like me and go out and tour and come back,
and my mind is a little too Um, I get
a little too itchy when I think about doing the
same thing over and over again. So it knocked me
out of orbit into some other more interest in beautiful
way to look at being a musician, and um, everything's
(06:04):
gonna benefit from it, I think. Well, speaking of other projects,
you were in the part of the orchestra for the Emmys.
Did you have fun doing that? Would you do that again?
I had a blast, and I absolutely would. Um. I
played for like three or four segments. Um, because I'm
dear friends with Steve Jordan's drummer extraordinaire, who is a
musical director for the Emmy's and has been for years,
(06:27):
and he put the call out to me and said, hey,
you want to sit in with the band, and I went, yeah,
that'd be so much fun, you know. Also because I
don't go to after parties of stuff I don't do,
like I don't. I think maybe one time I like
went to an SNL after party and I wasn't on
the show and it felt weird. So I don't like
to go to after parties for events I wasn't at.
And I was like, I get to go to the
Emmy's after party. That sounds like fun. So I I
(06:49):
went and I did the thing, and then I got
in the car and I think I went home before
the show was even over, and no offense to all
the winners. And then I I got I went on
Twitter and started looking around, and people thought that I
was the one playing people off stage, like just because
I was the most recognizable one on camera, that I
(07:09):
must have been the dude going like all right, playoff, playoff, playoff,
And people were mad at me for thinking that I
played off these great television stars who had won awards
for having worked so hard all year, and I was
just like no, I was just playing the guitar like
there was someone else going like okay, three two one,
and I was just doing what they said. But I
(07:29):
guess in some people's worlds, I am the villain who
plays off people who when the Emmys John Mayer telling
people to shut up and move on. Man Um, you
mentioned social media. I read that you sometimes will go
on Instagram and search your own name. Is what is
the funniest or weirdest thing that you've come across by
doing that? I like bad drawings of me. I'm apparently
(07:54):
very hard to get a likeness of, and there's actually
a couple of really great ones. There's actually there's there's
one girl in Brazil who does these incredible cartoons of me. Um.
I wish I could meet her and like get her
to do stuff professionally for me. But the rest of
them are really um interesting interpretations of my dumb face.
And I always get a kick out of looking at
(08:14):
I mean, God love them and they're they're done um
with with a lot of love and a lot of heart.
But I get a kick out of seeing um really
bad drawings on my face. That's pretty funny. It's because
that's how I feel. Man, I finally get to see
how I feel and psycho like that's who I am
inside that lopsided eye, that's funny. Uh, Christmas just around
(08:34):
the corner. What do you got planned for the holidays.
I'm gonna keep working on the record all the way
up until it's inappropriate to keep other people away from
their families, and then um disappear for a week or
two and then UM kind of get in to put
the record out mode. So it's it's coming pretty soon.
When you disappear, will you sort of sink into uh
you know, thinking about what you're gonna do when you
(08:56):
get back in the studio, or you're gonna sit back
and just enjoy some Christmas music and some time off
I'll be writing. I'm sure, like I I like the
idea that there's still time to put another song or
two on the record. Um, so I'm still writing. I'm
still not that I'm writing a finish or record, but
I when when you get this, when you get to
this point and making a record, you're like speak now
(09:16):
or or hold your piece for two years. So anything
else you want to throw on there. So I'll probably
be banging myself over the head looking for another one
or two. All right? Cool? Well, the new single is
Love on the Weekend. You can follow him on Twitter
at John Mayor, John, thanks for being on with us
today with Mario Lopez
I had one with Maria Littlepez joining us right now,
singer songwriter. They're very talented. John Mayor, how are you, John,
I'm good. Thanks. Uh So, you just released your first
new single in two years, Love on the Weekend. What's
the backstory in the song? Um? You know, I've I've
wanted to write Love on the Weekend for the last
couple of years. I've actually tried to write the song
(00:21):
a couple of times in different formats, you know. One
was like an up tempo, one was this other weird
jam out thing, and then I just always wanted a
song that sort of celebrated the sort of getaway vibe
on the weekend with someone, And so I finally hit one.
