Richard Young, operator of John Mayer fan forum, MyStupidMouth.com, got a chance to talk to Mayer recently about a number of topics, including his upcoming studio release, the preparation he’s put in for the Dead & Company shows at Madison Square Garden this fall, and all things Jerry Garcia. Here are a few things we took away from the interview:
On Mayer’s excitement for his new album:
I’m excited that I have the songs I have already and that it’s such a solid start. I know it’s going to go to that level of all-killer-no-filler because I’ve got the time now to make two separate runs out of it. And that’s what happened with Continuum — and Born and Raised, too, but not as much as Continuum. I think the reason people kind of gravitate (no pun intended) toward Continuum so much is because it really has a distilled essence of creativity throughout it.
It’s a combination of all these different elements, but only the strongest version of each thing. There’s a song on the record called “In the Blood”. I can’t think of another one of my songs that more distinctly affects people — where you could put it on and no matter what kind of music you like, no matter your philosophy, you’d still say, “I have to hear that again.” It’s really big and when I say that, I’ll never mean commercial. I mean people will want to talk to me about it and people will say they felt something there. I think I have a very big fish with it. I think I have a couple of very big fish.
About the impact playing the Dead & Co. shows will have on the new album:
I think everybody on MyStupidMouth.com knows me well enough to know that I have a pretty intense left brain as well as the right brain. Sometimes, the left can kind of stop the right from doing its thing. That’s not to say there is zero left brain in Grateful Dead music because it is devilishly complex when it comes to learning the music and playing it.
It could allow me to play some more guitar — and I’m actually, to be quite honest, finding more confidence as a guitar player. A big part of the reason that I never played a lot of guitar on things is because I never really had the confidence. It’s hard to explain. I know there are probably going to be people who are going to be like, “There is no way you lack confidence.” But no, I really do. And also I’m just playing guitar right now so that’s making me a guitar player. All I’ve been since April is a guitar player. So if I’m predicting things, I think you’re going to hear more of a guitar-centric thing on the next record.
On Mayer’s evolution between Continuum, to Born And Raised and Paradise Valley:
I’m looking for new feelings making music. Technically, I could go make another record like Continuum with the same people. But it wouldn’t be exactly the same. Because the thing that made Continuum was going into a new situation and bringing all of my inspiration and all of my energy and all of my ideas right up to the edge of not knowing — and then trying to make something out of it. And hopefully I can make another one that makes people feel that way.
If you look at most artists, and the lineage of their records, most artists have one that everybody agrees is the one that did it for them. There aren’t a bunch of artists that have four of them. Everybody kind of gravitates toward one record because for whatever reason, it’s that artist’s time or the music matches the culture.
I’d rather make music with a pure heart than try to make another record that tries to calculate where lightning is going to strike again. All I’ve ever been is true to the music that excites me to want to make.
Mayer’s study habits of the Dead catalog:
I’m learning as much as I can, obviously starting with the ones that are the most iconic and the ones that are the real bedrock of the live shows.
I have my own system of layers to familiarize myself with each song — just listening to it, just putting it on in the car, just having it, then picking it up, and finding out where it lives on the guitar. Then learning how the arrangement goes, then learning how the solo works — basically, the theory on the guitar for each song — and then learning how to sing over it and do that at the same time.
There are songs that I’ve known how they go for four months but I’m still going deeper and deeper and deeper into them. And I think that’s a testament to that band and Jerry Garcia and those songs that you can just keep peeling away the theory behind them.
Why Mayer is looking forward to getting to play with the Dead & Co. ensemble:
The first thing that excited me about it was that it felt to me like what musicians used to experience in the jazz world in the ‘50s and ‘60s — when they would do time in other people’s bands and they would come up through those bands.
To me, this is no different as a guitar player in this band than it would be for any instrumentalist to be in Miles Davis’ band. If you were in Miles’ band, you got your own band after that. It meant something. You became a better musician forever because you learned from Miles.
That’s the way I see this. I can learn from these musicians and then always have that on any other project. It feels almost like taking a year off to go to school or taking four years off to go to college. It’s another lesson.
On Mayer’s approach to playing Jerry Garcia’s music:
I think the way I can approach it so that I don’t completely panic is to find the balance between where the guitar lives under my hands, what these songs dictate, and where Jerry Garcia’s playing melded into the composition of the songs. I’ve tried more than a couple of times to play stock “me” over these songs and it doesn’t work. They sort of die on the vine.
I’m doing this with the utmost respect also because this is a respect thing and not just a science. It’s a very spiritual thing where I’m respecting these notes because they won’t ever die. That’s Jerry Garcia’s genetic code in all of these songs and in all of that playing. It’s really interesting how his music can do that. It’s so expressive.
It’s a lot of playing and listening. Because I want to be authentic, I want to sound alive and organic but I also want to respect what those compositions were and that guitar playing has so much to do with the feeling that it gives the audience. I’m learning new things about it all of the time.
Finding the balance between Mayer’s fan base and the Dead’s fans:
One day at a time. One day at a time. If I looked at the whole thing at once then I would get too scared to leave the house. I have pretty good instincts. I care a lot and I like to make cool stuff and I usually don’t settle for less than cool stuff. I just work harder to make sure it’s cool. No pun intended, I trust myself to figure it out.
I want a diverse experience in my life as a musician and I am only guided by the stuff that I love. I don’t think anybody could deny that I’ve been trying to get this feeling in my own music in the past couple of years. It’s proof that I’m pure of heart in wanting to play this music and cover these songs during my shows — trying to access some of that spirit for my own music because I love it so much.
You can read the entire interview at Deadheadland, here.