J. May Talks "Cool"
It's the question that keeps you up at night: Is John Mayer the person cooler than his music? Or does his music out-cool him? Time Out New York spoke with Mayer about his career and The Grammys and to get to the bottom of this existential quandry.
TONY: I’m noticing that you don’t pretend you don’t care about [winning Grammys].Not as cool as "Body Is A Wonderland"? How is that even possible? No matter, TONY pressed on, asking about whether he was concerned about his fans opinions regarding Jessica Simpson.John Mayer: I think way more about my career than I probably need to. I aggressively try to mastermind the unmastermindable. I apply science to things where there is no science.
TONY: What do you mean?
John Mayer: I completely get off on reading about marketing stuff—not the business side of it, but the emotional side of it. I’ll have conversations for hours about album covers and how they matter. If Norah Jones’s Come Away with Me was not blue it would be an entirely different record, I’m sure of it. Continuum doesn’t have my face on the front, and it’s the best thing I could have done for the record.
TONY: Why?
JM: I am not as cool a person as the music that I make.
JM: That, too. It can be a lot of things: drugs, the wrong people, self-importance. I really do believe you can be a quote-unquote media figure and stay connected to your fans— that’s what’s great about having a blog—like, here’s me, here’s my sensibility unchanged, and if I’m saying I’m still me and then you see me with somebody in a picture more than once, you have to assume they’re a great person and that I haven’t—We're thinking he's got his coolness quotient inverted.TONY: Morphed into a douche bag?
JM: Exactly. I’m the same douche bag I’ve always been.
[Picture from the uncool axeman's set @ ACL '06.]
Posted at 12:59 PM
Tags: John Mayer
grrrrrrrrrrrrrreat.
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I'm impressed... this is the least assholish he has ever come across in an interview.
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he's right that his album cover is better without him.
he's wrong that his music better with him.
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i think he is a bit backward here. i really do like his blog and his interviews and he seems like a cool & funny guy but i couldnt make it thru the album. its not bad, its just not... cool. i wanted to like it. i'm just waitin for john mayer's music to change
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I hate to say this, but honestly, I am no fan of Mayer's previous albums and I thought the majority of Continuum was excellent. Reminded me of the sound Josh Rouse got on 1972. "Vultures" and "I Don't Trust Myself With Loving You" are standouts. Fuck the early stuff (and the "Waiting On The World To Change" single, clearly placed here because there are no clear "hits").
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i agree with 'shaun' above (not just because we have the same name spelled the same way). mayer's first two records were average at best, but 'continuum' is a truly great record. there are a couple of missteps, including the 'waiting' single and the hendrix cover, but overall it's a pretty good work. it's definitely the kind of record that can convert non-fans with its musicianship.
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I agree with Fatso and Shaun. Those first couple of albums werent great but this one I thought was amazing. In my opinion if you sit down and listen to his music you can see how the real John Mayer is now comeing out. "Your Body is a Wonderland", and "Daughters" were just tracks to get those teenage girls to hop on the band wagon. Now that his name is thrown out there and respected I think hes going to start makeing some real music that all of us can appreciate.
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I think i'll try it out again, guys. i didnt get deep enough into it last time. you download fiends out there know how it is: there isnt enough time in the day to listen to all of everything ^_^
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ha ha... i know what you mean 2 sheds. there really isn't enough time to digest everything out there. it might be worth your time to listen to it again, if only to thoroughly destroy the newly-converted fanboys like shaun and i. :p
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he hides a lack of fluidity and lyricism behind a lot of note-bending and face-making. his guitar playing is nothin special
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I was hoping this was an interview with Jaymay...
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John Mayer smokes WAY too much weed. i call bullshit on the whole science thing.
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