You know, I've had this song idea, and I went on,
if I just sang Love on the Weekend over it
(00:42):
and the music lined up with the lyrics, which lined
up with the vibe, and it was over in three hours.
I had it. Okay, do you pull from personal sort
of experiences with you know, previous relationships when you write
a song of this, Yeah, they all boiled down to
one fantasy. You know, it's not about any one person,
(01:03):
but it's it's about that feeling. You know, it's like
when a Friday comes around and and um, you get
to sort of disappear out into the world. So that
that excited me a lot to be able to put
that energy into a song. Cool. Well, I read that
you have more music coming out than you ever put
out in a single year. So how much new stuff
(01:24):
can we expect? A lot of it? Um, I just
met with the with the guys at Columbia. It's sony music,
and I think it's just gonna keep coming. So I've
got a lot of music. I mean I normally record
like fifteen songs and put twelve on on a record.
Were into like the twenties at this point of of
songs that I have out, have we have written. So
(01:46):
I think it's going to be one of those years
where I hope the music just doesn't stop coming out
because all of it is worth hearing. So a chance
we might get multiple records, you know. Uh, we're still
working it out, but there is going to be more
than one. There's gonna be more than twelve songs. Okay, yeah,
(02:06):
you know it's it's it's such it's such a new
world of music out there in terms of how people
get music and how people deliver music that, Um, I
think that's something that we're all sort of trying to explore,
like how to get the music out to people, um
in a way that makes sense with the way people
get music. Yeah, I mean there's a lot of different
ways to to do that. So the rest of the
(02:27):
new album, let's say it's twelve maybe more songs. Is
it gonna be like love on the Weekend? How would
you describe the other songs? Now, while the record being
called The Search for Everything is sort of um, it's
sort of sort of sums up the vibe of the record.
So being that I've made six records before this, it's
sort of like what I it's the best of what
(02:49):
I do in different genres. So there's like this is
sort of the most I guess what you would say,
like mainstream pop song on the record, and which I
thought was a very good thing to start with to
sort of acclimate myself when into this world. And there's
a lot of R and B stuff, There's there's a
lot of um, sort of acoustic singer songwriter stuff, and
there's a lot of like super sad ballots. So it's
(03:11):
for me, it's more about like, um, keeping myself interested
as an artist now. And what I keep thinking about
now is that the record is going to be so
much fun to toron. It's almost like a mix tape. Well,
speaking of that, you're you are going to go on
a solo tour in the spring. Are you gonna do
a full band? You're gonna make it more stripped down?
What what can fans expect when you hit the road?
(03:33):
All of it in one show? I'll say that I'll
leave it there, but I would say all of it
in one show? Okay? Cool? And more Dead and Company
shows next year too, Right? Yeah, how about that? How
did that? Oh? Sorry, how how did that come about? Well?
Number one, I fell in love with their music, um,
which I didn't see coming particularly, but I don't think
(03:53):
I think most people don't. You know you you kind
of always think The Grateful Dead is someone else's music,
and uh, and then it just sort of started to
seep into my life. And because I had never really
gotten into it, that's how much more I got into
it once I found it as an adult. And it
just so happened that those guys wanted to sort of
fire that back up again after they got back together
(04:15):
for their fifties, and at that point it just was
cosmically perfect to um play with those guys. But that's
How would you compare the fans at, say, your solo
show to the fans at the Dead and Company shows?
That's a really good question. Um, actually not that different.
I've you know, obviously there's some there's some superficial stuff
(04:36):
that's different in the way that like the lifestyle sort
of rolls out. But I've always had really sophisticated fans
and and grateful Dead fans are really sophisticated. Um. I
know sometimes a sort of quote unquote hippie vibe gives
people the sense that, um, there's simplicity in it, but
there's it's it's one of the most like intense, detail oriented,
(04:59):
music lee driven sort of fan bases in the world.
And I've always thought that my fans were song people,
they were guitar people, they were like music fans. So
that's actually really similar. And I'm really excited about doing
a having a year where there's both my tours and
(05:19):
a Dead and Company tour. It just sort of helps
me look at my life less like a solo artist,
which can be sort of confining. And I've sort of
done it into being more like a musician where playing
my music is part of what I do, and Dead
and Company is part of what I do, and making
records where other people is going to be what I do.
So it really freed me up because I was starting
(05:41):
to look at the sort of the the hamster wheel
of like, well, we're just gonna write songs it sounds
like me and go out and tour and come back,
and my mind is a little too Um, I get
a little too itchy when I think about doing the
same thing over and over again. So it knocked me
out of orbit into some other more interest in beautiful
way to look at being a musician, and um, everything's
(06:04):
gonna benefit from it, I think. Well, speaking of other projects,
you were in the part of the orchestra for the Emmys.
Did you have fun doing that? Would you do that again?
I had a blast, and I absolutely would. Um. I
played for like three or four segments. Um, because I'm
dear friends with Steve Jordan's drummer extraordinaire, who is a
musical director for the Emmy's and has been for years,
(06:27):
and he put the call out to me and said, hey,
you want to sit in with the band, and I went, yeah,
that'd be so much fun, you know. Also because I
don't go to after parties of stuff I don't do,
like I don't. I think maybe one time I like
went to an SNL after party and I wasn't on
the show and it felt weird. So I don't like
to go to after parties for events I wasn't at.
And I was like, I get to go to the
Emmy's after party. That sounds like fun. So I I
(06:49):
went and I did the thing, and then I got
in the car and I think I went home before
the show was even over, and no offense to all
the winners. And then I I got I went on
Twitter and started looking around, and people thought that I
was the one playing people off stage, like just because
I was the most recognizable one on camera, that I
(07:09):
must have been the dude going like all right, playoff, playoff, playoff,
And people were mad at me for thinking that I
played off these great television stars who had won awards
for having worked so hard all year, and I was
just like no, I was just playing the guitar like
there was someone else going like okay, three two one,
and I was just doing what they said. But I
(07:29):
guess in some people's worlds, I am the villain who
plays off people who when the Emmys John Mayer telling
people to shut up and move on. Man Um, you
mentioned social media. I read that you sometimes will go
on Instagram and search your own name. Is what is
the funniest or weirdest thing that you've come across by
doing that? I like bad drawings of me. I'm apparently
(07:54):
very hard to get a likeness of, and there's actually
a couple of really great ones. There's actually there's there's
one girl in Brazil who does these incredible cartoons of me. Um.
I wish I could meet her and like get her
to do stuff professionally for me. But the rest of
them are really um interesting interpretations of my dumb face.
And I always get a kick out of looking at
(08:14):
I mean, God love them and they're they're done um
with with a lot of love and a lot of heart.
But I get a kick out of seeing um really
bad drawings on my face. That's pretty funny. It's because
that's how I feel. Man, I finally get to see
how I feel and psycho like that's who I am
inside that lopsided eye, that's funny. Uh, Christmas just around
(08:34):
the corner. What do you got planned for the holidays.
I'm gonna keep working on the record all the way
up until it's inappropriate to keep other people away from
their families, and then um disappear for a week or
two and then UM kind of get in to put
the record out mode. So it's it's coming pretty soon.
When you disappear, will you sort of sink into uh
you know, thinking about what you're gonna do when you
(08:56):
get back in the studio, or you're gonna sit back
and just enjoy some Christmas music and some time off
I'll be writing. I'm sure, like I I like the
idea that there's still time to put another song or
two on the record. Um, so I'm still writing. I'm
still not that I'm writing a finish or record, but
I when when you get this, when you get to
this point and making a record, you're like speak now
(09:16):
or or hold your piece for two years. So anything
else you want to throw on there. So I'll probably
be banging myself over the head looking for another one
or two. All right? Cool? Well, the new single is
Love on the Weekend. You can follow him on Twitter
at John Mayor, John, thanks for being on with us
today with Mario Lopez
Host
Mario Lopez
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